Back to School Night Pics

 

So, I hope I don't bore you with these pictures. We had back to school night last night and as usual I was nervous. Not sure why since it's my 25 year teaching and I could probably do it in my sleep. I guess when you are used to little bodies staring up at you and now it's big bodies that's a different story. Needless to say I survived.

 

 

This pictures is from the back of the room. I only have 16, soon to be 17 students this year. The lowest I have ever had. As you can tell I don't have a smartboard YET. By the end of the month one will be installed in my room and I can't wait. I just have to decide where to put it, front or back of the room. I would hate to loose all my white board space but I would also hate to loose all my bulletin board space in the back of the room. Any suggestions?

 

Another pictures from the back of the room facing the door. Ignore all the junk on top along the wall. That is the only storage we have besides one small closet. 

 

Looking toward the back of the room from the door.

 

My favorite space in the room. I tried to model my library after Maria Manore's library over at Kinder-Kraze.  I just love her room, you need to check her blog out. She has so many amazing things going on.

 



 

Here is my guided reading table. I made the crate seats several years ago and just change out the coverings every summer. They are perfect for the room.

 

 

Don't you just love this. I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to have it. So I went straight to TPT and purchased it. It was made by Fredia Shumway over at Frogs in First blog. Love it!!

 

 

 

 

Lovin' my new easel. I always had a much smaller one that wouldn't even hold our big books from our reading series. So this year I thought I would just try asking for one and low and behold I got it. As a matter of fact our school ordered several of them and everyone who received it were thrilled.

 

 



 

First grade selfies were so cute. I found these from Jane Feener on TPT.

 

 

Well, that's  first grade in a nutshell. I have seen so many awesome rooms out there I am amazed. Keep up all the hard work, it's well worth it!! 

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)!!

Ready or Not, Here They Come

Finally my classroom is done and ready for a new batch of firsties. Tomorrow our first graders and kindergartners can come to school just to drop off their supplies, find their desks, and look around. We started this three years ago and what a differnce it makes on the first day of school. The kids aren't all asking what to do with their supplies and they know exactly where to go in the morning. If your school doesn't do this I highly recommend it. Anyway here are a few pics of my room. You will probably recognize quite a few things from blogs and pinterest. Let me know what you think!

 

Here is the bulletin board right outside my room. This idea came from one of my favorite blogs, Kacey over at Doodle bug teaching.

Here is a view from my doorway. Over the summer a group of moms and dads came in and painted all our walls. The walls were all white and now we love them. Each floor was painted different colors.

 

There is my small group area in the background . The sun can be a little blinding in our room.

This is opposite the classroom doorway. I have one of the oldest desks in the building and after they painted there was quite a bit of paint on the desk. So, I decided to cover it up with contact paper. What a difference it made.

 

 My Star of the Week board. I love how it looks. It looks better in person because I have star garland all around it and it's hard to notice in this pic.

 

Here is my new behavior chart. I searched all summer for a new plan and this is what I saw on most of the teachers blogs. Since they all swear by it I am going to give it a try.

 

My class library and meeting area.

 

The bare walls will soon be covered with student projects.

 

 It's hard to see but there are computers there too (a little blinding again)

This is the board across the hallway from my class. I just think it's so cute I had to share with you. So thanks for stopping by and checking out my room. Let me know what you think and I'd love to check out your room. 

Happy 1st Day!!

Sneak Preview of 1st Grade

 Here is my reading corner, meeting area and calendar area. I just love how this turned out. The boxes sitting on the desks are their math boxes I give them. We use Saxon math and they store their flashcards and math crayons in them. Our school starts on the 22nd and on the 21st the kindergarten and first graders can come to school to bring their supplies and find their desks. Several years ago we started this and found that it is VERY helpful. It solves a lot of  "where do I put this?" problems and makes them more comfortable on the first day. You should try it if possible. Back to the math boxes. I'll put them in their desks after they leave on the 21st otherwise the firsties think they are their pencil cases and dump everything in it. It works easiest this way. The blue pocket chart in the back corner is for the classroom library check out. They will put the card that is in the book they want to check out in their pocket (I still have to get those). The kids love taking home class books and I have yet to have a problem with them returning the books. They can only  have one book out at a time. Our school library books are sooooo old (we are a catholic school) that's why I let them take our class books home.

 This is our guided reading corner and small group corner. My class aide also sits here (if she is sitting, not too often). The clear box sitting on the chair still has to be sorted out, my job for Monday. The 6 and 7 on the shade will have their pictures. The sign says, How Old Are You? The kids love this. On their birthdays this is the first thing they want to do when they walk in, switch their picture over to the 7. This year I am going to take their pictures according to their birthday months and post the pictures by the birthday cupcakes. I saw that on Pinterest and thought it was so cute.

 I love these stools. Last year we made the small ones, which I recovered this summer and this summer we made the larger ones for the guided reading table. I just hope they aren't too low when the kiddies sit down.

 Does anyone use these chair socks? Our floors are unbelievably shiny and after about two weeks of the kids dragging the chairs in and out the wax is all worn off. So this was my big purchase this summer. I bought 20 sets. Now the chairs are so quiet and slide beautifully. I will tell you thought, it's the first thing you notice when you walk into the room. Some of the teachers thought I was crazy but I'll have the shiniest floors in the building. (lol!)

I'll have more pictures next week. I forgot to to take a pic of my bucket fillers. Now on to another project, taking my daughter back to school tomorrow. I dread packing the van and unpacking. At least this year she is not in a dorm without an elevator and the weather couldn't be any nicer, 78degrees and no humidity. Be sure to check back and have a great weekend.

Classroom Pics!

I've been working like a dog (as did everyone else out there) to get my room ready for our firsties. They come this Wednesday and I think I am ready for them. There is still just a few odds and ends I want to do but that will eventually get done. So here we go.

Our entrance to the room.

View from the door. This is our class library area and where I like to do whole group lessons and our morning math board. I just happened upon this awesome rug when our librarian was moving her room and didn't want it anymore. I love it!

My class library. I sorted the books into the various genres and level 1 through 4 books. I'm still working on the "just right" books this year. Each bin is labeled with a colored dot sticker and all the books in each bin matches the label on the bin. Last school year the kids were real good about putting the books back in the right bins.

I let my kids check out the books like a libray. Each book has a library pocket and index card in it. When they want to check out a book they just take the card and put it in their pocket. That way they don't have to write their names on anything and I can always see who has a book checked out (and who doesn't). This system works wonderful for us. You see our school library has such old books still that I thought it would be nice to allow them to take our class books home.
I saw these little seats on a ton of blogs and just had to have some. So we got busy over the weekend and made four of them. I used the smaller crates (beacause as you know firsties have little bottoms).

Here is our word work workstation. They can use the new seats when working there.

This is my area for small groups and computers. You might be wondering what the 6 and 7 are for on the shade. On the first day I will take pictures of the kids. Then I let them put their picture on the number for how old they are. When it's their birthday they just love switching their picture over to the 7. They also take home the birthday bag with the birthday binder in it to write about what they did for their birthday. This has always been a big hit in our room.

Here is my desk. I also saw this sucker tree on many blogs and once again, had to have it. I give the kids a ticket for all kinds of reason throughout the day (good behavior, returned homework, etc.). Then they put their names on the back of the ticket and it goes in this #1 bucket. On Fridays I pull out a few tickets and if I pull their name they can pick a sucker. If the sucker has a red dot on the stick then they can pick from my treasure box. This ticket system really works, it gets them to return homework and if I carry the tickets with me when we leave the room they are well behaved.

Our bucket fillers and class rules. I really hated my rules chart. It was plain and ugly. Last night I found these rules on The Polkadot Patch blog and loved them. They are all the same ones I have so I printed, mounted and laminated them. Now I just have to get them to stay up, they kept fall down today. I will eventually move them over to hang behind my desk on the wall but for now I want them front and center.                                  

  Here is my writing center supplies. I am still working on it. The blank board is for the Super Star of the Week's poster. The gutters under our white boards are awesome. We saw this done at another school

many years ago and then had our maintance men do this for us. I put books for the month or holidays in it and change them out at the beginning of the month. They are just plastic gutters from Home Depot. 

So, that's it in a nutshell. I hope you may have gotten a few ideas, however, many of my ideas came from blogs. There are so many wonderful teachers out there with awesome ideas and I thank you for sharing them.

Have a great year!