Monday Made It {First Time!}

Yesterday was my FIRST DAY teaching summer school, and my FIRST DAY having my very own class with out a mentor teacher. It was so much fun yet so incredibly terrifying at the same time. Luckily... it went really well! My kids were well behaved, they followed my directions, they told me they loved my class at the end of the day, and they got their work done! I call that a success! Having my kids enjoy this class is really important to me. I am teaching summer school at a fine arts summer program, but my class is reading class for students performing below average. So they go to all these fun classes (like dance and ceramics and PE), and then they come to reading. If I can keep them interested and having fun- my job is complete!

Time for my first Monday Made It! I know it is a day late, but better late than never! Thank you to 4th Grade Frolics for putting this together! 

I'm pretty excited about the one thing I made this week... but it has a lot of parts. I made.... MY CLASSROOM!!

Yes my first every classroom is decorated and ready! I'm pretty proud of it. It started completely blank with all the furniture stacked. I had no idea how much I would have to set up for summer school, but now I love it! So here are all the pictures of my new classroom. 

^This is the front of my classroom. It has the alphabet at the top (which I made), the 1-2 grade library on the left, my READ table on the right, and the behavior chart. 

^These are the birthday sticks that I made for my students. They are just crazy straws, and they get to pick one when it is their birthday. 

^This is my desk area. I LOVE that the bookshelves were already painted yellow, considering it is my favorite color. It's kind of organized, and kind of just stuff thrown in bags... oops. :)

^This is the student work wall for my 3-5th grade class. They each have a folder hanging, and as they finish work, they will add it to their folder so it can be displayed. Also, this shows my 3rd-5th grade library. 

^My READ table! I made the letters myself. They are just wooden letters covered in scrapbook paper. This is the table where our pencils, erasers, and highlighters live. Each student picked a folder when they came in on the first day. Each folder had a parent letter and an "about me" paper for the students to fill out. 

^This is where I have my rules posted. I am using the whole brain teaching rules with my class this summer to see how they work out. The rules are:

 1. Follow directions quickly.

2. Raise your hand for permission to speak.

3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. 

4. Make smart choices.

5. Keep your dear teacher happy. :)

^This is my anchor chart bulletin board and my behavior chart. I am planning on leaving this anchor chart up. In my reading class, we are doing close reading as our "curriculum." These are just the basic steps for close reading so that my students can refer to them. 

The behavior chart I got from That's So Second Grade. I love it! The levels say: Parent contact (red), teachers choice (orange), make better choices (yellow), ready to learn (green), great choices (pink), and outstanding day (purple). All the students start on green, and can move up and down the chart through out the day depending on their behavior. 

^This is just another view of the front of my room. The display folders for my 1st and 2nd grade class are located below the white board. 

^Another view of my 1st/2nd grade library. 

^The view of my room from the door! My roommate made all of the pom poms for me that you see going across in the back.  That's it! I hope you all enjoyed my room tour for my first ever Monday Made it!