CAFE Board Makeover

So, since I've been working on using the Daily 3 & following CAFE in my room, I've been making changes as I go to make the system work as best as I can for our class.  I started out with my CAFE board in the front of the room on a small bulletin board, because I felt like I had nowhere else to put it.  It looked like this:

It's a terrible picture...but again, it was kind of a terrible board!

My friend Monica noticing me agonizing over the lack of creativity & space with the booard, and suggested I go outside the actual bulletin board onto my whiteboard.  Brilliant.  Totally brilliant.  I found these insanely cute strategy posters FOR FREE and went to town. 
Now it looks like this:

And here are some close ups of the actual board:

I also found these super cute magnets to use on the board.  They go with my cofeehouse/bake shop theme perfectly! I love the Target Dollar Spot more than I probably should. 

So, I guess my room is on its way to being finished?  No better time than mid-late September, no?  The sprucing up continues and hopefully I can do a tour-of-my-room post soon!

Killing Them Softly

This week was a really tough week.  For the kids, I mean-not for me.  It was essentially a break week for me, but my students are probably ready to jump off of a bridge.  Sure, we were off on Monday for Labor Day, but Tuesday-Friday was just one big assessment.  Tuesday & Wednesday our students had to take a Pro-Ohio Baseline test in Reading & Math.  Pro-Ohio is an online test-prep program that gives the students practice for our state-test, the OAA.  Then Thursday & Friday, we had the kids take an actual OAA practice test, again in Reading & Math.

Oh, did I mention that it was close to 100* in our rooms all week?  By Friday afternoon, the kids looked like overheated zombies.  I brought in popsicles to congratulate them for making it through such a miserable week, which they were excited about, but I think they were just grateful to be done with tests!

I think next week we'll actually start with real "school".  My plans include an actual launch of Reader's Workshop as well as some real, live Writing!  I'm excited to do something besides monitor test-taking, and I think my kids are excited to do something besides bubble in answer documents.  Stay tuned for an update!