First Grade Begins!!

 

 

 

So today was our first day of school. And of course summer decided to begin today too. All summer we have had very cool and rainy weather (not pool weather). So today summer decided to return with temps in the high 80's, humidity, and no relief in site. Of course!!  Anyway, we had an awesome first day. Only one crier for only a few minutes. This year I have 16 firsties which is the lowest I have ever had in my many (25) years of teaching. I really hoping that means we will be able to get a lot more done this year. Here are a few pictures of my room. Sorry about the lighting. I will be posting more pictures soon as soon as I can get some projects up and the lighting is much better.  

 

 

As I was doing my usual blog stalking this summer I came across Maria Manore's blog and her AWESOME classroom. The first thing I thought was I GOTTA HAVE IT!  I was on a mission all summer to recreate her room or at least her library. This is what I came up with. I just love my new class library and have had many compliments on it. I am still planning on getting the boy and girl silhouettes but as we all know there is only so much time to get ready.

 

 

 This is the same clipchart I used last school year. It worked wonders last year so I was not about to change it out. My firsties were all over it today.

Here is a view at the back of my room. This is my calendar/math board, word wall, and the yellow board is going to be our Kindness board. We will hang our kindness projects on that.

Here is a view from my door. As you can see we are loaded with windows which I usually love but not when the temps are up. The sun is beating down on us since we our right outside the blacktop parking lot. I plan on hanging our anchor charts on the screens as we make them together.

I just love my door decs this year. I got the phones from Molly over at Lucky to be in First. They turned out adorable!

Here is the bulletin board right outside my room. It's the same one as last year and I still love it. This idea came from Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

 

 

 

 Here is another shot of my library before I picked up the bench cushion. I was lucky enough to find a lady in the neighborhood who sews for a second job so she made the red cushion for it.

 

I will be posting more pics in the next several days, but in the meantime I want to show you some of the awesome bulletin boards you will find throughout our building.

 

 

I want to explain this Kindness board. Our school's theme this year is kindness. We have a little girl (2 year old) who lives in our neighborhood.  She was born with Apert syndrome, which is a cranial facial syndrome. Her name is Mary Cate Lynch. Her parents did not know before birth that anything was wrong so when she was born they were totally surprised. It is so rare that one a few babies a year are born with this syndrome. Her parents decided to embrace her and her differences and wanted to educate the public about this syndrome. Therefore, her mother, Kerry, goes around to all the local school and brings Mary Cate with to talk to the school children about being kind and that just because she looks different doesn't mean she is different. Kerry is incorporating the book Wonder into her speeches. It is incredible what she is doing. So far Kerry has visited over 50 schools, been written up in the Chicago Sun-Times, and even did the Today show over in Australia. If you would like to she has a blog and a facebook page which you can read all about her , just go to Mymarycate.org  or Mymarycate facebook page. Her story is really touching. Kerry and Mary Cate came to our school on the last day of classes in June and talked to the whole student body. Therefore, we ended the school year with kindness and now we are beginning our year with kindness.

 

 

I hope this wasn't too long and boring for you. As soon as I take more pics they will be posted. Now back to school for our back to school ice cream social ( the teachers do all the scooping and the kids love it)!!