Dog Theme Classroom Reading Corner

          This is my reading corner in my Dog Themed classroom. I have a rug and two floor pillows. My colors are red and what I call "Cookie Monster Blue." The pillow cases are new towels from Wal-Mart - $3.97 each. They were exactly the right size to just fold over and stitch up the sides. I left the other side open and stuck it together with double-stick tape. This will make it easy to take the pillow cases home to launder.

       I brought in my dog crate and put a nice dog puppet inside. I think the kids are going to get a kick out of this space!

       On the wall is the start of our Super Improver Wall. (Whole Brain Teaching) The levels on the left are seven different dogs, along with a picture and a different color construction paper. I have a student who is our resident "dog expert" and she volunteered to pick out the seven dogs, from small to large, and printout pictures. She did an excellent job!

     
       The students will work their way up from a Tea Cup Yorkie, through Jack Russell Terrier, Beagle, Schnauzer, Border Collie, Newfoundland, and up to a Mastiff! I don't think my boys will want to be on that Tea Cup Yorkie for very long!

       I will have the title "Best in Show" at the top of the wall.

Whole Brain Classroom Rules

"And How are the Children?" We ask ourselves this at my elementary school. It's a great question as I prepare for the upcoming school year.

Last year our classroom had a Hollywood theme. I loved it but had tired of it after 2 years.... so, what do I love? I love my dog. So, there's my new theme!

I'd been to a Whole Brain Teaching conference in July and wanted to implement some of their best practices into the mix in my classroom. The classroom rules are on my wall, with a dog-themed twist. I put "dog silhouette" into the google box and clicked images. I choose a couple of dogs I liked and quickly drew them onto black construction paper and cut them out.

I typed and printed the rules out, glued them onto bright sky blue paper, and added the read and white dog-bone border. Then I placed my dog silhouettes. I especially like the way the hound's tail overlaps the border!

Here it is with the slogan at the top. "Off The Leash" means that if you go by the WBT rules, then you are off the leash! The class voted between this slogan and "Leash Laws," but "off the Leash" won by a good margin.