Bathing Suits! Already?

This happens every year. I go to Target to buy mittens for our annual snow

trip. When I arrive at Target this is the scene I see.

That’s right folks. No mittens to be found. It’s time to buy a bathing suit!

In January!!!
That’s Rude… I need mittens.

Now this is less crazy here in Sunny So. California because it can be 40

degrees and rainy one day and 80 degrees for a week afterward.

But is this what you see where you live?

Are you using your snow blower and

buying a bathing suit at the same time???

Seems cuh-ray-zee to me!

You know what else is crazy?

Spending all your prep time remaking

Anchor Charts every year.

Well, I have a little bright idea for you.

This is what my anchor charts end up looking like…

Perhaps because I hang them on my door….

It’s the only spot in my classroom not covered with

mammals of the woods right now.

I like teaching with Anchor Charts. I find them powerful revisiting tools,

and it makes the learning concrete.

But look at all that artwork…

…..ripped up by wild first graders….

……~~RUNNING like wild things~~ walking politely to recess……

I love my cute hermit crab guy… Should I throw him away???

No Way!

I just cut off the awesome art!

Then, I file it with the corresponding story.

It is ready to be taped onto next year’s chart.

I love using plastic sheet protectors as file holders.

I am always worried something will fall out of a traditional file folder.

But you can fling a sheet protector full of papers across the room

{Frisbee style}

and NoThInG will fall out.

Plus my file box stay nice and neat.

This is my Houghton Mifflin drawer.

These are my Trimester 1 and 2 and 3 files in their drawer……

I used plastic folder dividers to dived the trimesters.

You can see a row of them in the very back of the drawer.

I buy these plastic sheet protectors in bulk.

At $10 for 100 that is pretty cheap.

I wait for the sale at Staples and then buy 3 at a time.

This filing system works so well for me.

If a file gets too full, then I staple two together and off I go.

Here is how it works if I have a really big “file” like

my Mammals of the Woods curriculum.

Each mammal has their own stapled file.