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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.

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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.

Anchor chart

Well, I have a little bright idea for you.

This is what my anchor charts end up looking like…
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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!

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Then, I file it with the corresponding story.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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It works for me and thank God it does. 

My classroom always has a little bit of a mess in one spot or another,

but if you come in my room and ask me

“ Do you have a copy of the _______________ you gave me last year”

I can have it in your hands in less than 30 seconds….maybe 45.

I lOvE this system!