Goals for Christmas Break!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being a teacher, but I might love having two weeks off for Christmas just as much! We got out yesterday and we do not go back until January 7th! I am glad that Christmas happens near the start of our break because that is always such a busy time. 

I thought in order to have a productive break I would make myself a little to-do list of things that I would like to get accomplished. Hopefully between this list and your wonderful people I will hold myself accountable for everything on it. :)

One. Revamp my Lanugage Arts block by adding more reading and writing workshop strategies into my lesson plans. I did a really good job with this last year because I had two hours, but with only 55 minutes with each class this school year it has been difficult. 

Two. Organize the book room and all of the newly acquired guided reading books that I got with my grant money earlier in the month. This is also something that I want to incorporate more into my classes, but I am just not sure how. I think I will do this more in the form of a book club, but I am not 100% sure yet. How do you do this in your classroom?

Three. I want to read at least three books. I finished book one tonight. I started it during Thanksgiving, but I finally finished Matched. I really liked it. I am glad that it is a trilogy, so I will be reading the rest of the series. 

Four. Tackle my file cabinet at school. It needs to be organized and I have almost gotten rid of all the older materials that are not pertinent to my class that had been left by previous teachers.

Here is to hoping I can get it all accomplished!!!

Also, be on the lookout for my 1000 followers giveaway! I am only 10 people away from it going live!

Anchors Away Linky Party!

I am absolutely obsessed with anchor charts! What about you? I just love making them, and I love how they engage my students in whatever we are learning. I also love that they can become an anchor for learning in the classroom by having a spot on one of your classroom walls. I have several up around my classroom (this will be a link for one of the months) and I love seeing my students referencing them while we are working on things during class time.

If you are interested in participating in the linky party, it is simple to join. You just have a few easy steps to follow. 

One. Save the Anchors Away image from above and include it in your post.

Two. Be sure and link back to my blog. You can do this by linking the image to http://missklohnsclassroom.blogspot.com.

Three. Share some pictures of your favorite anchor charts that you have made this year.

Four. Come back to this post and link up your post for others to see. 

 Here are some of my favorites from this school year that we have made so far! 

 We made this anchor chart at the beginning of our Non-Fiction Unit of Study. This is one that my students also copied into their Interactive Notebooks. This chart has been a huge help throughout the unit! 

We also made these earlier in the year when we were discussing theme. I especially love these because this is something that we will be talking about all year. I love that my students have a place in the classroom where they can refer to these two charts. 

I cannot wait to see what anchor charts you have to share! Remember that this is also something that will become a monthly tradition. I think it will be great to share our anchor charts that we are creating each month! 

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Anchors Away Linky!

I'm going to wait to post the Linky until the 17th so I can participate in a blogging day of silence on Sunday for the innocent victims of the school shooting in Connecticut. I hope you will participate in the day of silence with me too in their memory. 

Visit Farley's blog to see more about the Day of Silence. 

I am finally finished!

I absolutely cannot believe that I am saying this, but as of 10 p.m. tonight I can officially say that I am finished with Grad School! I submitted my last assignment, which was the final exam for three of my classes combined into one. When I first went to college, grad school was something far fetched in my opinion, but not I cannot imagine my life if I had not gone to grad school. One of the best decisions that I feel like I made was to pursue grad school right away.It is hard to believe that I have not even been teaching for 1.5 years, but I have my Masters in Education with Principal Certification! Here is to new opportunities in teaching for me one day, just not quite yet! I am still very content with being a classroom teacher for at least a few more years!

Anchors Away!

 Thanks to Tanja for designing the button for me!

 

I am so excited to be starting a monthly linky party that is going to be completely dedicated to anchor charts in the classroom! Even though I teach 6th grade, I just love anchor charts and so do my students. We start the year with blank walls in our classroom, and it is neat to anchor our learning to the walls with our anchor charts that we create as a class. 

I love seeing others anchor charts, so I thought why not have a monthly linky party where we can share some of our favorite charts from our classrooms. 

The linkup for December will go live on December 15th, so I hope you will join me for the fun! 

In the meantime, feel free to grab the button and blog about the linky party. All I ask is that you link back to my blog so people will know where to find the party on the 15th!

Show Us What You Bought!

If you are like me, you just love Teachers Pay Teachers. Of course I had to load up on lots of goodies during the Cyber Monday Sale. Luckily, I had lots of TpT credits that I had been saving up for it. :) Here are some of my favorite purchases that I made.

Christmas Poet-Tree from Teaching in Room 6

Ashleigh's Comprehension Strategies for Reading Workshop

Kasey Kiehl's Literature Circles for Middle School:Common Core Aligned 

If you teach middle school and have not checked out Kasey's store and blog, you are missing out. I recently stumbled upon it through Pinterest and have quickly fallen in love. She has my dream job! I am hoping to use a lot of her ideas in my classroom too. 

Ashleigh's Prefix and Suffix of the Week Pack!

What were some of your favorite purchases from the sale?