Moor Door Decor- Spring Break Edition

I do actually have other things to blog about, but this is more fun... After spring break, I will blog about Disney!! For March, I wanted something springy, and I wanted to incorperate a little Disney into the door since I will be making magic at Disney World over spring break : )

I am in love with quotes these days... I find that most of the time other people can state think 10 times better than I can, so i have decided to just let them say it best. With that said, I try to let quotes inspire my door themes. For March, I found that easy. Walt Disney once said, "There is more treasure in a book than in all the pirate's loot on treasure island." I used this quote to inspire this little mural....

***i will be the first to admit that these ideas are much better in my head. i am inpatient, so i work quickly. this creates numerous flaws in the design compared to the image i pictured.....

This is a view of the entire door... Treasure Island

The inspiration...

Mickey in our ship... the kids named is U.S.S. Rice, but you can barely see that.

The tree on the island... poor tree. let's just say palm trees are not my specialty.

The treasure chest..... since Walt Disney says there is more treasure in books, the kids made jewels with their favorite book titles on them. So here you have a treasure chest of awesome books.  They had a lot of fun doing this.

A close up of the jewels.

Have a great spring break! I will make a little magic for everyone out there!!

5th Grade

It's been so long since I have blogged on 5th grade life.... That's probably because 5th grade life keeps me pretty busy.

Each month, I try to have a theme on my door... Yes, I do teach 5th grade and not kindergarten, but I promise that the kids like the door being decorated just as much in 5th grade as they do in kindergarten.... and, it's therapy for me.


Here are the themes I have used thus far this year.

August - I chose a theme that was store bought... it was a cutesy social network type of theme. I bought it from reallygoodstuff.com. If you're a teacher, and you haven't heard of that website, you should make yourself familiar with it!!

September means the start of football, so of course I had a football themed door. Unfortunately, I cannot find the picture I took of that door. The theme was "kicking a touchdown for reading," since I teach reading. It was adorned with sample reading questions on the skills we were covering in September.

During October, I had fun!!! I found some super cute ideas online, and I made them my own. The door theme was "We are Batty About Books." For an art project, the kids made bats out of coffee filters and they were attached to the door below....

If a door was not enough, I also decorated the hallway... we do not have any bulletin boards that I can use, so I use my door, the hallway, and the extra white board as bulletin boards. 

This is our bulletin board for October--- "Witch books have you read?" The kids wrote book reviews on the stories they were reading during October.

October is also Red Ribbon Week, so I decorated the hallways with Drug Free posters for the occasion. 

Because I was sooooo busy during October, I failed to get a new bulletin board up during November :( 

However, I made the time during December!! The #1 thing I was taught in education school was the power of being able to beg, borrow, and steal.... For December, I used that knowledge and stole a super cute Christmas door from Emily Babb at louisianabrideblog.com (if you do not follow her blog, you should)

The kids traced and cut out their hands, and I glued them to the predecorated door. It was really fun, and the kids liked seeing their hands on the board. 

This year, I have become obsessed with window clings... how silly... 

January!! "Be Cool- Read" I love my snowmen and snowflakes-- perfect for January's wintery conditions! 

February also has a lot going on!! This month, my door will be decorated in Mardi Gras (Laizzes le Bon Temp Roulez), the math teacher is decorating in Valentine's, and the Social Studies/Science teacher will do Black History. March is a secret :)

April will have something to do with MCT2 and Spring, and May will be MCT2!! 

Other than door decorating, we have been doing a lot of reading in 5th grade! We read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry last semester along with smaller things in between. It was a tough read for us, with a lot of interruptions. We are in the middle of reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham right now, and it is their most favorite book ever!! After we finish the Watsons, we will read Locomotion (my favorite)!! 

Well, that is all I have right now! It you are interested in donating money to a great website that benefits students, check out donorschoose.org.

Peace, Love, and Geaux Tigers : )  

Classroom TV Game Shows

Question? What do you do when you have your class and part of another class for a day. Keep in mind that you do not have enough desks, no air conditioner, and it's Friday.

Answer? You create TV game shows that include some type of test prep.

Here are a few things I came up with on Friday.

Game #1: Wheel of Fortune

Now the pictures I have show my not so creative first edition. I haven't taken a picture of the newer one. This is just what I threw together Friday morning to give myself something to do.

I played using words like conjunctions, adverbs, and other parts of speech so that could be my category and we could tie in language arts. We also did a few spelling words from their 5th grade list. You can do really whatever words you want.

Game #2 : Jeopardy

I am sure many of you have seen similar games to this. The main difference here is, I used MCT2 levels instead of money so it is more related to their test. The questions we select for each category are the levels on the outside of the envelope. I attached clips so the categories are detachable so you can use different ones for all subjects.

Game #3 : Who Wants to be a Millionaire

I changed this one significantly, but the idea of the game is still the same. I renamed the game, "who wants to become a star student," since they will not be competing for one million dollars. On one side, you will see life lines. I went with 2 life lines- 50/50 and ask the audience. On the opposite side, you will see the winning levels. Once again, I used MCT2 levels to mark their winnings. The more questions they answer, the more difficult they become based on the difficulty of questions the MCT2 offers. I placed a "bank" option after they complete each level. For the questions,  I am using MCT2 sample test items that will be blown up and placed in the middle section of the board.

The kids are dying to try out the last two, and we will probably do so this week!

A Small Taste.....

of my classroom. More to come as I remember to upload pictures. I have missed out on a lot this year. Mainly because I did not get a camera until Christmas so these are a few things from after Christmas! 

This is my partically finished door from January. We added a "let it snow" along with snowflakes with the kids names on them. The polka dotted border is the same print that you will find on everything in my room. I am a little obsessed with it! 

This is my late January, early February door. I am a gold and black blooded member of the Who Dat nation, so I had to represent. I painted the top part and the gold fleur-de-lis. We took the logo from the Drew Brees Foundation. The fleur- de- lis as the border are from the kids. Each student had 2. One had their name, the other was their prediction. We were working on predictions in reading class that week, so it was fitting. Along the outside of the door is a Martin Luther King "I have a dream" project they did as a writing prompt. 

My March theme was "Going Green for St. Patrick's Day." The kids wrote how they planned to "Go Green" on their clovers. I found the pictures on edhelper.com (one of my favorite websites!!).