"Meet My Room" and "Meet the Teacher" Orientation

Final picture

I am finally adding my final picture from my last post. 

  

After deciding on my theme and my decorations for my room,  I was able to run in leaps and bounds with other ideas for my room. I had been wanting a mastery club for my class and was tired of putting it off, so this past summer, I decided to work on getting all the materials together.  Since I had a theme, I was able to put a mastery board together that dealt with starbursts. Below is my mastery club board. 

My "Yea, I Did It" Mastery Club Challenge board.   
I HAVE A WEBSITE.  YOU CAN CLICK ABOVE TO SEE IT. 

It is a self-paced program for students who are academically motivated to go above and beyond the normal classroom expectations.  Students who are in the program will work at their own pace researching and discovering information on a variety of topics.  There are over 80 different topics for students to explore.  Once a topic is mastered, students will report their findings and progress will be recorded in their "HERO, Calling All Superheroes" binders. 

I took a picture of each of my students on the first day of school with this picture frame.  When they pass a challenge and get on the board, I use their picture and place it under the mastery level they completed.

MEET ME! 

I found a few charts in Language and Math that went along with my superhero theme from Northstar.  

These are a few superheroes that I had blown up to look like they were flying around the room.

"MEET THE TEACHER" 

I could not decide how I wanted to set up my students' and parents' packets for orientation day. I wanted to give my students a few small gifts and give my parents a THANK YOU for being "THE INCREDIBLE" parent

MY STUDENTS' PACKETS

MY PARENTS' WELCOME GIFTS 

                     BRING YOUR SUPER "POWER"                           "How Being a Parent Is Like Being 

                I bought Powerade drinks for my parents and                   A Superhero"                          

                attached this note.

SIGN-IN SHEET AND TABLE

I ALSO HAD MY STUDENTS TO SIGN THEIR NAMES ON A CALENDAR SO I WOULD KNOW THEIR BIRTHDAYS.  PLUS, IT GAVE THEM SOMETHING TO DO WHILE THE PARENTS LISTENED TO MY BIO ON A QR CODE THAT I SET UP.  

STEP #1 (left), Directions for students to fill out calendars (middle), and QR code for parents to scan to listen to my bio.  This saved me some time during my orientation presentation.  I did not have to tell them about myself.  

I also trusted that my parents would not call or text me unless absolutely necessary, so I gave them a SUPER TEACHER business card that I created on my computer.  Also, it has my classroom website on the card.  

The way that our desks are set up I needed all the room I could get.  Plus, with all their books, they did not fit in their desks. On the supply list, I asked that each student bring a half size crate to put it under their desks.  

I LOVE my white board holder idea.  I used large, stretchable book covers to hold a regular size white board.  It works perfectly. It goes over the back of the blue chairs like a charm. 

From Bare Walls to Finished Walls

Welcome to my first blog.
I have always had a themed classroom and this year will be no different.  Last year, I knew what I wanted my classroom theme to be when I walked into Dollar General and saw a starburst hall pass. Yes, that is what I said- a starburst hall pass.  It doesn't take much to spark my excitement.  :)

Beginning in June, I researched (and bought) a lot of things that dealt with superheroes and starbursts.  My wonderful husband helped me with bringing my classroom idea to a reality.  I have added my pictures below.  It is still an unfinished project, but it is getting to what I had visioned.  It has taken several months of late nights and long hours for it to happen.

Here is my board outside of my door. 

 BORING DOOR! I still have to come up with something to put up on the door.

                                               

                        My wonderful husband helped me tremendously with my  
                                                          buildings. 

                      As you can see, I added some buildings around my door.

I added the final touch to my bulletin board... superheroes.  Now, I have name tags on my board.  I am going to have my class decorate a superhero out of paper bags and put them up on the board during the first week of school OR I may put a picture of them on my board.  I made a superhero first day of school picture frame.

I WILL ADD THE PICTURE OF MY FRAME LATER.

This is my reading center.  I have PVC pipes as my curtain rods. 

Look at the back wall. I will change the genre board.

Here is where my vision becomes a reality, along with my large bulletin board wall outside my door. Again, thank you, honey, for your hard work.

As you can see here, I have added a few superheroes to spice up my buildings. It wouldn't be a superhero theme without superheroes. 

I love my new curtain.  It is for my reading center.  My 5th graders love the idea of having some privacy, even though, they do not get to close the curtain. :) I will actually have two curtains in my classroom, but my awesome mother is hemming (see how long) the curtains (I do not have time) but I add photos when they are up and ready. 

My calendar before I changed it. As you can see, I had the space theme last year, because we went to space camp.

My new superhero calendar.

I still have a lot to do but here are a few superheroes flying around my classroom.  I will try and take some closeup pictures later.