Binders Galore (part 1) and Constitution Day

CONSTITUTION DAY
Just a reminder that constitution day is next week!  I keep it simple with my kiddos because it is tough for them to understand it all.  Here is the link of what I did last year: http://lasotaslittlelearners.blogspot.com/2011/09/constitution-day.html

I also watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30OyU4O80i4
WAY over their head- but at least they saw the cartoon and start singing, "we the people.." by the end and... I enjoyed it because it brings back childhood memories!  :)

I may watch this as well:
http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/citizenship/rightsandresponsibilities/preview.weml

I found this poster at Office Max for less than $3.  I am going to write "We the Kids in Mrs. LaSota's Class promise to..."  Then we will complete it together.  I need to laminate it before school tomorrow so I can reuse it each year.  :)

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In order to organize all of the new things that I am implementing this year- I have gone binder crazy and have started a clan of binders!

GUIDED READING BINDERS
First up are my guided reading binders based off of The Next Step in Guided Reading book.

First I label students with post it notes so that I can easily peel them off and stick them into another group if needed.

I keep the book lesson plans in the binder to make my lesson plans MUCH easier!  If you look closely on my actual lesson plans below- most of them say "see book lesson plans!"  :)

I just fill in a few things each week for the plans.  I am following the plans from, "The Next Step in Guided Reading."

I record notes about the students here. 

As a part of the lesson plans, there is 1 sight word focus.  I made all of the sight words and a sentence dictation sentence on the computer, printed them out and then cut them apart into the baseball sleeve.  Each of the mini manila envelopes holds the letters to make each word.  I have a book made of all of the sight words.  I just simply pull out the sleeve that I need for the week and put it into my guided reading binder.
I use to use magnetic letters but they were always getting jumbled.  Finally I alphabetized each set of letters on cookie sheets but then these got jumbled.  So now- I'm going with the notebook version!  :)

Finally are the sentence dictation books that I keep in the binder each week.

HOMEWORK BINDERS

Now are my homework binders. I LOVE this idea. The teachers at my school staple a "mastered" and "not mastered" snack sized baggie into the student homework folder.

Parents are to cut apart the list (that are differentiated in the 2 binders) and practice it at home with their child. When the homework folder returns back to school on Friday- parents should have sorted the cards into the correct bags.

In this binder- I keep the master copies and copied items to go home.

I also have a homework binder that has the Journeys Family Links that we send home weekly, as well as reading log masters and copies of the comprehension worksheets that we send home with students as soon as they master the first and kindergarten sight words.

I have to say that I have spent a fortune on new binders but I am happy to feel organized! :-).