Displaying Student Artwork

Sharing student work is a great way to create a sense of belonging and share accomplishments in the classroom. This board is purple fabric with a decorative border, white swiss-dot letters and labels.
A cricut is a perfect tool to quickly produce inexpensive lettering. I used the white swiss-dot textured paper with the hopes that it would pop on the purple paper.
The labels are secured with white tacks so they can be moved to accomodate different sizes of artwork.

http://www.cricut.com/

Organizing the Classroom Library

Most of us have quite a few books in our classroom libraries! We collect and hoard paperbacks and old hardbacks and buy our favorites when we can. I personally started this collecting in college, which resulted in tote bins of children's books that sat unread for a few years. But now my students each have their own book bin and browsing rights in my class library. It's awesome! I had such wonderful readers thanks to Daily 5 and our literacy curriculum. But at the end of the year, my library was a mess. It took me a long time to go through all of the books. I devised a system for cataloging that is Kindergarten friendly.
I found these: http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/product/book+basket+label+set.do and used sticker dots and a permanent marker.

For science books, I used a green dot and drew the outline of a leaf. I marked that bin and every book that goes in it with a dot. Above, you see a collection of "Story Box" books from old curriculum. I used red dots with a square to mark all of these.
I plan to take some time to teach through interactive modeling, a Responsive Classroom core practice http://www.originsonline.org/responsive-classroom/about-approach/core-practices , and really make sure this cataloging system is put to use. I purposely put the dots on the front of each book to make it easy! If you're worried about aesthetics, you can put the sticker around the binding or on the back. I just wanted it to be easy.

Snack Pockets

Snack time is a welcome part of the day. The children are nourished, they get a little break, and we can use the time to be with them, too. But snack can take up a good chunk of time! Last year, I structured snack so that we washed our hands, got our milk from the cafeteria and walked back to our room to eat. That way, I could progress monitor with one child at a time or work on an intervention for a couple minutes with a kiddo while they ate. I used this shoe holder as a way for the kids to store their snacks (we have snack in the morning). They each have their own pocket and I can see clearly who needs cereal from me because they forgot or didn't bring a snack. It is hung on strong magnetic hooks. It works very well! For allergies, I keep that snack totally separate from the others. I like it because the line walks in, remains in a line, each student grabs his/her snack, and sits down. Smooth sailing!

Magnet Clips

 Hanging up children's artwork is one of the best ways to encourage a sense of belonging. Put yourself in their shoes: you made your best picture ever. You are so proud and now it's hanging in the classroom! This place is where you belong.

I like to have a special place where kids can see the work of which they are proud. In one of my schools, I had a lot of whiteboards and few bulletin boards! So I used magnets like these to continually hang work throughout the year. I hot glued a clothespin to a Popsicle stick. I wrote the children's names with permanent markers. They decorated their own with puffy pens. Stick a magnet on the back and voila!