Monday Made It - Summer School Classroom :)

It's about time I did another teachery post!!

Right now I'm teaching a summer math class for 15 students in the 3rd and 4th grades. I'm very excited about it... but it's such a tease!!  I just can't wait to have a class of my own for longer than 5 weeks... hiring season isn't over yet, so I'm still hopeful!

At the very least, this summer school job is a wonderful learning experience to prepare me for when I finally find my home. :)

Enjoy these poorly taken cell-phone pics of my Summer School Classroom :)

Hopefully you can see them all, if not and you have a question, leave a comment!

Classroom Norms

Story/Word Problems Anchor Chart ~ My coworker, Cindy, and I decided on this procedure last yeah, and she wrote it for us to display.

I know already showed you these pencil cups, but I just wanted you to see them in action. So far, I love them. :)

This is my rotations board... Inspired by this one from Fun in Room 4B. I'm enlarging it in the hopes you'll actually be able to read it lol.

The two charts at the bottom show the students in each group, and when some of the students get pulled for some small-group reading.

I have 4 groups, I just named them Group A, B, C & D. I know, soooo creative, right?!

There are 4 stations... M.A.T.H.

Math Facts (anything that focuses on practicing math facts and fact fluency at the students' grade level)
At Your Seat (worksheets, ind. practice) - anything not finished while at this station is homework for my class because we only meet 1/2 a day and there's no time to make things up. Obviously,you could do it differently if you liked.
Teacher's Choice (small group instruction or any activity of my choice).
Hands On (any hands-on, interactive activity... creating some kind of project, utilizing technology, etc.).


I cut up a $1 pocket chart from Target's Dollar Spot (LOVE!) into fourths, left the white cardboard stuck in, and I write the activity for each station on the plastic with a dry-erase marker. Works like a charm. Sometimes there is only 1 activity, somethimes they can choose between two, sometimes they have to do both! Do what's best for you and your class. :)


If you need more than 4 rotations or need to make more groups, you can do a variation of this and make the stations more specific... like math with technology; seat work; meet with teacher; hands on math; math facts; math game/partner math; math by yourself... etc. But, I thought only having the 4 would be easier to find things to do that fit with the category! Haha.

What To Do When You're Done center... for those kids that finish first and bug you about what they should do next.

I've got assorted flash cards and fact cards in the basket, which is from Target $1 spot last year. My flash cards consist of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, sight word flashcards, and other grade level flash cards in the ELA category, as well as informational fact cards from Target $1 spot (I have 3 packs... space, animals and the US States. Target has others, too!).

I have informational magazines in the boxes, which are labeled with the titles... I may or may not change those up after a while. The sign above says... "Flash cards ~ quiz yourself or a partner who is also finished with the assignment; Info Cards ~ Learn something new!; Read-to-self ~ Choose one of the available magazines or books."

This station is already a life saver, because most of my students will distract others and themselves if they're done early.

Have the kids highlight their names before they turn in papers = no more no name papers! Yay!! After getting 8 no-namers on the FIRST DAY I decided this station was a must.

Find the cute sign here: Teaching In Flip Flops

When the kids "Fill My Bucket" to the brim (class reward), they choose a teacher's treat.... AKA - crazy hair day, class game, free choice time, pj day, etc.

It's just an empty Crystal Light container + colored computer paper + mod podge + a cutesy label.

Multiplication Soccer Ball Toss Game -- Write numbers 1-12 on a small (or large) soccer ball. Whatever numbers your pointer fingers land on are the numbers that make up the fact you say aloud... i.e. your fingers land on 12 & 2, student says 12 x 2 = 24. In the extra spaces I added repeats of 3-9. Could be done for adding, too.

Multiplication Cube Toss Game -- Ice cube trays from Target $1 Spot, write #s 0-12 on little sticky labels & stick em inside in a random order, & get 2 Base-10 unit cubes (or something like them). In the extra spaces I added repeats of 3-9. Use a recording sheet to monitor. The kids looooved this!!!

 

2-3 Digit Addition Cube Toss -- See explanation above, except I did one tray counting by 10s up to 180, and then used random 2-dig numbers in the other tray. You could use an addition or subtraction recording form for this one, but right now we're doing addition. :)