Monday Made It

Whew!  What a Monday it was!  After observing Sheila Friday, I could. not. wait. until I could get back in my room and try out some of her strategies!!!  First things first, though, I needed to move a bunch of stuff around to accommodate new work stations, with more space for the kiddos, a better storage system for all my materials, a clearer way to show how students should rotate through their work stations, and (hopefully) less clutter!

I realized that I was taking up way too much space, leaving the students with too little.  Also, since I NEVER sit at my desk, and usually can't even get to it, I moved it and turned it into a writing station, complete with special pens, papers, writing tools, and more - all right there in a writing desk!  That nice, clean kidney table you see above has never, since the photo, been visible again, because I lie every single thing on it all day long, but I need it to do my small group lessons, so I made a tablecloth to store a few things under, moved the long bookshelf to use behind it, kind of like a credenza for my materials, and scooted the file cabinet into the corner.  I also switched two tables, giving the kiddos more width in the room, and making a much more functional math station at the same time.  Then I got started moving kids around, re-doing leveled reading baskets, based on new winter scores, making new math groups, with differentiated work at the station, and adding a science station.

Cute, before...

Functional, after!

Leveled baskets and fewer
options make choices easier
for young readers, after!

Too overwhelming for students before...

Cozy, but little content before...

Manipulative storage under
work-space with directions
for use, after!

Repurposed "teacher desk"
as writing station with room
for special pens, scissors,
and paper, plus the chalkboard
for specific assignments, after!

There's even room for more leveled
reader storage at the back of the
new writing station/old teacher desk!

Of course, I needed new tags for all my baskets, a new display for group rotations, and a few extras thrown in:

New Table Rotation Cards

New Station Cards from
Amanda Nickerson

New Reading Basket
Labels for New
Reading Groups

  A few new anchor charts made the Monday Made It list, too!  Busy, busy, busy...

Pretty good for a Monday, although I'm still "Makin' it" on Wednesday...still working on implementation, Sheila, but you are inspirational!

Here's a Wednesday Re-Made It (an oops I found and corrected), too!
Valentine Candy Bag Toppers

Happy Hump Day,
Brooke