Who in their right mind starts organization projects in the middle of the school year? Crazy old me, that's who!
My students this year have absolutely LOVED my Listen to Reading Center. Like more so than ever before. I think it's because I have finally built up a huge collection of books on CD and I change the books out weekly. I have always stored my books and CDs like this...
The book and CD together in a bag.
Then shoved in a filing cabinet by month : /
At least everything is together in a bag, right? It was a big mess! Every time I tried to put books away and get new books. All of the bags would fall over and I couldn't find the bag I needed or the books I was looking for. Meet my new system...
I bought the hanging folders from Sam's Club. It was $10 for the box of 50, plus the tabs were included! : ) I wrote the title of each book on the tab and then put the books and CD inside the hanging folder. I placed the tabs according to month or holiday so I could easily open a drawer and pull from a section.
It has really helped me stay organized and keep track of what books I have and if they have been in the center or not. I was also lucky enough to receive a grant from my local chapter Delta Kappa Gamma that helped me buy even more books with CDs.
Here is my Listen to Reading Center (prior to the school year starting)...
Only 2 friends can go to the center at one time. The friend on the left is the captain and the friend on the right in the assistant. The captain touches the CD player. The assistant choose the books and puts them away. I have a three drawer organizer that hold the books. In each drawer there are two books and the CD. They only have those 3 book choices. I also use zip ties to keep the headphone cords from being tangled. The headphones go on the chairs when it's tine to clean up. Stickers on the CD are also helpful so they know what buttons to push! : )
Looking for more listening center ideas? Check out this post from Katie and Mrs. Decatur's Little Gators to see how she organizes her Listen to Reading Center.
We had lots of fun celebrating Halloween last week! So much fun in fact that I didn't get to post ; ) Here are a few pictures...
It was so exciting that our pumpkin plants started to grow!
We made observations in our science journal...
We also tied in Halloween to math!
We have been working on comparing numbers, so I made these little mats so we could compare how many M&Ms the ghost had and how many the pumpkin had.
We also read some of my favorite books! : ) My ALL-TIME FAVORITE Halloween book is The Halloweiner. It makes me laugh every time. We also read Where is My Mummy and talked about the characters in each story. Thanks Deanna Jump for the idea!
And of course no Halloween is complete without Spookley the Square Pumpkin.
This precious craft came from First Grade Blue Skies.
On Halloween day we took our first field trip of the year to the farm! We went through a corn maize, rode the cow train and learned about farm animals.
Most of my little friends were out on the way home..
It was too cute!
On Halloween night, I always love inviting my kids to come trick or treat at my house. Lexi enjoyed it too! : )
My little pumpkin!
Precious!
Tomorrow is FRIDAY! Hang in there! : )