Weekend Warriors: Pinteresting Classroom Projects

My bloggy friends and I are back! And I must say, I am LOVING this month's theme!

I think I've added at least 10 more projects to my summer To Do list after reading everyone's posts yesterday! I now have 4,481 pins after hopping around everyone's blog LOL! Click here to see my home/craft pinspirations from yesterday.

Today I'm sharing some classroom pinspirations I've been working on. First up is the homework club. I've seen a bunch of pins of homework boards, including here and here. I wanted to do it last year, but never got around to making a board. I was also having a hard time with using numbers to represent students because I don't use numbers in my classroom, yet I didn't want to use to use students' names or photos. Talk about hard core public humiliation! So after thinking about it, I decided to give each of my kids a number so they can have some anonymity, but I will only use the number for the purposes of this board. Here's mine:

I bought this magnetic whiteboard with a cork strip around the outside at Hobby Lobby for $12. It was cheaper than the plain old whiteboard. Weird, hey? Then I bought the decorative tape (don't think it's technically washi tape) for $2 to cover up the cork strip and pretty it up. I whipped up a few labels and some numbers and laminated them. The top labels are attached to the board but the numbers have magnets on the back. I know I have some super cute library pockets at school, so I will add those to the bottom to put in the number tiles that are removed from the board.

I separated it into two sides: homework and reading. For homework, I'm looking for my kids to return their math packets and their weekly spelling contracts on Fridays, and for the reading club, they need to read 75 minutes and return their reading calendars on Mondays. The two sides will be rewarded separately. The plan is to have a special lunch in the classroom (they all LOVE lunch in the room. Why is that???) for the bunnies who've returned their work. I don't grade homework; I just check it in. Did you do it or not? Sometimes I don't check in homework right away so it piles up. I'm hoping the homework club will keep me more on-track with checking in homework, plus will give my students an added incentive to return their homework on time.

Moving on... Have you seen those straw dispensers used for pencils? Me too, but I always thought that it was a little unnecessary. They're cute, but my large plastic tub works just fine. Then I was reading about one a blog, and the blogger said that it prevents kids from digging through the tub to find the "perfect" pencil; they just take the one that comes out. And I'm SOLD!!!

I bought the dispenser from Amazon, made the label, and spray glued it on the inside. I wanted to cover the whole inside so the bunnies wouldn't be able to see inside at all, but it just seemed like too much work since it's odd shaped. I can't wait to fill it up with freshly sharpened pencils!

Lastly, I am loving all the chalkboard signs I've been seeing, not only for the classroom, but as home decor as well. I know I'm super late to the chalkboard par-tay, but better late than never! Of course I couldn't find exactly what I wanted on my Hobby Lobby trip, or at least at a price I was OK with. So I made my own chalkboard! 

First I found chalkboard placemats. I got two for $6. I'm thinking about taking the extra one and the chalk markers to school and putting them in my Word Work station. Then I found a build-your-own frame. The total cost was around $5 for the frame, and I spent $2 on the paint. I first painted them brown and then turquoise over the brown.

 Next I put it together and then used some sand paper to scuff it up a bit so that the brown would show through. You can't really see it though in the finished photo, but trust me; it's there! I used a staple gun to attach the chalkboard placemat to the back of the frame. It ended up being smaller than I was intending, but it works.

Now it was time to decide what to write on the board. Here are a few of my pinspirations: this one, this one, and this one. I decided I wanted some kind of quote about making mistakes. Now it was time to write..... but I couldn't bring myself to do it! Funny, since the quote is all about making mistakes. So I gave myself a bit of a pep talk and started working.

Thank goodness the sign photographs well!!! Because trust me, lots of mistakes were made in making this sign! I'm not sure where I'm going to put it in my classroom yet, but I am excited to add it to my room. I also decided that chalkboard art is not really my thing....

OK, it's time for me to hop around, check out my friends' projects, and pin more projects! Haha! Make sure you also follow me on Pinterest to see my future pinspirations!

Lucky To Be In First	A Burst of First	Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Primarily Speaking	Second Grade Perks
Sailing Into Second	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade	The Tutu Teacher	First Grade Smiles	A Sunny Day In First Grade
Saddle Up Second Grade

InLinkz.com

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Weekend Warriors: Math Homework Routine

I've teamed up with some of my bloggy pals to bring you this *NEW* blog hop:

We'll have a new theme each month, so make sure you check us out on the last weekend of every month! This month, we're focusing on math ideas. Check out my other post about organizing math cards!

In today's post, I am sharing how I assign math homework. As a teacher, I understand the importance and value of practicing reading and math concepts at home. I also understand, value, and appreciate the importance of students participating in after school sports, music lessons, clubs, and good, old-fashioned family time. As a mom, I know how busy life can be after school. My four-year-old is doing some kind of activity 2-3 nights every week-- and he doesn't even have "school-assigned" homework yet! Mom-assigned homework... well, that's another story!

So here's what I do: I give one week to do most homework assignments. Routine homework in my second grade class includes reading, spelling words, and math. By allowing the week, I'm giving my students and their families the flexibility to complete the homework when it works best with their schedule. And let's face it; some days, we come home from work and just want to plant our bums on the couch and do nothing. Kids are the same way too!

I use the EveryDay Math program, and each lesson comes with a HomeLink. I average four lessons per week, so on Fridays, I take the Homelinks from all four lessons I taught that week and staple them together in a packet.

Then I use my date stamper (which I'm pretty much obsessed with!) and stamp the following Friday's date on the HomeLink packet.

Random Side Note: if your date stamper runs out of ink, DO NOT throw the stamp pad away! You can't replace the stamp pads!!! Instead you buy a little bottle of ink (that smells really bad BTW), and squirt a few drops on the stamp pad. I learned that one the hard way...

Some kids go home Friday night, do all the pages, and bring them back on Monday. Some kids take the weekend off and do one page a night. Some kids wait until the last minute and try to crank them all out Thursday night (that would've been me if I had this option growing up...). Whatever works for them, works for me! As long as the packets are returned by the following Friday. I allow them to bring their packets back at any point during the week because, again, if it were me and I was done right away, I would probably lose the packet if I had to hold onto it all week. 

My goal is balance: keep the kids practicing the skills and concepts we've already learned, as well as giving my students and their families the option and time to complete the homework when it works best with their schedule. 

To kick off our new Weekend Warriors blog hop, we're each giving away $10 to spend in our TPT shops! So after you enter my Rafflecopter, make sure you check out my the rest of my bloggy pals!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Burst of First	Sailing Into Second	Crayons and Whimsy	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade
Lucky To Be In First	Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Second Grade Perks	A Sunny Day In First Grade
Primarily Speaking	Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd	The Tutu Teacher	Saddle Up For 2nd Grade
Teacher Idea Factory

InLinkz.com

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