Stability Balls, aka Yoga Balls, are awesome for the classroom!

A fellow Instagrammer posted a question this evening about the pros & cons of stability balls in the classroom. I have been using them for going on 5 years & think they are wonderful! Therefore, I had a few things to say in the topic... Here is the comment I wrote to her (and more) which I hope you too find helpful :) 

I have them in my classroom!!!! I started with 1 per student (over time they get weak & "pop" -typically this seems to happen on the day of a sub, go figure!). Anyway, now I rotate them around the room, except for the students who benefit from using them daily. 

Pros: They are great for balance, posture, & getting out the wiggles! They really do help keep students focused & centered on their work (however, you also need to recognize there may be students in your classroom who are overstimulated by them -so stay observant). 

I use large ice cream lids (talk to a local dairy!) to keep them from rolling when not in use & to prop on desks for night cleaning. 

As with anything else, your classroom management of this "tool, not a toy" is what will make it most successful. If you are excited about them, the students will be. If you are understanding that everyone has different needs & explain this to your class, then your students will also be understanding. If you set clear expectations (& limitations? No bouncing, rolling, kneeling/laying-on), then the students will follow them (or loose their turn?). 

If you haven't implemented these into your classroom yet, now is the time! Embrace the idea, your students will thank you. Mine sure do (including other students in the building who are not even in my classroom). 

(More pictures coming soon... They aren't on my cloud) 

Mailbox Makeover!

It's Make-It Monday! Today I gave my old classroom mailboxes a makeover!!! I am so proud of how this looks :)

Here is how they started...

Step one was to remove all of the black plastic strips off the front. I used cheetah print decorative tape from the dollar store to cover them, see below. 

Then it was time to spraypaint. I did great with the black and I got a bit messy with the pink. I decided this might not even be noticeable once I put the dividers in.

After waiting impatiently for the paint to dry, I began to reassemble & added the butterfly clips (this is where I will place the labels with the students' numbers). Beautiful!

Reading Corner

Whoops! I wrote this a few weeks ago & guess it never got published -Better late than never. 

It's that time of year! Summer is on its way out & I'm busy thinking about classroom set-up. I started going through last year's b2s photos for inspiration. Here was my reading corner: 

I can't wait to share my new designs with you in a few weeks! What do your classroom reading spaces look like? Plz share your pics (#classroomreadingcorners) & follow me on Instagram! 

Stumped... Gathering spaces

Dearest teacher-friends, I'm stuck! My classroom has tile flooring & so I like to have soft-welcoming areas about the room for gathers/floor-work/reading/etc. I have tried carpet remnants (which are very hard to keep clean in a busy classroom), cheap area rugs (which have backing that breaks down & creates sand all over the room),  foam mats (which wear quickly & always look dirty- unless you wash them daily --which resulted on a mold situation as they were not drying out enough), ugg! Frustrated. Every b2s I end up making a new purchase. What do y'all use?!? I feel like I've seen/tried it all & I would love some feedback on what you think works best & how you keep them clean! Your thoughts/pictures are needed (use #classroomgatheringspace)

Back to School Shopping!

A quick stop at #teacherslovetarget resulted with some amazing #b2s13 deals!!! Recycle bin for my desk (2.99), planner out of recycled paper (7.99), cute mint school id case (1.00), 24 writing journals (17cents ea.) #teachersfollowteachers 

Target $1.00 corner

Here was an exciting find! Decorative file holders $1.00 each in the Target dollar corner. I bought all they had left.

Shutterfly for the Classroom!?

Alright, perhaps I'm a bit crazy when it comes to my interest in technology! 

I currently have a classroom wikispace -this is several pages of links to great classroom resources and archives of old classroom work. It's organized and it functions, but it's not very pretty! I also expect that its existence will slowly fade away as I move on to bigger & better places.

Secondly, I have student blogs -these are for students to easily publish their work for others to see, last year it also became a quick place for me to get information, photos, and reminders out to our classroom families.

This spring I took another big leap and entered the blogging world for myself. It started by weeding through the many resources on our wikispace and creating new posts with more eye-catching links. I also love the organization that comes naturally with the tagging feature!

Additionally, you are here, which means I also have quickly started this 2nd blog, for teachers, as I realized I had way too much to share with all of you and I couldn't resist the urge to get started.

Despite having so much going on with all of these new sites (and my recently up-and-running TpT store), I'm already thinking about my next move...

It's Shutterfly!? I'm afraid I don't have all of the answers on this yet, but it definitely appears that this could be the "Classroom-to-Parent communication hub" that I have been looking for! Of course, I did not think of this myself, as usual I have been inspired by another blogger! So, Read this post from a teacher who is already trying it and decide for yourself if it could work for you! It has officially made it on my summer list of things to do.

Reading Strategies

As I predicted, it didn't take me long to want to post more ideas for The Daily Five/CAFE. Here is a set of 1st/2nd grade Reading Strategy Cards, which I purchased from TpT seller, Smart Puppy Learning.

Above is a picture of the CAFE board I created on top of an old chalkboard in my classroom using the Smart Puppy Learning CAFE Posters (FREEBIE), strategy cards (link above),  bulletin board paper, a pretty border, and some magnets.

The project was a success. I'm glad I invested the time into this one. It stayed up all year and was such a nice visual -even our classroom visitors loved to check the board to see what we'd been working on.

*Of course I selected the owl-themed materials, but it's worth noting there are many other themes available as well.

Common Core Binders

Are you trying to organize your life for the Common Core?

I was so excited to put together these curriculum binders for my 1st AND 2nd grade math lessons.

What you need:

Four binders... one for each math strand.

 Lots of tabs... one for each standard.

I used pink tabs for 1st grade and blue tabs for 2nd grade.

Yes! I love organization :)

You can also Get the same FREE binder cover I used

Made by TpT seller: Kimberly Santana