Photo-a-Day Challenge September 18th

Ok...Day 18 of the Photo-a-Day Challenge.  Today's phrase is Bulletin Board....

Here's the bulletin board that's out in the hallway.  On the first day of school it had soccer balls with all of our subjects and things we would be learning about in each subject.  It also had red letters above all the soccer balls that said, "FIFTH GRADE GOALS", but apparently I never took a picture of the board once I put the title up.  The soccer goal hanging from the ceiling is made out of PVC pipes and a black fishing net.  The soccer ball is an inflatable pool ball.  The kids love to "tap" the ball into the goal.  I really don't mind, but I know it drives some of the other teachers crazy!  I mean if I'm being honest, I hit that ball every time I walk by it and I have pretty good self-control!

 

During the first week of school students completed pennants about themselves.  I have no idea where these came from, so I can't credit the awesome creator - but they rock! The kids had a great time filling them out.  The one on the left has students drawing a self portrait, their favorite foods and colors, and their hobbies.  The one on the right has them writing about their favorite book over the summer.  

 

 

After a few weeks at school, I took down the soccer balls and we put up the pennants.  The first two rows are the "Getting to Know Your Classmates" pennants and the bottom two rows are the pennants with the favorite books.  The picture does not do this board justice!  The kids did a great job on their self portraits - well really the entire project!  I love them!  I always "catch" them out in the hallway reading the board when they are going to or coming back from the restroom/water fountain.



 

You can't see it in the picture above, but this poster hangs to the right of the bulletin board, matted on blue paper and acts as a key so you know what is being drawn in each shape.  The hexagon is for hobbies, the oval for a self portrait, the heart is for favorite color(s), and the parallelogram is for favorite food(s).

 

The other bulletin board in my classroom is our AR (Accelerated Reading) bulletin board.  This is always my favorite board to do each year!  Last year's is still my all-time favorite board with our ocean theme, but this one looks pretty darn great, too, if you ask me!  Which you didn't, but we'll just pretend that you did!

 

 

Again, pictures just don't do the board justice, but it's a fun board!  The background is boring green paper.  The border is green ribbed - which is special because my late mother passed it down from her classroom when she retired from teaching.  The white lines are actually satin ribbon, which add a little texture to the board.  The "TIME TO A GOOD BOOK" letters are 4" black letters.  The TACKLE letters are 4" white letters glued on footballs.  Those are attached to a clothesline with clothespins for a 3D effect.  I did have some cool sports clothespins that I was going to use, but it was too busy and didn't look great.  The end zones have the school name in 4" blue letters (one of the school's colors) and the school's mascot cut out of black.  I didn't show those here for my students' safety.  Then you have all of my precious students' footballs.  These were given to them at Meet the Teacher night and they brought them back the first day of school.  We laminated them and I move them when students increase their AR points.  Each line is worth 10 points and when they get to the other end zone (100 points), they get a bigger football and their original football stays in the end zone.  Here's a funny story - I had intended to put numbers on the lines, but didn't realize I'd never done that until I was writing this blog post!  Guess what I'll be doing soon?!  The kids' footballs are already zooming across the field...I've even got one on the 80 yard line just a month into school!  Now that's impressive!  To the right of the board are genre posters.  Above the board are adjectives that describe books.  Below the board you can see about half of my picture books.  The shelf goes all the way down the wall.  There are also two shelves of chapter books below that.  All my books are labeled, as are the bins...but that's a post for a whole new day!  Right now we are working on finishing up our football buddies who will be holding a sign that says, "My Reading Goals" instead of "Who Will Win?". 

 

 

I got the Football Buddy Craftivity from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  You can check it out at their TeachersPayTeachers store.  It was designed to be used during the Super Bowl, but with just a itsy bitsy tweaking of the form, I made it totally work for me!! 

 

Thanks for looking/reading!  Have a happy day!

Word Wall Cards - Sports Theme (kind of....)

In anticipation of Monday's freebie linky hosted by the Organized Classroom, I've been working on some Word Wall header cards to match my sports theme.  Since I'd like to be able to use them from year to year, they aren't actually sporty at all - just the same cute style and colors I used for my job chart, student name cards, and schedule cards!  I teach fifth grade and I've always wanted a word wall in my room, but could never really come with an idea I liked well enough to justify the amount of space it would take.  During a professional development workshop this summer, merging some of the activities we were doing, an idea came to mind. So this year I'm going to try doing a Social Studies word wall.  I teach US History, so I'm going to do a Historical Figures Word Wall.  I'm going to take people like Abigail Adams, Crispus Attucks, James Madison, Robert E. Lee, Susan B. Anthony, etc. and make cards for each of these people.  I'm then going to assign different colors to differents eras of history like Colonialism, American Revolution, Early Republic, Sectionalism, Civil War, etc. and mat the historical figures according to what time in history they played a major role.  As we learn about each person, I'll hang their card on the word wall. If they were in more than one era, they'll get pulled down and we'll add another colored mat to their name.  I don't know how well this will work, but I'm forward to giving it a try this year!  I'd say my biggest concern is having enough different colors as I have 17 eras to include!  Wish me luck!
To download the freebie, click on any of the images below.

 

 

If you are looking for more freebies then check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies by clicking on the image below.

Schedule Cards - Sports Theme

I'm so excited!  I finished my job cards a couple of days ago and last night I finished my matching schedule cards to put up on my assignment board.  I have plain ones that I *could* use, but I LOVE using ones that go with my theme!

Here's a picture of my space ones from two years ago that I bought from Teacher's Clubhouse...

 

And last year's ocean ones...which I was not at all happy with (not to mention they were difficult to read!)

 

 

And introducing....this year's SPORTS THEME...which I made all by myself!!

 

 

 

Now, I haven't seen them on my whiteboard yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to LOVE THEM!  To purchase these check out my TeachersPayTeachers store!

Classroom Jobs

I honestly don't know why this took me so long to complete!  First I had to figure out what jobs I wanted students doing in the classroom.  Then I had to figure out how to change those jobs into jobs with titles that were more sports oriented to go with this year's sports theme.  Next I had to figure out background paper, which I ended up making myself....first time I've done that, and hopefully one of the last!  Finally I had to write up the descriptions and put it all together.  It doesn't sound like much, but with 2 children, teaching college courses, and keeping up on my household chores it literally took me over a week to complete this silly thing!  Now of course I worked on other things, but STILL!!  I think they turned out pretty well....I still need to make the student name cards, but that should be fairly easy!  I've got the templates made for those and will just need to type in students' names!

Here's what a couple of the job cards look like:

 

And here are the cards that I'll use for the students.  On the first day of school, I'll let them pick which color, sport, and boy/girl they want for their own card.