Sprucing Up With More Suess

Just thought I'd share my new literacy center/rotation/corner board that I made this summer.  I am slightly changing the way I do my "corners" based on a professional development I went to recently.  I am adding more of them, so my students will go to 2 a day (each one only once a week, except for guided reading which is daily). So... I decided it was perfect timing to create a new board to go with them!  I'm looking forward to trying this new way of organizing my corners, and I think the signs turned out pretty cute!  I hope everyone is enjoying the last little bit of summer but getting lots done in your classrooms!  It's hard to believe it's that time again!

These are my guided reading groups.  Fish, turtles, foxes, and elephants, as inspired by Dr. Seuss characters.

Sight Words and Spelling Corners

Phonics corner where they will be decoding and encoding words, building words, working with onset/rime, etc.

Library corner where they'll read independently and writing corner.  I chose that picture for the writing corner because my writing area is a 2-person desk right in front of my window and it has red chairs.  Thought it was perfect!

The big book corner will be where they work with big books we've already read and will work on various assignments with those.  The retelling center will have different props, graphic organizers, etc. to help build the comprehension skill of retelling.

Guided reading!  I love this one.

They will read different things from their familiar reading baskets to their buddies in the "buddy reading" corner and listen/follow along with texts on CD in the listening corner.

 

 

 

"That Was Easy!"

Well, as most of you know, 'tis the season to stock the aisles with school supplies!  One of my favorite times of year!  I'm such a nerd, but I LOOOOOOVE new school supplies....still!  

Anyway, I'm sure most of you know about Staples' Penny Deals, but for those of you that don't, you HAVE to partake of the amazingness that is offered every Sunday-Wednesday during the back-to-school season!  Every week their WEEKLY AD will have a few items that are on sale for ONE CENT each!  AWESOME!  There is a limit of two per purchase, unless you have one of their educator's cards.  With a reward's card you can get 25 for that price!  Woo hooo!!  This week they have bottled glue, packs of 12 pink cap erasers, and packs of 8 black BIC pens.  They also have a few items for $.25 and some for $1 and $2, too.  

The only thing I really needed were the cap erasers, and maybe a few pens just to have some extras around.  But I went ahead and got 25 of each item for a whopping $.75, and I took the glue and all but 2 packs of pens to our church, College Church of Christ, where they have a big school supply drive and a "giveaway day" before school starts.  I highly recommend everyone going and getting whatever your limit is, and whatever you don't need donating it to the local school supply drive!  It is such an easy way to help out, and as teachers, we all know how important it is for every student to have what they need for school!

While I'm on the subject of Staples (I should get paid commission for this post!), you can find out when your local Teacher Appreciation Day is HERE.  There will be coupons, good deals, and a free tote bag to the first 100 teachers at each store!

You gotta love great deals and freebies!