Onomatopoeia Project

        For the past week I've been teaching my students all about Onomatopoeia words. I picked up several library books that feature Onomatopoeia words and read them out loud to my class. The children loved listening to the stories. I wanted to show them how easy it is to incorporate Onomatopoeia words in their writing. Onomatopoeia words can make a story more enterataining and bring any story to life.
Here is a list of books I recommend using when introducing Onomatopoeia Words. Hopefully these stories will inspire your children to make some noise in their own writing.

Tiny Little Fly.  Michael Rosen.  Candlewick, 2010.
All the Water in the World.  George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson.  Atheneum, 2011.
Bob.  Tracey Campbell Pearson.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
Can You Growl Like a Bear? John Butler.  Peachtree, 2007.
Click, Clack, Moo : Cows that Type.  Doreen Cronin.  Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Dear Fish.  Chris Gall.  Little Brown, 2006.
Double Trouble in Walla Walla.  Andrew Clements.  Millbrook Press, 1997.
Five Green and Speckled Frogs. Priscilla Burris.  Scholastic, 2003
I Stink! Kate McMullan.  HarperCollins, 2002.
I’m Bad!  Kate McMullan.   HarperCollins, 2008.
I’m Dirty. Kate McMullan.  HarperColins, 2006.
In the Tall, Tall Grass. Denise Fleming.  Holt, 1991.
Ker-splash!  George O’Conner.  Simon & Schuster, 2005.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. Linda Williams.  HarperCollins, 1986.

        From all the books above, I only read two stories to my class and displayed the rest of them on the back table. I welcomed my students to read them during the week whenever they were done with their work and had free time. After introducing Onomatopoeia words, I assigned the Onomatopoeia Project to my students. I gave the children a list of Onomatopoeia Words and had them pick their favorite one. Then, I told them that I wanted them to animate their words on a construciton paper. I told them to be creative and make their word come to life. I told them they can use tissue paper, cotton, glitter, make their word 3-D, etc... The children took their projects home and here are the end results. :)

Our Plastic Lockers

I want to give special thanks to several moms for purchasing plastic drawers and donating them to my classroom. Genius! Why didn't I think of this before? These moms purchased a set of eight drawers at Target and brought them to my classroom as a surprise. I place two sets at the end of each group of tables. Now my students have more room inside their desk and books/papers don't get torn or bent out of shape. I have assigned a drawer for each student and have labeled them with their names. Now, each student can use his/her drawer to hold his/her belongings. It serves as a little plastic locker and keeps my classroom cluther free as well as keeps all their books and folders off the floor. Love it!!!

Thank you moms!!! I truly love it and appreciate your generosity.

Hollywood Theme

This school year I've decided to go with a Hollywood Movie Theme. Since I am teaching a fourth grade self-contained gifted class, and these students are the "STARS" of the school, I figured that the Hollywood/Stars theme would be perfect for this school year. I am going to include pictures of my classroom to show you what my Hollywood themed class looks like. I'll be adding more pictures in the future.

This is our classroom library. It is categorized in alphabetical order by author. I also have each book categorized by lexile level.

Our classroom treasure chest. Students get tickets from me throughout the week for "Doing the Right Thing." They put their names on their tickets and drop them off in the ticket box at the end of each day. On Fridays, I usually draw two tickets from the ticket box. The two names chosen earn a trip to the Treasure Box.

This is our classroom job charts. All students are assigned a number at the beginning of the year. I rotate their clothespins each week to make sure everyone gets a chance to do each job.

This is my corner of the room.

Down the center of the classroom is our Hollywood Walk of Fame. There is one star for each student. I had each student sign his/her name on their star in cursive. I ordered these star stickers from here.

My front door was "POPPING" on the first day of school! I got this idea with the popcorn popping from Pinterest. I also gave my students the red carpet treatment. My students absolutely loved it.  

This year my students have O.S.C.A.R. Folders. O.S.C.A.R. stands for Organizing Students Communication And Resources. This folder is used as my communication folder between home and school. Inside it has two pockets, the left pocket reads "Keep at Home" and the right pocket reads "Return to School." The students are suppose to bring this folder to school everyday. I purchased my O.S.C.A.R. Folder from Nicky's Folders. I truly love them because they are sturdy and last all year long.

Here is my "Meet the Cast" bulletin board. I can't wait for my parents to see it on Open House. I dressed up the children in old vintage Hollywood style clothing and I printed their Hollywood pictures in black and white. Next to their pictures they wrote their Star Bio's. I purchased and downloaded the Star Bio's from the Teacher's Clubhouse. They have a huge selection of Hollywood premade worksheets for your classroom. If you're also doing a Hollywood theme, I highly recommend you check out their website.

My "Reel"y Great Work Bulletin Board. I hardly have time to be changing bulletin boards, but because I have a classroom theme, I can keep the same bulletin board up all year and only change the work.

I had this basket full of popcorn out on my back table for Open House.

For Open House my parents left with this packet and a bag of popcorn.

I rolled out red bulletin board paper for Open House to welcome my parents. It was a huge hit!