Projects...projects...

I have started several new projects and I am going to spend my afternoon putting most of them together. I figured I would give you a preview and then I'll upload the final products when I am finished! I do have several things that are already done - I am more than thankful for our school system's resource center, where I can do several of these projects!

These are going to be the cups I use for sharpened pencils and needs to be sharpened pencils. I generally let my students sharpen their own pencils up until morning announcements start. After that they may get a pencil from the sharpened bucket throughout the day, and if their pencils breaks or gets dull, they can put it in the needs to be sharpened cup. It seems to work well!

For the upcoming school year I wanted a centralized location for news and announcements. I found this cork board at Hobby Lobby. I think that I am going to try and spray paint it or cover it in a solid fabric. I painted a canvas for the news sign and I will add the polka dot ribbon in someway. Look out for the final product! :)

This idea I got from a few of my friends within my school system (thanks Lindsey and Mary Beth!!). I teach these "silent signals" at the beginning of the year and they work wonders! Each one stands for something different and then the bottom signals are my responses to the students. I especially love this when I am in the middle of working with a small group, it causes so many less interruptions. 

This is how I manage my classroom helpers. Each student has either a popsicle stick or a piece of laminated paper with their name on it. Their name goes in on of the library pockets and that is their job for the week.Here are my helpers:  Teacher Assistant (the students that passes out papers, etc...), Messenger (the student that runs errands for me), Librarian (the student in charge of our classroom library and checking in books), Receptionist (answers my classroom phone when it rings), Computer Tech (this student is inc charge of turning on and off the computers, assisting students if I am in a small group, and cleaning up the computer area after centers), Lunch Assistant (this students collects the forks, and gets the snack from the lunchroom), Table Washer, and Trash Manager (this student makes sure the room is not a mess, takes the trash cans by the door in the afternoons; which helps our custodians, and he or she cleans the desks with Lysol wipes before they leave for the day). The blank pocket on the bottom is where I keep their names. The kids love having jobs and being responsible for something in the room.