Classroom Photos - Finally

Okay, so here are some photos of my classroom! Okay, I should revise that. Here are two photos...of one bulletin board. I have to photograph the rest -- those pictures to come!

This is pretty much just the bulletin board in the back of my classroom. I used bulletin board paper to make the tree trunk and branches, and tissue paper to make the blossoms on the tree :)

This picture is further out, but you can see my anchor charts hanging abover (as well as some of my CAFE board).

Many more pictures to come!

Math Mistakes

So things are officially starting to get INSANE. My first day isSeptember 9th, and they have just started letting us get into our classroom to set up. Because I am coming in as a replacement teacher, I literally had hours of work to do just cleaning up the room and packing away the stuff that belongs to the teacher I am replacing. Luckily I dragged my mom in with me, and we were able to get done twice the amount I would have been able to do alone. I get to go in on Tuesday (pretty much all day) to finish up. I'll post pictures soon!

The fact that school is sooo close is starting to freak me out. I am feeling a bit panicked due to the sheer amount of things that still need to be done. I feel like I've been working all summer to prepare, and yet I still have so much to do!

So basically, I am in scramble and freak out mode.

Anyway, I made a few new anchor charts, so I figured I'd throw them up here. These ones were inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest. Unfortunately, the pin does not lead anywhere, so I'm not sure who to asign credit to. You can find the pin here.

Here we go:

CAFE Cards: Fluency

Here are my CAFE cards for "Fluency." Yay :)

CAFE Cards: Accuracy

Finally got to making the rest of my CAFE cards. Here are the cards for the "Accuracy" category.

Binder Dividers

I've been working on my Teaching Binder for a while now, and I've made some divider pages for it. My main problem with a lot of the ones I've found is how much INK they use! These are simple enough, and use only a little ink - but I still get to use my color scheme :)

Number of the Day

So I love the idea of having a "Number of the Day" to give students some practice. I combined some of the ones I have seen on Pinterest. I ended up making it the size of PowerPoint slide, so that it will fill my Smart Board. I will use it in PowerPoint so that I can type a new number each day, and have students fill out the information on wither a slip of paper or in their math notebooks. Anyway, here it is.

Teacher Week: Meet the Teacher

So, I am linking up to...

Yay! Monday's topic is "Meet the Teacher." So I will be sharing a little bit about myself.

1. My name is Cara Heusel, and I am 22 years old (fresh outta college).

Here's me:

2. I am the oldest of four children (and the only girl!)

3. I am a first year teacher this year! I will be teaching third grade as replacement for a woman who just had a baby. I'm hoping this will lead to something more permanent down the line, because I LOVE the school. It's where I did my student teaching. I am super passionate about teaching and thrilled to be getting started. I have been planning and creating all summer :)

4. I looove to read, and I'm a slight Harry Potter nut :)

5. I adore children's books, and I secretly wish my classroom could look like "Shop Around the Corner" from You've Got Mail.

6. My mom is a photographer, which has given me some great experience with Photoshop. I've created my own materials for the classroom!

This is me and my youngest brother, when I can home

from college for the first time, taken by my mom of course.

7. I drink way more soda than is healthy. Cherry Coke is my drug.

8. My favorite shows include: Modern Family, Suits, Newsroom, & Downton Abbey.
    I highly recommend each of these!

9. If I wasn't going to be a teacher I would either be a: children's librarian, book shop owner, florist, or baker.

10. I am Pinterest obsessed. I now have over 2,000 followers!

Check me out!

11. I need sleep. And food. I am not a pleasant person when tired and/or hungry.

12. I've never had a blog before. I know it is probably a bad idea to try to start one my first year of teaching, but I figured - why not?

Peer Editing "TAG"

Another Anchor Chart! Inspiration from here.

Easy way to guide students in peer editing to make sure things stay positive and productive!

Book Talk Thursday: Matilda

So I thought I would join another Linky. Today I am linking up with Reading Toward the Stars to share a book that I have been reading.

I actually just finished Matilda (not for the first time!) by Roald Dahl. This book was a favorite of mine as a kid, and I loved it just as much this time around. As a soon-to-be 3rd grade teacher, I definitely want to sneak this one into the curriculum. I have just always loved the way that Dahl empowers kids to read and value their minds.

I've also found some great resources for the book, which I plan to use.
I was especially grateful for the questions and discussion topics available here and here.

Incidentally, I also LOVE the movie version, and I've been dying to get to the Broadway show.
The movie can be used to draw comparisons in the classroom.

Enjoy!

Changing Paragraphs

Another anchor chart. This time, my inspiration came from here.

I think this one is such a great reference for students who constantly write their stories as one loooong paragraph!