Classroom Friendly Supplies Pencil Sharpener

As a new teacher I am finding that I need all kinds of basic classroom supplies. One of these supplies is a good pencil sharpener. My room did come with a wall sharpener but it is falling off the wall and doesn't work well even when the screws were tightened. The pencils seem to dissolve in it and never truly sharpen. I knew I would be using a pencil sharpener every day in my classroom so I decided to buy a good one before I spent a fortune in pencils and while I have many, many years to enjoy it.

I originally wanted an electric sharpener but after doing a lot of research, I found that no matter what brand you buy or how much you pay, you are bound to buy another one in a few years. After searching for some time, I found a manual sharpener on Classroom Friendly Supplies. The reviews looked great so I thought I'd give it a try.

So today I am doing a review on my Classroom Friendly Supplies pencil sharpener.

This is the sharpener. I chose black so it would go with any style room that I choose over the years. There are also many colors to pick from. 

The front looks like this. the first time I used it, I squeezed the two black parts on top so the pencil would fit and tried sharpening it. I thought I just spent $25 on the most worthless pencil sharpener I had ever used. It barely sharpened. I WAS SOOOO WRONG!! After a little more experimenting, I found that when you squeeze these together, you also have to pull this piece out. 

Here is a picture of what that looks like. Then I began sharpening. As I spun the handle, the pencil comes in closer and the gap closes. 

This is the result! :) They look fantastic! The lead is very sharp and all of the pencils are the same size. I did 40 in my first test. The best part is, I did not use brand name pencils. These are on sale at Walgreens right now 20 for $0.99.

So far I'm very impressed. If you are looking for a better pencil sharpener, it is definitely worth the price even for a manual. 

Back To School Open House

Back to school is coming fast! Not sure where the summer went but I'm excited for the school year!!

Our open house is next week and students and parents will be coming in to meet us, see their new classrooms, and bring in their supplies. I created these station cards to help with the traffic of Open House Night. 

The background is from http://galleryhip.com/creative-borders-for-word-documents.html The font is Elephants in Cherry Trees. 

Click here to download them for yourself FREE!

Teacher Binder Freebies!!

I've been working on my teacher binder for a few days now. I got the layout from my cooperating teacher and recreated it a little for my own needs in a different district.

Click here to download free. 

I got the background from http://madeyoulookhair.com/?attachment_id=52. The font is HelloSimple.

Pages include 

Schedule- Here I put copies of our master, Monday and weekly schedule so I can refer to this when needed. 

Lesson Plans- I used excel to make my daily plans. I put Monday's schedule on its on pages since the times and order of our day is a little different. Feel free to use my template. (Make sure to open with Google Sheets.) Before each month, I plan to place a sheet protector with student's birthday certificates so they are handy. 

Classroom Information- This is where I put our class list, number order, line order, seating arrangement, addresses and phone numbers. I also keep birthdays here so I can look at the beginning of each week to make sure I don't forget anyone. 

In Case of an Emergency- Emergency plans for tornadoes, fire drills or lock downs. 

Health Information- Copies of allergies and medical diagnosis that may affect learning. 

Behavior- During student teaching we made a chart to track behavior. The students names are on one side and the days of the week are at the top. Each day is divided into two columns, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. We kept this sheet at the front of the room on a clipboard. Each time a child had a problem with behavior it was marked on the clipboard. The students don't know that you're recording this but the pages were kept over the quarter or semester and it was easier to see patterns in behavior and it is a super easy way to document problem behaviors. 

As always let me know what you think! Is there anything I'm missing that is a must-have for your teacher binder?

Classroom Library Part 2

So last time I blogged about a library app that I recently downloaded and it's still working fantastic. I've added several books to my collection since then but up until about a week ago, I still had no idea what I would do to organize them. Well with only a few weeks left before schools I finally think I have a good system.

I found these labels at http://ayearofmanyfirsts.blogspot.com/2012/07/library-book-bin-labels-free.html

They were exactly what I was looking for! They're free and she left a blank page so I created my own. It doesn't get much better than that!!

I started by organizing my books into categories and authors. There were a few authors that I had several books for so I pulled those out first. Then I decided on a few groups that I knew I would want. One of these groups was a series basket. I had a few series that were only a few books and I didn't want to waste an entire basket for only a few books so I combined them into a "Small Series" basket. This way the kids know it's a series but I don't have to waste the space. Then I used the Scholastic website to separate the books into genre. I ended up with realistic fiction, historical fiction, general fiction, comedy, mystery and suspense, and adventure. I probably had a few others but I don't remember.

Since these extra bins didn't have labels, I used her blank page to create my own. Click here for mine. You will have to change the font once you have opened them. I made them in Pages for Mac but converted them to a Word Document for sharing. The font is called MTF Jumpin' Jack EXT. It is not exactly what she used on her blog but I couldn't get that one to download so I picked something close.

Then I printed and laminated the labels and attached them with hot glue. (Yes the pictures are outside, I forgot to take pictures until they were already in my car. Whoops!)

The baskets are from Dollar Tree. I found blue and green ones in two sizes. It's hard to tell but the bottom basket is much longer.

Once I decided on my categories, I labeled them with sticker dots. On each of my labels, I put a coordinating sticker. Here is a close up of one of my categories. 

Tomorrow I am taking my library to school. I'm so excited! I will post pictures as I get it more organized in my room. 

Classroom Library

I just got a job as a fifth grade teacher and am excited to get the keys to my room soon. :) Until then I have been working on things at home to get ready for the school year. One thing I knew I would need no matter where I end up is a classroom library. 

I recently had several books given to me and will be getting more from family soon. (Yay for retired teachers in my family!) I have been searching the internet for ways to organize my library and have several ideas but haven't decided just yet what I will do. In my search, however, I did find a way to help me keep track of what I do have. Since almost all of the books were given to me, I honestly don't know half of the books that I have. 

The app is called BookBuddy. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookbuddy-pro-book-library/id395149950?mt=8

The app lets you scan the bar codes for any book that you own, some of the books will have to use the barcode in the front cover, and add them to your library. Most of my books were recognized by the app but many Scholastic books ordered from the catalogue don't have bar codes unfortunately. I was able to find most of them via the search online tool.  Or you can add books manually. Can you say class books?

Once the book has been scanned, you can rate it, add your class list so you know who has borrowed it, or you can add a tag. Tags can be anything you want; animals, humor, holidays, first day of school, you name it. Later when you're planning lessons, you can go to the app and search the title or tag you need for your lesson. 

As you add more books, they are then organized by title, author, category, rating, whatever you want. 

You can also see who has loaned out what, what series you have, or tags you've added. You can also create categories. Once I have decided how I want to organize my library I think I will make my baskets into categories and organize them on the app accordingly. 

Lastly there is a wish list. I am always finding books I would love in my classroom but unfortunately if I bought all of them when I saw them I would be broke in a matter of days. This is a good way to keep track of them for when I do have a little extra money or a few scholastic points. 

In case anyone is wondering, yet I bought BookBuddyPro. It was a little pricy, $4.99. Crazy for an app I know but being a first year teacher, my library will continue growing for quite some time and the free apps just won't cut it. I did do a lot of research before buying and this was the best option for what I was wanting it to do. 

If you use BookBuddy and know of anything I forgot or haven't found yet, please let me know! 

Bulletin Boards

The school I am student teaching at has been really pushing to showcase each grade's goals to the school as a way to motivate students. Since the forth grade needed a new bulletin board, we decided to incorporate our class goals with our curriculum, Nebraska history and the Oregon Trail along with trails in general that went across Nebraska onto a bulletin board. This is our board:

These are where our goals are now and we will change them and move the wagon as we achieve more and more. 

1st Grade stuck with the school's theme of learning targets. I love this idea!

This is a closer image of how they did it. 

2nd Grade is by far my favorite! As a schools, we work to be Hartley Heros, students and staff who are safe, caring, respectful and responsible. Each month they have an assembly and announce that month's Hartley Hero in each grade. The students love it and its a great way to motivate students to be all of these things every day. 

This is the school wide Hartley Hero Bulletin Board with second grade's.

Each time the grade increases their percentage, more lights are added to the buildings. If you look close you'll see that the super heroes are photos of the teachers who teach these students. 

3rd grade went with a road theme. It is very cute.

ELL also made a bulletin board but because they have so many different age groups and abilities it doesn't showcase their goals. 

Fourth grade just finished up with State Writing. In celebration of finishing and in anticipation of parent teacher conferences, we displayed their stories in our hallway like this. The colored paper is just colored paper folded in half with their story stapled inside.  

Valentines

With Valentines day just a few weeks away I decided to share my classic Valentines Day gift I've used with my practicum classes in the past. In my school district, candy and food are highly discouraged so I found this ideas a few years ago and have gone with it ever since. The kids love them!

The first one I did I found at this website. It's a simple butterfly template that I printed on pink card stock and then cut slits into. I used crayons in the slits one year and lip gloss the other. Both were a big hit!

For the boys, I used this website. I've printed the jar template onto both blue and brown card stock and both look fine. I went to Dollar Tree and found packages of plastic bugs that I glued on using a glue gun. A little caution when buying the packages, there are a one or two in each bag that aren't bugs so you may need to buy a few more than you think.

Photo from http://www.dandee-designs.com/2012/02/love-bug-valentines.html

If you have younger students, K-2 this will be a hit! This year I have a much older class of fourth graders so I will have to come up with a new or variation of this idea. Let me know if you have any ideas!

It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I've blogged but I was inspired today at a tech convention in Aurora, Nebraska. In this conference we talked about how as adults whenever we seek to find information we look to Google, YouTube or some form of social media for answers; but someone has to share these things so why not have it be us. In the past I have uploaded a few of my projects showing others how to make things  but I did it completely anonymously. This time around I am going to try to share not only what I've made but also what I am learning along the way. I am doing this as a teaching tool for others but hopefully also to learn from myself. I'll be reflecting on what I'm learning and how. Wish me luck!