Junie B. says, "Reading Rules!"

Dear First Grade Journal,

I am really excited to be a member of Mrs. Cooley's First Grade Class!  I love sitting over in the corner listening to all the little smarties read books to themselves and to their buddies.   I might just actually stay in Mrs. Cooley's Class forever, I think.  

Love,

"Junie B."

Many of you have asked me where I got my Junie B. cut-out!  This summer, Books-a-Million was having a Summer Reading Program with Junie B., and I just asked the sweet people over there to save her for me, and they did!  I was so excited to finally set her up in the reading corner!  She reminds us everyday that "Reading Rules!"  We have been so busy learning new routines and modeling and practicing expectations during reading.  We learned that there are 3 ways to read a book, and my sweet baby Emma was the "model"  for our anchor chart!

We have settled into The Daily Five, and I couldn't be prouder of how well my little friends are doing by taking charge and working so hard to become great readers!  When it is time to share something they have learned during reading, or something that they are proud of, I am amazed at the variety of answers I get!  Some are excited that they read a whole Dr. Seuss book to themselves, while others have written a story and beam as they share it aloud.  Others share a favorite part of a favorite book they read, and some smile as they tell me they have learned to spell our new "Challenge Words".  One of my favorite moments every year comes when I am teaching a small group at my back table, and take a moment to just look around and see the kids enjoying reading and writing and learning new words.  Even though everyone is busy, and the room isn't exactly quiet, it is still one of the most peaceful times in our classroom.  Junie B. is right.  Reading Rules. 

This is my "new and improved" Daily Five Chart.  I seriously love it, because this year it has real photos of the kids modeling how you should look at each station!  

Come into my Ginormous Closet. It's {finally} organized!

This was my major project before school let out for summer.  I am so proud of it.  It's truly glorious.  :)  Just kidding--I wouldn't say glorious, but I feel so much better when things are organized, and my massive closet of teaching essentials has been cleaned out, labeled, leveled, sorted, stacked, etc.  The picture above shows my two shelves of materials and leveled books that I use for guided reading groups!  Having these buckets organized like this is going to make finding my books and returning them each week SO much easier!


This is another huge shelf in my closet--this has math manipulatives, my science "stuff" box, station basket games, teacher's editions, extra supplies, and holiday unit boxes.  It has never looked this pretty.  I hope I can keep it this way!

Here is another huge set of shelves--this is what you see when you first walk into the closet.  I know it looks pretty full, but again, it has never looked this organized before!  {Woot!}  The tall white shelf on the left side is my paper organizer.  These shelves hold craft supplies, games, teacher books, my HUGE tub of Harcourt resource folders (I'll have to post all about that later!), and unit binders.  

I even use the walls in my closet for storage space!  I use this pocket chart to hold my "printable" math games and practice pages I use often in math tubs.  I make sure I have many extra copies on hand, in case a math tub runs out of a game, or for those times I need a quick (but educational) time filler! Right next door to this pocket chart, I have one more hanging--and it holds all of my copies for literacy stations!  I have loved having these.  I'm not a huge filing cabinet fan--so these charts have been perfect, and they are easy for me to see everything at a glance! 

Another thing I should mention about my "gi-normous" closet is that it is also the place where my students hang their backpacks and coats.  The picture below was obviously taken after school was out, because if there had been children there, you would see backpacks all over the floor! I usually trip over a backpack or coat or random toy a few times a week on my way to grab something from my shelves!  Good times.  

So, that's the end of my little tour of organization!  How do you keep your piles of teaching stuff organized?