More Classroom Pics and a Glance at Our Student Binders

Tomorrow is the first day of school!  Tanya and I are as ready as we are ever going to be.  Our classroom is all spiffy!  All the crayons, pencils, and supplies are in place.  We are looking forward to seeing all 41 of our new friends!

Another "Listening to Reading" station with our crate seats.

This is Tanya's small group table and stations rotation pocket chart.  You can see our behavior clip chart to the left.

Another view of Tanya's small group table area

This is our class library.  This will be our "Class Favorites" reading station.

This is my small group table and station rotation pocket chart. Our behavior clip chart is hung between our small group tables.  We meet with small groups while the rest of the class rotates through stations.

Another view of my small group table

We have used a binder system in our class for years now.  The following pictures show how we use them.

This is our "HORSE" binder.  Happy Organized Ready Students Everyday  Tanya got this from www.teachersclubhouse.com  It fits our western theme!

On the inside clear pocket of the binder, we will store their weekly behavior calendar.  This goes along with our behavior clip chart.  We used lot of ideas from all of you and tweaked it a bit.  The first folder in the binder is our "Communication Folder".  Any notes or money sent to and from school goes in this folder.

Anything that needs to be "left" at home goes on the left side of the folder, and anything that needs to be brought "right" back to school goes on the right side of the folder.

I added a house to the label to help our ELL families. 

I added a real picture of our school to this label.

Our "Homework Folder" comes next.

We put books, poems, "popcorn words" on spiral index cards, and math activities that we want the students to do at home in the pocket of this folder.  Each homework folder holds the child's reading log.  

In the back clear pocket of the binder, we added change of transportation forms on bright pink paper and the absence notes we found on someone's blog that was so sweet to share on blue paper.  This is the first year we have included these notes.  

 We showed the parents our binders Monday night. Tomorrow we will model how we use our binders and stress over and over to the students that it is very important to treat our binders with care.  Tanya and I have white laundry baskets on our small group tables each morning.  We teach the students to put their binders in the baskets each morning as part of our unpacking routine.  We give the binders back out at the end of the day with homework, notes, etc. in them.  The students take the binders home each day and bring them back the next day.  

Now, it is time to get ready for bed!  Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day!!