First Week of School

First off, I want to say that I have the CUTEST darn class ever. They are just the sweetest bunch of kids and are SO funny! We've all loved every day of the week so far, and I'm so excited for my year with them. Oh, I didn't even mention. I have TWINS! :) Yes, two adorable, sweet, unique twins that I absolutely adore.

The first day went well, I only had one person show up that wasn't on my roster, and 2 that withdrew so I'm at a total of 16 now, which is a great number. We did lots of routines, songs, brain breaks, and books. We learned about ways to be helpful, made our safe keeper sticks, a class book, started our self portraits, and learned about mathematicians and scientists. All in all it was a smooth and fun day!

Safe Keeper Sticks - Click Here for More Information On This

The rest of the week has been going just as smoothly. One of my students that was on my roster didn't show up until Thursday, so that shook things up a bit, but our class welcomed her with open arms and are happy to have a new addition to the class family.

To help build community and a sense of belonging in our class, we created our School Family Book that we keep in our class library. I read this as part of our morning meeting activity on the 2nd day of school. It was a fun way to get to know each other better.

We also did All About Me bags which were GREAT! I learned so much about my kids and loved some of the creative things they brought in to show the class.

Sharing our "All About Me Bags"

We read the book The Way I Act then created a chart of ways to be helpful getting ideas from the book and from things they know are helpful in school/class.

We took pictures of the kids acting the things out, which they loved. We made that into a Ways to Be Helpful Board which will stay up all year long to remind the kids, and we'll add ideas as we see things though out the years.

Probably my favorite thing we do all year is our beginning of the year self portraits. It adds so much warmth, creativity, color, and uniqueness to the class. I love seeing their self portraits and this years class did an amazing job of really using the mirrors as they drew and painted.

To start this process I model how to draw a self portrait and what to look for when using the mirror. I then have the kids sketch themselves with mirrors using only a pencil.

On Day 2, I model tracing over my pencil markings with a black marker. I also demonstrate how to use water colors to achieve different colors, etc. I do this on my own self portrait and on a blank piece of paper. I let them go to town on theirs emphasizing it should be their own skin and hair color - not blue, green or purple….even though I still had two kids do a red and blue face..lol!

On day 3, we cut out things that we like from magazines and glue them to the backgrounds of our self portraits. After that, we laminate and we're done! We will share these on Friday! :) Didn't they turn out AWESOME? I just love them! Not only do they make the classroom, but they are SO telling of their developmental stages.

We're learning about mathematicians and what they do, the tools they use, representing knowledge, vocabulary, etc. On day 2 of we had a "mathematician tool exploration". I set up centers allowing the kids to explore, play, and use the manipulatives we will be working with all year. Doing this greatly eliminates unnecessary or inappropriate play with these later on in the year, and gets them excited to work with the materials. They did really well with this, with almost no teacher interventions. They're such a curious, calm, and sweet class!

                     

           

In addition, we learned about scientist…what they do, who they are, what they think and say. We explored the scientific method with the "Leak Proof Bag" Experiment from Steve Spangler. 

It totally stumped them! It was the perfect example of the process, and really got my kids excited to come up their own scientific questions/experiments. We then did Science Tool Exploration. This took a bit longer than expected so I had to break it up between two days. They explored safety goggles, scales,  microscope, magnifying glass, stop watches, thermometers, rocks, and magnets. 

This week we REALLY focused on learning about the safe spot and how to properly use it. We started off by reading Schubert's Helpful Day from the Becky Bailey curriculum to discuss how to use our big voice and ways to be helpful if we notice a friend is in need.

We then practiced the routines, acted out what it looks like when someone needs to use the safe spot, and created this book. We will keep this in the safe spot along with Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses.

I read this book to them to teach them to always look on the bright side and see the magic in everything (we also have blue sparkly sunglasses in the safe spot to go with the book).

This picture is amazing to me! It's so accurate! 

It was a long week but a successful one! Looking forward to seeing my kiddos again tomorrow! As always please leave any questions or comments below! :)

Room Reveal!

I absolutely LOVE seeing other teacher's classrooms, not only in my school but on Pinterest or throughout my county and boy does my school have some AMAZING classrooms! There is always something new to see that give me a zillion ideas, or simply something I steal from them. I love to see the different ways to decorate, organize, and layout rooms. I did some minor changes to the layout of my room, but did a lot of redecorating. I'm really happy with it so far. It's super bright, open, inviting, and playful. Hope I can give you some new ideas.

 Front of the Classroom (this changed around a lot!)

Math/Science Area

Math/Science Area - Science posters will go on the wall there (covering that ugly brown box) and their names will go on velcro to easily change them into different groups.

Math Centers Materials (Their Math Journals are organized by their math center groups)

 Computers/Safe Spot/Listening Center

 Close up of my Listening Center - Oh How I love it so!

Safe Place (I kept this the same as last year)

 Classroom Library

I organize the books by fiction (blue), nonfiction (green), and author study (purple)

Front Door (with word wall/writing center/Cubby Area)

 Our Interactive Word Wall (currently all Pre-Primer Dolch words are up on the board)

Our Writing Center

 Our Morning Procedures (I will take pictures of the kids as they do the activities to help understand our routines)

Our Class Commitments (I will take pictures of the kids acting these commitments out and add them)

New Literacy Centers Rotation

 Birthday Display, I'm going to take pictures of the kids holding a sign with the day of their birthday.

Star of the Week!

Bulletin Board (that's off center because the chart and TV block it) and Vocabulary Chart/Center Work

If you have any questions about anything you saw on display, the layout, a way I organized something please do not hesitate to comment below. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I also have almost all of my labels you see here for download/purchase - some are free and some cost money (all reasonably priced and package opportunity available).

And We're Back!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's pretty much been ALL summer since I last wrote a post. My summer was fun but short lived. I taught summer school the majority of the time and to my surprise, loved it. I had a super sweet bunch of kids and was able to teach in my own class with some of my own students so it worked out well (plus we had every Friday off, so that doesn't hurt)! After that I did lots of relaxing and planning, took a trip or two, and lots of sleeping in. I've been working hard all week at school preparing for the kiddos to arrive. I also have been slowly redoing my room to a new chalkboard theme and am closed to finished. All of which you can buy or download for free from teacherspayteachers.

Before I reveal the new room, I wanted to give you guys an idea of how I prepare during pre-planning. Each teacher works differently during this time and preplanning is pretty much a huge mystery for a new teacher. I thought I could shed some light into what goes on during that time, at least for me.

Our school neighborhood has a lot of mobility, meaning a few days before school a great deal of our future students aren't registered. In addition, a lot of our past students are still registered but might have moved and not properly withdrawn themselves. So we try and prepare as much as possible but make everything editable and flexible. After getting our class list (which will probably change 4 - 5 times within the first week of school) I create labels for the desks, chair bags, and cubbies. I also create labels for their folders. 

Their homework folder includes resources to assist them with homework (120's chart, alphabet/blends/digraphs chart, and sight words).

The inside of their writing folders can be seen here (each has portable word wall, writing ideas, and punctuation/grammar graphics).

After, I get their math journals, science journals, reader's response journals. I've pre-created a years worth of math journal questions that have been printed on small Avery labels and placed in their journals. I keep a small highlighter sticky note tab on the page they are working on at the time. They move it to the next page so they can easily find the page the left off on (such a huge help)! Their math journals will be incorporated into their math center rotations.

Their morning work folders I happily bought from The Daily Alphabet! 

Saves me so much time and it's such quality work/questions. I simply copy this off and place it in each folder (I do it by seasons so I will have to replace them in Winter then Spring).

I've been working on my first weeks lesson plans for a while, and feel pretty excited about my plans. Lots of team building, rule setting, and routines routines routines. You can take a look at these here! 

In addition, I got ready for my parents by creating an "ABC Pamphlet" for back to school (download the editable powerpoint template by clicking here). It gives our parents A LOT of information about the school and class. 

I also write a letter to the parents that outlines our schools procedures, rules, and any important class details with a letter explaining Dolch Sight words (with a list of words attached and Reading Tips).

To collect Student Information I use this form I created here. You can download it for free by clicking the picture below. Enjoy!

I use that information sheet with a Parent/Student Questionnaire that will help me get to know each child a little better. 

Other than that it's finishing up the room, making sure materials, centers activities, labels, and displays are ready for when the kiddo's arrive. LOTS of printing, cutting, laminating, cutting, and gluing/taping. Open house will be this Friday and I'm super excited to meet my new children! I've set up the rotations to make sure the parents have all of the information and paperwork I need from them. 

I have the kids color at their seats or read from a few books I have set out on the carpet. (Our parents come with ALL of their children, which can be a lot of bodies at once.) In the past two years I've learned that "kid stations" are necessary.

 I know this year is going to be great and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Hope you are having a minimal stress pre-planning week! Let me know if you have any questions or comments below!