Layla Henry- Fancy Free in 4th- Blog

Fancy Ideas for the Everyday Classroom

Common Core ELA Focus Wall

By

     This week has been FULL of 10 hour work days… and that is not including the laminating, cutting and printing I am doing at home! I have been busy setting up my classroom, organizing all of my belongings, getting acquainted with my new school/staff and of course those lovely beginning of the year meetings where you can’t focus because all you are thinking of is the growing list of “Things to Do”, “Things to Buy”, “Things to Make”, “Things to Print” etc…
     So far, I have met some amazing people, endured numerous paper cuts, and I think I have done more strength training this week moving desks, filing cabinets, chairs and tables from room to room than ever before in my life! I have felt really supported by friends and family.  My husband has worked in my classroom for 3 days to help perfect it. He is a master at hanging bulletin boards and has even helped other teachers move some furniture.  I can’t wait until my classroom is done.  With each new bulletin board put up, I am falling more and more in love with my Bright Owl Classroom space.  I think the kids will love it!
     My new classroom has a LOT of wallspace. This is both amazing and intimidating.  I had to run to the fabric store to spend a fortune buy more fabric because I totally underestimated how many yards I would need.  Since I have a great canvas, I decided to create an ELA focus wall this year.  Moving to Common Core and being free of past rules and regulations, I am excited to dive into Language Arts this year in a way that I haven’t been able to.  The Focus Wall will help me organize key concepts, focus on standards and allow the students to interact with academic language in a non-threatening way. What I LOVE about having a Focus Wall this year is that is an ever changing resource for my students. Because it’s different for each story, the class can interact with it. I will refer to it during whole group and guided reading instruction. I plan on having students use post it notes to show examples of the various comprehension strategies. 

Here is what I created:

This is a set of Owl Themed Focus Wall cards for Language Arts. These 42 cards can be used to display what students are learning in Language Arts for that week/story.
Some of the cards included in this pack:
Vocabulary

Spelling
Grammar
Writing
Fluency
Genre
Theme
Title
Author
Author’s Purpose
Comprehension Skill/Strategy
with
16 Sentence Frames

I have bundled the focus wall altogether in a neat little package for you here. 

Dress up your Bulletin Board and make it
a
 place where students can interact with
academic language and make literary connections.
You can purchase this set here. It is never too late to make a bulletin board. 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Latest on Pinterest

  • Whole Class Journals: Get your kids writing across all genres for the entire year with my 5 sets of Whole Class Journals. The students will love this weekly activity for center time and it is amazing to see the growth in their writing over the year.
  • Multi-Cultural Fairy Tale Comparisons
  • Classroom Managment Tip: V.I.P Boxes for a positive behavior incentive or reward.
  • Coordinate Grid Fun
  • Growth Mindset and Cactus: making classroom goals
  • The Day the Pencils Quit: A fancy idea that solves that pesky pencil problem we all have in our class by having the students creatively write from the perspective of the disgruntled pencil! Modeled after the amazing book, The Day the Crayons Quit
  • Fish in a Tree novel study unit resources with lesson plans and quizzes aligned to Common Core!
  • Fancy Geometry ideas for the 3rd-5th grade classrooms! Have your kids engage in geometry in these fun ways! Freebies included!
  • Punctuation Matters: An engaging lesson that goes over the importance of correct punctuation while making your class giggle!
Follow Me on Pinterest

Instagram