Class Contract

At the beginning of the year, we come up with a list of rules or guidelines that become our class contract for the year. I love using the Responsive Classroom method and start with an exercise called Hopes and Dreams. 

On the first day of school, the students  think about everything they hope to learn and do in the coming year. Then they draw and write two of their hopes and dreams. 

Then we move on to rules. I explain to the kids that our rules are meant to help us achieve all our hopes and dreams for the year. We read many books- Yoko, What if Everybody Did That, and Corky Cub's Crazy Caps. After each book, we brainstorm a list of rules that would benefit our class. After reading all the books, I narrow down the list to a few general categories. 

Now the quilt part. First we have a conversation about contracts- a signed agreement. Next, we shift the conversation to everyone's unique traits and abilities. The only way to achieve our hopes and dreams is to put all our unique and special traits together. In order to sign the contract, each student designs a square for the quilt and places their square on the contract. The quilt hangs in our classroom all year as a reminder of what we can do if we all work together. 

About the title

I believe in educating the whole child. Sure, I want my students to learn math and reading as well as writing and social studies, but I also believe in teaching them how to interact appropriately and politely with their peers. Hence the smile and thumbs up. When we do partner work in the classroom, the students give each other a friendly smile and thumbs up when I announce who the partners are. We speak about the importance of making other people feel good and keeping negative feelings hidden. My students have really taken ownership of this and mention it on their own each time we work with partners. If my students remember nothing from me other than treating everyone with respect and a smile, I think I was successful. 

Welcome to my classroom!

I know it is a little late in the year for a classroom reveal, but since I just started this blog, better late than never. Enjoy some pictures from the beginning of the year set up!

I have always had a word wall in my classroom, but decided to change it up a bit and separate my word wall into different categories. Each week, I change the spelling words, while Social Studies and Math change each chapter or unit. I add Heart Words as needed depending on the writing unit common words I have noticed my students misspelling.

My classroom library! One of my favorite activities for the beginning of the year (thanks to the amazing teacher I worked with my first 2 years of teaching) is my Library Grand Opening. When the kids come in at the beginning of the year, the library is closed off, and only my picture books are available. After we learn all the routines of the classroom like how to check out and return a book, and how to choose a just right book, we throw a big celebration and the library is officially open!

A view of the back of the classroom. The black bins are where the students keep their just right books from the classroom library. The red and purple bins on the right are for homework folders. The students deposit the folders in the bin in the morning when they get to school. We also have colored bins for each table (the tables are identified by colors). The bins hold supplies such as reading notebooks, writing folders, and handwriting practice books. Also in the back of the room are the Finished Work bin, scrap paper bin, and pencil sharpener. Also love our pencil sharpening system- when a pencil is not sharp, it goes in the yellow cup. Then, the student takes a sharp pencil from the green cup. Once a day, the pencil sharpener sharpens all the pencils from the yellow cup and puts them in the green cup.

Teacher organization area. File cabinets, closets, and magazine holders. I have two of everything because I teach in dual curriculum school. The students spend half their day learning Hebrew and Judaic subjects in a different classroom so I have one class all morning, and a different group of kids all afternoon.

Job Chart. I have a thing for owls... I'm not sure why, but I do so I decided to make an owl theme for my classroom this year. Again, each job has 2 sticks because of the dual curriculum, teaching two classes thing.

Welcome bulletin board in the hallway. Again, the owl theme, and lots of names because I teach 41 students by the time the day is done. 

When I put this bulletin board up, the owl eyes were freaking me out. It took a good week before I could walk past without feeling like 41 owls were staring me down.