Morning Check-In

With the morning hustle bustle, sometimes it's easy to forget to ask your students important questions pertaining to their home life. Each morning I stand by my door and greet my kiddos with a "high five, handshake, or hug." This is also when I check their planners to see if mom or dad signed his/her child's planner for the previous day. Since my third graders LOVE to share (who doesn't?!), I decided to post up a daily question outside my room door. While students are waiting to check in with me, they can think of their answer. So far, my students are loving it!  Here are some other questions I plan to use:
-What did you eat for dinner last night?
- What does your family do for fun?
-What is your favorite home-cooked meal?
-Have you ever been on vacation? If so, where?
- What does mom/dad/guardian do for a living?
-etc...

I'm excited about incorporating these questions int my morning check-in because this also let's students know that they have someone who cares about them. Thanks for reading!

Paper Station!

Today I completed my paper station for students. I used to simply put ALL (and I truly mean all) extra copies into my "Extra Tub."  As you can imagine, this wasn't always the most organized space or even that easy to navigate through on any level if we're being honest here. I never liked it, but I was determined to fix it this year. In the picture shown above I labeled my new organizer for students to easily turn in their work. In the left side, students will be able to turn in their guided reading work based in their levels (O,W,L,S). The middle section is dedicated to spots for homework, StoryTown tests, in-class reading/math/SS/Social Studies as well as writing samples. The right side is the "Pick Up" station for students to, well, pick up last week's homework, this week's homework, important notes/forms. I like the idea of this area because my kiddos (and I for that matter) will no longer be sorting through random worksheets with the hopes of coming up with the right one. This will eliminate that! 

I can't wait to teach my kiddos how to use this station, so it will make all of our lives easier and more functional.