How to Organize your Classroom Posters

Hello and Happy Sunday peachy friends! I don't know if you are like me, but I LOVE shopping for my classroom at the Dollar Tree.  They have some really great posters in the teacher section and I like to use them during my units. I started buying so many that I ran out of room to store them! They were literally everywhere: my car, my home office, and in random places stuffed in corners of my classroom. So this month, I decided I was going to organize my posters!

I am in the process of organizing them as I use them. So far, it has been awesome and I have zero complaints. I have a really small space in one of my closets to hang things. I decided this was the best use of my closet space for anchor charts and posters. There are no other spaces in my classroom to put a trash can or hanging spot, so I use what I have!

 I bought shipping labels that are 2x4 inches but you can use any size of label you prefer. I wrote on half of the label and wrapped it around the hanger. This way I know which two posters are on that hanger and I can pull out what I need.

I also got binder clips to attach the posters to the hanger. I can usually hang two posters that are laminated on there. The lamination makes it a little bit heavier, so I try to stick to two posters.

It really helps me to just grab what I need to post on my bulletin board. Sometimes I post them directly in the space, like my unit poster, and other times I post them under the anchor chart that I have made with my students.

What I like about this process the most is that it is simple and affordable if you have the closet space. How do you store the posters that you buy? I would love to hear your storage solutions in the comments below!

How to Manage Your Classroom Library

I love books.  Seriously, LOVE books...and if they are children's books, then I am a bit nutty. I might be a hoarder.  When it comes to books, it is all possible!

Over the ten plus years that I taught, I amassed a pretty large collection of books for my classroom library. So let's chat about how I managed the madness!

Here are a few pictures of how I organized my classroom library over several different years.

I had a very loose classroom management system for my library. Each of my students had a book box.  I reused these year to year.  Each box had a number on it that correlated to the student's classroom number. I ordered mine from Really Good Stuff and I highly recommend them.  They had GREAT customer service.  However, if price is an issue, Wal-Mart is selling similar sets of 4 boxes for about $10.

The student stored their book boxes on a large shelf in my classroom.  One year I purchased a shelf because there was not one available in the school.  Another year, I was able to snag a district  provided books shelf and they fit wonderfully!

I always set my classroom up into 4-5 table groups. Then, each table was assigned a day.  Table 1 was Monday, Table 2 was Tuesday and so on.  On each table's day, they were able to do special things like sit around the room on the cushions and beanbags during workshop time, always were called to line up first, and were able to "shop for books."

Students "shopped for books" after they finished morning work or first thing in the morning. I did NOT allow students to take my books home or out of the classroom without special permission.   This rule alone prevented kids from losing my books.  I did send home books, but I sent home printable books, so I wasn't as concerned if they got lost.  Books also had to be kept in the book box when they were not in use. Students were not allowed to keep books from my library in their desk or on the corner of their desk.

I also explicitly taught students how to care for books.  This video that mimics Mo Willems' pigeon books is ADORABLE!

Wouldn't it be a great way to engage students before discussing how to are for books!?!?

For the most part, my classroom library pretty much ran itself.  I would do random checks to make sure students were reading appropriately leveled books AFTER I taught the lessons by The Sisters about book choice. I DID NOT choose to level my books because I feel student choice it VERY important and can hugely impact kids' reading abilities. Instead, I organized my books by topic,genre, or author.

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If you would like to read more about how I organized my library and want a step by step guide, check out this blog post!  I helped a friend organize her library and blogged all about our progress!

There are a million ways to manage your classroom library.  Some will be much more strict than I ever was, and that is okay, too! How do you manage your classroom library?

 If you would like more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to catch all the freebies and ideas and more!

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Birthday Post and a Freebie!!!

Hello Hello Friends! It is Erin from The Elementary Darling and it is my BIRTHDAY! 

I wanted to show you how I celebrate birthdays in my classroom and leave you with a birthday gift!

First, I find out when each student's birthday is and we take group pictures for every month. I made this little board to put our monthly birthday pictures on but we haven't taken the pictures yet! It is on my to do list for tomorrow :)

Each student receives a birthday bag filled with these items. Each year varies, but generally I purchase the same things because the kids love them!

Pink and Blue Bags: Michaels

Birthday Certificates: Target

Birthday Bookmarks: Target

Birthday Straws: These are from Target but I also get them at the Dollar Tree

Sparkly Mechanical Pencils: Target

Mini Notepads: Michaels

I also give each student a birthday brag tag! I think this is their favorite part of their birthday! Here is my Brag Tag board.

Are you ready for your birthday present?!?! Here are my birthday Brag Tags for free in my TPT store! Go grab them while you can. 

Sneak a Peek with a Peach: {Third Grade Bookworm}

Hey Peaches!

I'm Abby from Third Grade Bookworm and I'm so excited to have my first post here at The Primary Peach! My Sneak and Peek is a little different, but hopefully you'll like it too! :)


The reason it's a little different is because this year I am not in the classroom. I had the opportunity to try on a new role at my school as the RtI Coordinator and Interventionist. I still spend most of my days with kids (hooray!), but it's in a one-on-one setting with our neediest Tier 3 kids (double hooray!). I also facilitate Tier 2 meetings, Hearing and Vision checks for RtI, and our Backpack Blessings program.

There are still a couple of changes I'd like to make in my office, but here's what it looked like when I left on Friday!

I managed to carve out some wall space for a few anchor charts. My student intervention baskets are all together, my "watch list" is on the wall and I even saved room for a Happy Wall when things get stressful.

My resource bookshelf keeps all of my important stuff in one place. After the first 9 weeks is up, I'm clearing out anything I haven't really used yet and taking it home to put in my office. Which, so far, is going to be the entire bottom shelf. Is it sad that I'm excited about clearing out a shelf? ;-)

When I was in the classroom, I had these baskets (square and rectangle) all over my classroom library. My husband was over-the-moon excited when I took 10 of them back to school to use for my intervention students. :-)

I just finished organizing my supplies this week. Thank goodness for the pressure of a blog post to get some stuff done!

Games to reinforce intervention skills. Most of these came from a Donors Choose grant I wrote a few years ago. I'm so glad I did - I use them all the time now!!

I ordered this file crate on wheels several years ago from Office Max. It is perfect for storing all of my Reading A-Z fluency probes. I love having these sets ready to go. It makes it really easy to pull resources for teachers to use at Tier 2 as well!

That's about it! I hope you've enjoyed our Sneak a Peek series. I love looking into other teachers' classrooms!

Until next time ---

Sneak a Peak with the Peach: A Primary Owl

Hi, everyone! I'm Deanna from A Primary Owl and I am so excited that my very first post to the Peach is going to be sharing my room with you! I did a huge reno this summer (can you tell I watch a lot of HGTV?) Anyway I did make a bunch of changes this summer.......I took every piece of furniture home with me and painted it black. What a huge, messy job! I also changed all my colors to brights with chalkboard. I'm kinda known for loving owls, so I still kept a lot of my owls incorporated too. I can't give up all the cute ones the kids have given me over the years.

So without wasting any more time, here goes!

It looks like I have very few books in this picture, at the moment I think they are all stuffed in their book boxes. 

This is where I put my computer and document camera. This past summer, my daddy made me this taller desk to sit/stand at while I use the doc camera and computer with the class. Love it! (Before I was using an AV cart.)

Our bulletin board for Mentor Sentences....I pick 4 or 5 sentences to display each week. One of my listening centers is below this bulletin board.

The last picture shows my Writing Center and the back wall. On the back wall I have a tall bookshelf with our book boxes. The other picture is of our "Jump Start" activities. These are activities and games that the students can do after Morning Work. I have decreased the amount of Morning Work this year and tried to make this time more meaningful by giving students task cards, dice games and activities they can do on white boards. So they can get a "Jump Start" on their day!

I hope you enjoyed your tour! Come back tomorrow to see another Peachy Room.

Deanna 

Sneak a Peek with a Peach: Just Reed!

Hi, I'm Ashley from the Blog Just Reed, and I'm so excited to be joining the cool kids on The Primary Peach to show you my classroom! 

 Are you ready to sneak a peek with a peach?

I looped up from Kindergarten to first grade this year.    I created an Apple Decor theme set to decorate my classroom.  It involves color (green, red,  yellow, pink, and turquoise) + Patterns with a subtle infusion of apples!  It's the perfect environment for my first grade classroom!

First I'll give y'all an overall view, and then I'll hone in on a few details!
Many people have asked me if I painted the room.  No, it was already painted that way.  This was previously the 3K room but is now the room for first grade.  This building houses Pre-K, K, and now 1st, and each room and hallway in the building is painted like grass and sky.  I chose to paint have hubby paint all the furniture Ceylon Cream to tone down the walls a bit.  I didn't want the furniture competing with the other colors! 

Speaking of hubby....he worked so hard this summer!!  He actually sewed my valance for me, painted all of my furniture, spent about 4 hours steam cleaning my carpet, washed the windows, installed new mini blinds, AND painted the ceiling a bright white for me.  He truly went above and beyond!  I am blessed!! Several parent volunteers installed bright fluorescent lights donated by Walmart....so my room is bright and airy!  It's quite stunning!

Creating some apple lanterns to hang above my desk was a must!

 I also made some inspirational prints and put them in rustic chalk-painted frames.

My birthday board is one of my favorite parts of the room.  I found this fabulous cupcake garland on Etsy, and I created Astrobrights colored card stock cupcakes and candles to highlight student birthdays!

 I also love the red and turquoise Dollar Tree tubs I picked up for organizing my classroom supplies.  I shared these labels as a freebie a while back!

         Students are sure to love my classroom library.  I made book  basket labels that are attached to my Dollar Tree book tubs with velcro.  As I changed out books throughout the year, I can just remove a label and add the correct label!

My classroom writing center is OFF THE CHAIN.  I can just imagine the SQUEALS I'm going to hear the first day of school!

I'm in LOVE with my desk! I purchased it from a retiring insurance agent.  It's an antique that is well built and beautiful!  Hubby painted it Ceylon Cream and I fancied it up with some tassels purchased from Schoolgirl Style!  The cushions came from Marshall's and will be used for reading spots around the room.

And of course I had to create the perfect workstation behind my desk to organize all my goodies...and to inspire me a bit!

The monthly binder covers for organizing your curriculum materials are a FREEBIE I shared a while  back.  Grab them here:

One thing my kiddos always love is my Question of the Day.  The first day of school I take the students pictures with a fake  mustache on.  I've decided to take a thumbs up pic for YES and a thumbs down pic for NO this year and make the magnet reversible.  Students read the question and vote in the morning "Yes" or "No."  It's so much fun to watch them progress from being unable to read the question to reading it fluently as the year progresses.

A classroom can never have too much inspiration!  I found these goodies at Hobby Lobby.

 I found these adorable buckets already numbered for my tables at Target.  And I bought a classroom supply of Neat Seats for just $6 each from Michelle Oakes!

I love how my small group table turned out!  We used tablecloth-type fabric (felt on the back side, vinyl on the front side) from Hobby Lobby.  Hubby stapled it under the table!

 I plan to bring in a lot more plants and plant-based learning experiences and crafts this year!  I just love how home-like a few plants make the space feel!

And this is my check in station.  It has a basket for students to turn in their nightly folders, freshly sharpened pencils in a Target vintage pencil mason jar, our QOD board, and baskets labeled 1, 2, 3 (purchased at Target) for table activities, books to browse, etc.

My black director's chair is beside this table, and my teachers' manuals are housed in metal cut-out book bins in a sunny yellow color (purchased from Target).

It also includes baskets of spelling centers at the bottom!

My main bulletin board for Back to School is a Bucket Fillers Display.

 I got a pack of the small card stock triangles from Hobby Lobby.  They're perfect for a quick and easy bunting.  I got the puffy tissue accents on the corner of the bulletin board from Hobby Lobby as well, and I ordered the borders from Schoolgirlstyle.com.

I hope you enjoyed this peak into my classroom!

Be sure to mark your calendar for these other classroom peeks coming up on our blog: