"Synergize" Art

                                            Synergize!!! 

I continue to teach "Leader in Me" by Covey, to my students. Today we focused on "Synergize." Synergize represents working together to accomplish a goal. I saw an art piece on pinterest and immediately thought about how perfect it would be for an activity to go along with "Synergize." I gave each student a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" piece of white poster board with a quarter circle traced on it. The students each decorated their own 2 "pieces of art." We then combined everyone's together with black poster board in the background. I attached the quote I made up, and we hung it in the hall. Several people have stopped to comment on it and the kids are beaming with pride each time. :)

"Individually we can create a piece of art, but together we can create a masterpiece." - Jessica Buchanan

My Classroom Set up

Finally have time to post my classroom pics! These are the BEFORE pics...

Then I worked my magic...

 Here is my "Turn it In" board. I got this idea from my mentor teacher, Lisa Hushka, several years ago. It works wonders... no sorting papers when it's time to grade! Those are expandable folders for collecting finished work. The clear plastic sleeves are for putting a copy of the assignment in, so students know which assignment goes where. I have also attached a stapler using Velcro, so students can staple their work as they turn it in.

My word wall: The doors are cork so I can staple to them... I had my husband paint them black.

I color code the words by subject. The cabinets on top I have used for prefixes, suffixes, and root words.

I painted the old green chalkboard black  and added borer to match the rest of my room, and covered the file cabinet with paper and border to post educational sites for Math, Reading, and Science.

 I saw a variation of this idea on pinterest. I contemplated the idea last year, pinterest pushed me to accomplish it. The plastic containers are for trash. There is now a Kleenex box, a box for markers, all textbooks for students at that table, and a place for math stations on each shelf at each table. No room traffic and table managers are responsible for giving everyone at their table their books. We have a race against time to practice getting faster at getting them out. This has really freed up a lot of other shelves as well as desk space in the classroom.

This idea came from Pinterest... I made them for my team out of construction paper, and use them to keep track of my class and where they are at in writing... I found it here.

This is my idea of a classroom jobs poster. It goes along with "Leader in Me" by the Coveys. We are teaching the "7 Habits" to our kids so I created a jobs poster to go along with it. The clips have the kids names and we switch them weekly until they have all tried each job. Then they will become a "Leader" in one particular thing that will be their responsibility the rest of the year. "Synergize" means working together to accomplish a common goal.

The EASIEST way to do lunch count. They make their lunch choice when they come in the morning by moving their clip to what they want. I enter it in the system while they work on morning work.

This is our library and meeting place for teaching Daily 5. We also meet here temporarily for "Number Talks" until we get our new whiteboard. The table in the front of the pic is where we meet for small groups. My drawers are for the materials I need for guided reading, RAP (Reading Acceleration Program), and MAP (Math Acceleration Program). The folders in the basket on top sort my tutoring supplies by subject.

I wish I had taken an overall classroom pic... I will soon. We have added TONS of anchor charts since I took these pics 2 months ago :) My post will only get better! Happy New School Year!!