December Currently

My poor blog.  I have the best of intentions about updating it but...well...some things just take precedence when you're in grad school.  Once I am all graduated with this M.Ed maybe I can be a big girl blogger!

For now...December Currently is what's up!

1.) Self-explanatory.  Little Miss is still obsessed with Sesame Street and I don't see her Elmo/Abby fixation ending anytime soon.  I can't complain-I find Abby a lot less annoying than, say, Dora.  (Or Daniel Tiger from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood...or Caillou...but I digress.)

2.) We had a great week last week.  I SO enjoyed being on break.  There was a lot of lounging around in pajamas, but also a lot of holiday efficiency-Little Miss' birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year which meant we jam-packed birthday fun right along with Turkey Day festivities.  She got a lot of presents from sweet family, but our favorite at the moment is the Disney Princess Klip-Klop stable.  It is SOO cute...the horses actually move themselves down the ramps of the stable.  Adorbs.

3.) Also self-explanatory.  Tomorrow morning is gonna be ROUGH.  I will need loads of coffee.  And plus also, I am dreading it just a teeny tinsy bit because one of my little pumpkins was suspended the week before break...tomorrow will be his first day back with us and I am not sure how that's going to go.  (It's not been a good year so far, guys.  This class is TOUGH and I'm saying that as the teacher who has had more than her fair share of tough groups.  That's a whole 'nother post, though.)

4.) I am so excited about the TpT Cyber Monday sale...and not just because my shop is on sale (what little there is in it-making stuff for the shop will be high on my priority list once I'm done with grad school, promise) but because I have picked out a whole bunch of stuff that I want.  I may just stay up until midnight and do my shopping then...craziness, right?

5.) Ugh, I don't wanna.  I have a clinical report and a research plan to submit this week...and I've already done one big assignment that's due tomorrow.  Most of the work is done, but I have to synthesize it all and make it sound good...blah.

6.) Christmas Eve is my FAVORITE.  We go to church and there's candelight communion.  Shopping is all finished, the presents are all wrapped, and the excitement is still to come..I love Christmas Eve!  After candelight service we usually come home, put on jammies, and then cook breakfast food for dinner before watching holiday movies and hanging out as a family.  

Fall is here! (graphing freebie)

Well hello, little blog, long time no see!  I'm not going to make excuses-real life is SOOO busy between the teaching and the grad school-ing and the mommying-I barely have time to breathe at the moment, much less sit down to type out a blog entry.  The last month has been nuts...but I think we're getting into a groove, slowly but surely.

And it's FALL!  Don't you love fall?  It's probably my favorite season now.  So much good stuff happens in the fall-The Fair...the pumpkin patch...football (GOOO, Dawgs!)...beautiful weather (buh-bye, 90 degree temps)...hoodies and sweaters...and towards the end, Thanksgiving and Little Miss' birthday!  (Which fall on the same day this year.  I'm totally going to take the easy way out and just stick some birthday cake on the dessert table at Thanksgiving-no separate parties here.)  Oh-and a BEAUTIFUL little thing called Fall Break.  We get ours next week and I am so excited.  This is the first year our district has given us an actual Fall Break (versus a three-day weekend for the kids and a teacher work day for the grown-ups).  We are going to the beach for a few days.  I can't wait to see how Little Miss reacts to the ocean and the sand!  We haven't been since last summer and she was so little then she basically slept under the beach umbrella the whole time...I have a feeling that this trip will be a little more action-packed.

I do have a fall freebie for you guys.  Now, the idea is NOT mine, mkay?  I actually saw this over at Mrs. Plant's Kindergarten...go see how she graphed candy corn with her kids last year!  (And while you're there ooh and ahh over the Spookly pumpkins-Spookly is one of my FAVORITES!  I will be using him after Fall Break when we go into our shapes unit!)  I was all set to use her adorable little graphing sheet, but then we ran into a little problemo...my grocery store doesn't have green apple candy corn this year.  Man!  So I grabbed several bags of the generic autumn harvest mix and whipped up my own little graphing sheet.  It's a tad bit more first-grade oriented...I ask them to "Analyze their data" by writing some sentences for me.  They are getting so good at it!  This will be one of my math stations this week at the teachers' tables.  (And to differentiate, don't worry, I will give some of my little kiddos who need extra support sentence frames to help them with the analyze part.)  Click the pic to download!

And I'll wrap up with a little funny from first grade!  We did our big Johnny Appleseed stuff last week...all of the classic stuff: taste testing apples, graphing our results, reading books about Johnny, filling out a character web, and then some All About writing...(I am obsessed with writing across the curriculum right now, it is a Hot Topic in my grad classes).  Well, one of my little friends and I were conferencing over his All About Johnny Appleseed piece and he was doing an AMAZING job.  I was helping him stretch out some words and one of his friends from the table next to him was eavesdropping on our conference...and she started to tell my conferencing kiddo what the letters were.  He told her, "Hush!  My brain can tell me, I don't need you!"

I mean, what can you say to that?

Take-home Book Bags!

I have a fun project to show you tonight!  I am so excited because I have my homework set up for the rest of the school year.  That's right, the rest of the school year!  (Well, the next 25 weeks, anyway.)  Read on to find out what we're doing...

This summer as you all know I was a crazy grad student mama and took not one, not two, but THREE classes.  It was insane.  I learned a lot, though!  For one of my classes I did a research project on fostering a strong home-to-school literacy connection.  As part of the project, I read up a lot on take-home literacy kits.  (They're called all kinds of cute things.)  By the end of the project, I knew this was something I wanted to take on!  Why?  Well...for starters...let me vent about homework.  HOMEWORK, ugh!  It is a pain in my patootie.  I know, I know, it gives them a chance to practice at home the skills they are working on in school.  That SOUNDS good, doesn't it?  But, consider the following items:
1.) More than half of my students (that's a rough guesstimate) do not have strong parental support in the classroom.  Traditional homework-those lovely, neat packets that I so painstakingly put together on Monday-often are still in their agenda pockets on Friday morning.  Waste of paper, am I right?
2.)  If it's too hard for them in school with MY help, what are the poor strugglers to do at home without the certified teacher?
3.) (and this is really the heart of my argument) We have an extended school day.  My kiddos are with me from 8:15-4:15.  As a mama myself, I just don't have the heart to give them work to take home to do.  Their hours of daylight are already numbered.  By the time some of these babies get off the bus, it's 5:00.  That's dinnertime...and at our house, dinner is followed by bathtime and bedtime is not too far away.  Math worksheets?  Yeah, not a priority.

So...enter the take-home literacy bags.  How perfect, right?  You send home a little bag with a book in it.  Their only homework is to read the book with somebody else.  HOPEFULLY, the grown-up at home (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Auntie, whoever) will take a minute to do it...but if they can't, then an older sibling probably will.  (I hope.)  And if that doesn't happen, well, I see zero harm in that plucky little first grader looking through the book solo.  It's a win-win-win, pretty much!  (As long as the book makes it out of their bookbag...but the books I picked out are pretty interesting and I have faith in my first graders that they will!)

Tonight I put my baggies together.  This is what my dining room table looked like:

 Inside each bag I put a book (picked carefully from the classroom library) and a tip sheet for parents:

Tomorrow the kids are also getting a letter that explains Book Bags in greater detail as well as the "accountability" piece (AKA, what I could share with administrators if they are wondering why I am not doing homework the TRADITIONAL way)...a little bookmark.  I got the idea from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.  She offers it up as a freebie! 

And speaking of freebies...if you want what I made for my book baggies...well, here ya go!  There are two pages...one is for the regular bags...but for some bags I actually had duplicate copies of texts so I'm sending them both home (twinsies!) for some partner-style reading.  There's a different little insert for those.  (I taped mine to the inside of the bags.  I am sure they will need replacing.  Ideally, I would have laminated them and put them in the books themselves...but I am ALL OUT of laminating sheets for my little Scotch laminator and I was in a hurry to get these in my kids' hands tomorrow!)

The parent letter is here.

I am so excited to let my kiddos pick their bags tomorrow!  I will let you know how this little project goes.  Also, if you are interested in take-home literacy bags, I created a Pinterest board of some of the fabulous things I see other teachers are doing.  Some teachers are really creative and make theirs very FANCY!  I am sticking to plain and simple for now, but we'll see how it goes!

September Currently

It's the beginning of the month, which means it's time for September's Currently!  This little linky is put on by the fabulous Farley at Oh'Boy 4th Grade...don't you love it?!

 Listening: Sesame Street...We LOVE Sesame Street in our house...it's taught Little Miss all of her letters and numbers, too.  She is OBSESSED with counting right now and her newest thing when she has a book is to point to the first letter on each page and name it.  Not gonna lie...that makes this reading teacher's heart PROUD! (She just turned 21 months last week.)

Thinking: When hubby bought me a Keurig for Mother's Day at first I wasn't sure I liked it.  He gave me a big sampler box to go with it and the first five or six K-Cups I tried were either too dark or too flavored.  When I discovered the Caribou K-Cups, though, it was like the clouds parted and the coffee angels sang...I get America's love affair with the Keurig now!  We ran out of the cups a few weeks ago and I've been drinking the cappuccino K-cups (also yummy, but not quite as powerful)...last week I found a good deal on Amazon and ordered some more.  Delish!

Wanting: I need want some new sneakers.  I went shopping yesterday and saw SEVERAL pairs that I loved, but I was already spending a small fortune on new school clothes for me so I didn't get any.  Hubby promised me a trip to Run Fit Sports so we both can get new kicks.  (He amazes me because he actually RUNS.  Sometimes on his lunch break.  And nobody's even chasing him.)  Can't wait!  I want some that are comfy but let's face it, the most important thing to me is that they are CUTE.

Needing...this is self-explanatory.  My group this year is something else.

Goals for ME:
1.) I need to get back on the work-out bandwagon BADLY.  I did okay this summer and even worked out for the first week of pre-planning but since school actually started I have been so mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the day that all I want to do is play with Little Miss, watch Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy, and call it a day.  That's going to change this week...I have an online workout buddy who's going to keep me accountable!
2.) My grad school program is a blended model, which means that 85% of our assignments are done outside of class and submitted online.  I like it because I only have to spend the amount of time that I NEED to working on schoolwork.  It's hard because I have to keep myself on track and it's easy for things to pile up until the last minute...trying not to let that happen this semester!
3.) We have an extended school day which means we can't leave until 4:15.  I am bad about staying an extra 15 or 20 (or 30) minutes after the last kid leaves to talk and/or do "one more thing."  I am trying very hard to NOT do that this year.  I get to work early (which doesn't take away from family time since hubby takes Little Miss to Nana's and she sleeps almost until it's time to go) so I should leave on time, especially since I only have a few hours with Little Miss before her bedtime!

Well, there ya have it...September's Currently.  I LOVE it when the calendar changes from August to September.  We've been in school for a month and although I have always (even as a kid) gone back to school in August it doesn't feel like we should be in school yet...but September is officially school time!

thank goodness for Labor Day

Well, hello, little bloggity blog, long time no see!

Are we glad it's Labor Day?!  I know I am.  I absolutely, positively had nothing left in me by the end of the day on Friday.  I'm not going to stretch the truth-this group of kiddos I have this year is giving us (my co-teacher and I) a run for our money.  I keep reminding myself that it starts off rough every year and I contemplate other career options and buying massive amounts of lottery tickets in hopes of striking it rich for a while but then sooner or later we get into a rhythm and we adapt to the new normal.  Aside from my class being...um...a challenging conglomeration of personalities (haha) we are a little off-kilter right now because we have a new math curriculum (yay? Even though we just started using the state's frameworks last year but okay...) and a new phonics program (still in boxes in my classroom) and oh, by the way, all of this random technology magically appeared in our classrooms last week (I got a cart-and a laptop-and an i-Pad) which is great but WHOO the learning curve is a little bit steeper than I can handle right now.  Especially since I am headed into week 3 of the semester at grad school and our professor expects us to, you know, do homework and stuff.

The sermon this morning at church was basically "we can do hard things" (if you are not familiar with Momastery's mantra, please run over there and spend a few hours reading all of Glennon's posts, especially this one and this one).  I am pretty sure that was one of those neon arrows sent from heaven to help me along on my way and NOT a coincidence.

To "unwind" (hahahahaha) I have been making fun things for my classroom that I've then been dropping into my TpT store.  I spent the better part of my week procrastinating from doing homework creating things for our data unit.  It's basically ALL of the graphs I do with my class here at the beginning of the year to introduce graphing (especially those pesky tally charts) and I threw in a pre and post assessment as well.

Then today for some reason I got a wild hair about the SS standard we're doing next week about some patriotic songs (America/My Country 'Tis of Thee & America The Beautiful) and created some stuff to go with THAT standard.  We share lesson plans as a grade level and one of my co-workers found some neat stuff out on the Interwebz but it wasn't exxxacctttlly what I wanted so...3 hours playing around on my laptop and here's what I came up with:

I made two cute little student booklets for students to put together while we're studying the songs (um, probably in a literacy station, because even though the district WANTS us to now teach science and social studies in their own neat little block of time we don't actually have time for that-oh yeah, and it's a best practice to integrate content areas with literacy instruction!) as well as some pocket chard cards and student versions of the songs.  Next week's social studies activities, check check!  

Speaking of Social Studies...I do have some exciting news to report.  A month or so ago I created a DonorsChoose proposal for some SS mentor texts about the specific American historical figures the kiddos are supposed to learn about in 1st grade: Ben Franklin, Harriet Tubman, Lewis & Clark, Sacagawea, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington Carver, Thomas Jefferson...(yes, it's the most random group of people EVER).  I created the proposal after doing an annotated bibliography of content area literacy resources...why not, I figured, since I already had a list of books?  My project didn't expire until October, but guess what...it's been funded ALREADY.  Some of the donations were from my fabulous family and friends, but a lot of them were from complete STRANGERS.  Isn't that awesome?  The books arrived this week...I gotta make some cute labels for them and then they are headed to the classroom library PRONTO!  Whoop whoop!

I think that's about it...I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day!  We are doing absolutely nothing, which sounds perfect to me!

Week 2

We made it through Week 2.  I'm not sure how.  This is an active group and we have a lot of students with special needs this year.  People keep telling me that it's okay and we will rock it like always, but I won't lie...I've had some panicky moments this week.

Let me tell you what happened on Monday-it was the most excitement I've ever had on a Monday morning, that's for sure.  I had morning duty in the gym (thank goodness our new principal worked it out so we only have it 2-3 times a year instead of the 6-8 we USED to have it for!) this week.  The bell rang and I walked the first graders to class.  Right as I got to my door, you'll never believe what happened: the fire alarm went off!  All of the teachers poked their heads out of their rooms: "Who pulled it?!"  "This must be a joke!"  But when no announcement came over that it was a false alarm, we all started to move.  Our principal told us the next day that we had the entire building cleared out in under 3 minutes which I think is darn impressive considering that buses were unloading, kids were eating breakfast, and some of us hadn't even made it inside our classrooms yet!  We had to wait about 20 minutes while the fire department came and checked everything out.  It wasn't a drill-a classroom AC unit blew out and caused smoke and a burning smell, so we needed to evacuate.  That is the first time in my teaching career that we have had a real fire alarm and honestly, I was blown away by how smoothly it went.  Anyway...that pretty much set the tone for the week.  I am hoping that next week will go much smoother!

Also...we started our baseline testing this week.  I ended up making a whole bunch of stuff to help me. For example...we decided that we wanted to test for sight words.  Now, I LOVE the forms on Ms. Perkin's web site and I have used them for years.  However...I like to test the words OUT of order (because otherwise the kids learn to read the list, am I right?!) which means I have to hunt and search for the words that are IN order on the form.  This year I decided I'd done that enough and made a new set of forms and flashcards for me.  I typed out the words in random order on the student recording sheet and then put the words in the same (random) order on a ring.  Not kidding when I say that I felt like an organized genius!  It made testing go SO much smoother.  I also color-coded my rings by printing the different lists on different sheets of paper so I can tell at a glance which set is which.  I also made brand new ABC flashcards, # flashcards, and shape flashcards for flashcard rings...plus data forms for each skill AND class data forms.  I feel so organized about their baselines now!

I uploaded the set to my TPT store...which will be on sale tomorrow and Monday!  It's time for the TPT B2S sale.  I have bought sooo much here lately that I don't NEED anything else, but I can't resist a good sale, can you?  While you're at it take a look at my Wizard of Oz set.  If you are a GA teacher getting ready to start the frameworks lessons, I made a set of graphic organizers for a Cast of Characters book as well as masters for a story elements foldable.  

The First Week and a Peacemakers freebie

So...I'm almost through it.  The First Week of School.  It's...well...been an interesting week.  I have 30 precious firsties.  Some of them are busy and some of them are chatty.  I always forget how I have to drill and kill MY expectations at the beginning.  For example...I cannot STAND to have anyone tap me on the arm, especially if they are going to TUG my arm and say my name over and over.  Also, the air conditioning went out today along with power for exactly HALF of our school building.  I can't remember that ever happening before!  (We take our air conditioning in Georgia very, very seriously.)

I haven't made anyone cry...yet.  There were no tears on the first day of school, either.  That might be a first.  (Or maybe I'm losing my touch?)

Next week we are going to start easing into "real" instruction...launching workshops, taking some baselines, all that fun stuff.  This week we have gotten an influx of children every day so there has been ZERO baselining going on.  I feel "behind" but I am trying not to let it get to me-I am sure it will work out!

I have a quick freebie to share...we did the fabulous "Peacebreakers vs. Peacemakers" lesson.  That idea wasn't mine-I originally saw it over at The First Grade Parade.  Click over there to see Mrs. Carroll's adorable anchor charts!  I did a spin-off on those today with:

What first grade teacher doesn't love David?!  We read it the other day so today we just used examples from the book to describe a peacebreaker...then we went through and figured out what a peacemaker would do instead.

We're going to do the next part tomorrow...

Click on the picture if you would like your free copy!

August Currently

Linking up with Farley's Currently!

My B2S Must-Haves:

1.) Lots of glue sticks.  I usually buy 100 at the beginning of the year.  This year the school gave us some, so I only purchased 50...but I am already feeling some anxiety that it won't be enough!  Some of my kids will bring them in, but not all...and we use a LOT of glue sticks in first grade.  (I infinitely prefer glue sticks to liquid glue...liquid glue requires a lot of teaching and supervision.)

2.) Pete!  Last year was my first year doing anything with Pete...but I am in loovvee with him now!  My favorite is Rockin' My School Shoes.  Last year after we read it we did the ah-dor-able Steppin' Into My New Shoes activity from the Bubbly Blonde...SOOOO cute.

3.)  I JUST bought this B2S Bash pack from Ms. Stewart.  There's a lot of adorable things in it, but what made me add it to my must-have list is the activity on what kind of "smart" are you...I already had in mind to do a little community building lesson about how we are all gifted in some way/it's my job to help you figure that out this year/there are different types of "gifts" and this just meshed perfectly.  LOVE it!

So the rest of my day is going to be spent putting together their take-home B2S packets (we got all of that paperwork yesterday around 3 PM and there's NO WAY I could handle putting the packets together Monday morning!!) and assembling some of the little emergent readers we're going to do this week  I am blessed this year to have not one but TWO student teachers and this is something they could do, but it makes me feel SOOO much better to have a good chunk of my stuff copied/prepped so it's ready.

I might not post tomorrow...so if I don't, see you on the other side of the first day of school...I am so excited about this year.  Pre-planning went smoother than it's ever gone and we are feeling good as a school.  The ONLY little kink is that first grade LOOKS like it will be overflowing.  We are all sitting right at or above the class size cap.  I am really hoping that they all show up and then some because then we should be able to add a teacher...but we'll see.  We may each end up with 28 and if more enroll later on in the year then we'll be sorry-outta-luck!  

Classroom Tour 2013

It has been 2 weeks since I posted...not gonna promise a lapse won't happen every now and then, but I hope to get on a better blogging schedule!  Last week was my last week of vacay and we spent it at the lake.  It was AMAZING...I hated to leave!

Then this past week was back to work.  We were furloughed 2 days at the beginning of our preplanning (ugh) but then the school board decided to push back the start date of school to give us those 2 days of planning regardless.  Since they also had scheduled mandated offsite training for the first part of the week, that was probably wise.  Anyway, my room is ready!  I took before and after pictures to share.  I love my black and white polka dots and I got lots of ideas this summer from Pinterest, other blogs, and TpT!

Before pictures:

I know...my classroom has the most RANDOM conglomeration of carpet...and that yellow wall!  I can't stand how it takes up about 75% of the back wall...not half, not the whole thing...it goes to the cinder block BEFORE the window and just stops.  Ugh!  

My teacher desk piled high with stuff!

 And after pictures...

The front of my door is the same as it was last year with the only addition being "Welcome Class of 2025."  The hot pink sign on the back of the door says "Two college graduates learn and teach in this classroom.  Where will you go after high school?  What will you do?"  (I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest...unfortunately it links to a picture that has been deleted on a teacher forum so I can't link up.)

Welcome sign in the hall...I do have more polka dot ribbon for the bottom bulletin board strip, just haven't gotten around to putting it back up.  (I took it down last year because the whole school goes by my door on the way to science lab and my push pins holding it in place kept getting stolen...need to hot glue it!)

We put this easel out in the hallway for Open House!  My room is at the end of a loonnggg hallway and is a little separated from the other first grade classes, so I thought this would be a good way to let people know that we're down there!

This isn't new but I thought I'd take a picture because lots of people comment on it when they visit my room.  My emergency clipboard hangs right by the door.  I keep a current roster on it along with the roll checklist we have to send in for a drill.  I know of course that I need these things if the alarm sounds, but the big letters on the top sheet remind anyone else who may be in charge of my class (sub, para, co-teacher) that they need it (also, the people who are less likely to be able to rattle off the roll by memory like I can.)

This is what the wall where the door is looks like! I copied the clocks idea which was ALL over Pinterest last summer (it originated from Keeping Up with The Kindergartners).  Love it!  I will have to change my clock hands because the master schedule changed.  Also, it wasn't really 7:25 when I took this picture...my clock battery has died and I am not tall enough to reach it (even on a chair) so I'm waiting for the nice janitor to take care of it for me. :)

I hope you can read the words on this poster.  I LOVE it.  The quote is from Rita Pierson.  If you have not seen her TED talk, you MUST.  Go on, go do it now...I'll wait for you...it's the most inspiring thing I've seen since Kid President's Pep Talk!  I made the poster...it's not perfect but it makes me happy!  We are going to recite her message every morning during our Morning Meeting.  I think the message is powerful, don't you?

This is my standards board.  We have to post the standard/element and the Essential Q for every subject.  I print mine out on neon paper and put them up with those magnets.  We were told that we don't have to stress over "real" lesson plans for the first two weeks so this will be pristine for a while.  I'll try to remember to post a picture of what it looks like with everything clipped up.  I also like to display my thematic read-alouds on that chalk tray...it just makes the room that much cheerier! These are all of my Back to School books...I felt like I was seeing old friends when I pulled them out yesterday!  (Pete...David...Chrystanthemum...Lily...Wemberly...love them all!)

 We will be doing Jitter Juice for our first Focus Poem!  I wrote it up on chart paper today so it's ready to go Monday.  Peeking out from behind it you can see part of the letter I had last year's firsties write to the new class...it's precious.  

My Word Wall!  I am so proud of this and I have high hopes for it this year.  I have seen many magnetic word walls on Pinterest and the idea has appealed to me for a while...I was just lazy, I guess!  This used to be my calendar board and my word wall used to be on the bright yellow wall.  I loved having Calendar Math on this board (so easy to change everything out when it's on magnets) but my co-teacher convinced me to make the switch.  We have the letters printed on neon cardstock (color-coordinated according to the sight words list) and one of my student teachers' projects next week will be to hot glue the magnets on them.  We plan to do content area parking lots under the board on chart paper and the black and white hanging cookie sheet to the right will be our parking lot.

Speaking of Calendar...this is what it looks like now.   The months and days of the week (along with lots of other polka dotted printables!) are from a pack I got from My Not So Elementary Life.  I made the other mini posters myself.  We will add some more things to Calendar as time goes on, but in the beginning I keep it pretty simple.

Here is our teacher corner...it looked a lot more organized by the time we left this afternoon, I promise!  This is a slight change from last year and I think we're going to like it!  (PS:  We call our desks a "no fly" zone because kids are not allowed to "fly" over to or behind our desks without permission.  I really want to make a cute sign that says that!  I am almost never at my desk during the day, but if I am it's usually because I am testing, progress monitoring, or taking care of paperwork that has to be done right that second.

Also...that's the weather wheel on the front of my co-teacher's desk...it looks kind of lonely hanging there by itself, but in the next week or so we will start to add weather words as we talk about them (on magnets!  hey-ya!) and that will be another place to put print.  

This is what the whole shebang looks like from the door...

And this is how it looks 85% of the time with the lamps on.  Seriously-we only turn the overhead lights on for certain parts of the day.  It's plenty bright with the lamps and the window blinds open. 

So I realized after uploading all these pictures that I didn't do anything of the back corner of my room or the classroom library...I'll do a Classroom Tour Part 2 next week to show those!  There's a whole other corner/side to my classroom that we use-don't know how I missed it!  Ooops!

You may notice that a lot of the wall space is blank...that's intentional.  Both my co-teacher and I subscribe to the school of thought that says most of the wall space should be covered with either lesson artifacts (AKA anchor charts) or student work.  We don't do much for "cute"...everything that goes up has a purpose.  By this time next week, there will be lots more on these walls!

the first day of school: lesson plan

Last week I mentioned how I was hit with the shocking realization that Open House is only a few weeks away.  And since Open House is only a few weeks away, that means the first day of school is only a few weeks and a DAY away!  Holy cow.  (To put a number on it...TWO WEEKS from this Thursday...yikes.)

This will be my seventh year teaching and my fifth year in first grade.  I am not that nervous about the first day...yet.   I've been through enough first day rodeos to feel confident that I (and my fabulous co-teacher) can handle pretty much anything.  The number one key to a successful first day of school: plan, plan, and plan some more.  Make it a point to overplan!  If you don't use all of your ideas or copies, they can get thrown in the sub tub so they don't go to waste...but you do NOT want to be left hangin' high and dry with twenty-six little pairs of eyes glued on you.

I made this little cutie last year to help with the first week(s) planning a little easier...it's my Back to School Bible!

Last year I took the time to put all of the masters for the "must-do" back-to-school things in this binder...along with any pertinent directions...

See?  Here is a project we will do sometime in the second week of school all ready to go (aside from the copy-making and cutting, of course).  All of my masters for my getting-to-know you class books are in here ready to be run.  When I'm done making copies, I will stick everything back in the binder and it will be good to go for next year!

Some basic lesson plan stuff is in here, too, such as the plans I bought from TPT last year for launching the math workshop.  

So glad I took the time to organize this stuff last year!  Otherwise I would have total amnesia probably and forget about that "must-do" cutie-pie activity until the middle of September, haha!

We start school on a Thursday this year...it's kind of weird, but I do like it because it gives you two days to get your feet wet and then the weekend to recover before diving in headfirst on Monday.  I have some things in mind for the first full week of school, but I will probably make some adjustments to those mental plans once pre-planning starts and I have a chance to collab with my co-teacher.

So, here's my outline for Day One:

7:45-8:30: Greet students; have them hang up bookbags.  (DEAL WITH SUPPLIES LATER.)  Students will color in their coloring books.*  See footnote!  (PS:  I just can't deal with supplies while parents are in the room...I just can't!!  At some point during the day I get my para to attack that task or if she's not ever free I find a few minutes to do it later in a mass dump-out-your-bookbag-fashion.  I do have a system-maybe that will be a topic for a post-I just can't deal with the chaos while parents are in the room and I'm striving for a zen atmosphere.)

8:30-9:00: Clean up; teach transition signal/going to the carpet procedure.  Announcements & pledge.  Introduce teachers (All About books).  Have students go around the circle and say their names; Ice Breaker activity.  (Still thinking about WHAT kind of an ice breaker.)

9:00-9:20 (or when there's a break in hallway traffic): Teach line-up & restroom procedures; restroom break.

9:20-10:00: First Day Jitters read-aloud & activity.  ("My first day in first grade I felt ______.")  (Blogger's note: I will probably use a page out of a pack I bought on TpT to go along with the craftivity later on in the morning, but Anna Brantley's got some free pages that you can also grab here!)

10:00-10:30: Read-aloud: David Goes to School.  Rules discussion.  What kinds of rules do we need at school?  Why do we need rules?  Use students' responses to draft Class Promise.  If time allows, have all students sign the Class Promise.

10:30-11:00: Tour of classroom and school.  (There have been years this hasn't happened because of time escaping, but we find somewhere to squeeze it in eventually.)

11:00-12:00: The Kissing Hand.  Read-aloud.  Send students to the tables to work on Kissing Hand minibooks and craft.  Kissing Hand cookies (if time allows, or can take to lunch).

Here is what the crafty looks like-the pic is from Classroom Fun!

 (Blogger's note: You can grab the freebie minibook here.  I bought Mrs. Baldacchino's Kissing Hand unit on TPT last year just for the adorable Chesters!  Last year I totally lost my mind and let my kiddos paint...it was fun, but time-consuming.  Since I have 30+ on my roll right now, this year I will probably stick to letting them color!  And I might run the masters half size so the Chester is a little bit smaller.)


12:00-12:30: Clean up.  Review hallway & restroom procedures.  Teach lunch procedure and practice.  Restroom break on the way to lunch.

12:30-1:15: Lunch & restroom break.

1:15-1:35: Calendar Math (teacher does-tomorrow will pick a Name of the Day to help with Calendar)

1:35-2:00: Graphing activity (how do we go home?)

2:00-2:30: Teach Math Tool Rules (anchor chart).  Exploration stations with manipulatives (Unifix cubes & pattern blocks).  (Some years by this point we have run out of time for this-no biggie, we get to exploration stations big time in the next week as we launch our math workshop.)

2:30-3:00: Teach recess procedures; recess.  (If it's not too hot...if it is plan B is indoor recess with its own set of procedures.)

3:00-3:45: Snack.  Teach dismissal procedure.  TAG KIDS FOR DISMISSAL (so, so important!).  Pack up to go home.  Discuss morning arrival procedure for tomorrow.  Escort car riders and walkers to designated location.

WHEW!  Just typing all that out made me tired...and making it through the marathon of the first day is about a million times more exhausting.  I will post plans for Day Two soon!

Footnote: If you are lucky enough to live near a Publix, visit the customer service counter.  Tell them you are a teacher, bat your eyelashes for good measure, and ask for a class set of coloring books.  They gave me 30 last year no problemo.  They are SUPER DUPER for the first day of school because a.) they're free b.) you don't have to make copies and c.) even your speediest colorers won't make it through the ENTIRE coloring book that first morning.  If you DON'T have a Publix near you, no worries...I have a freebie coloring book in my TpT shop available for download!

7.14.13 Sunday Smorgasbord!

Linking up with Fabulous in First for a Sunday smorgasbord post!  Randomness abounds...you've been warned. :)

1.)  Project for this week:

This came in the mail for me a couple of weeks ago:

I have skimmed it, but over the next couple of weeks I'm going to jump into it seriously and figure out how it's going to work for us this year.  I am DITCHING the basal spelling lists this year.  The textbook isn't Common Core aligned and I don't LOVE the stories in it.  We're also supposed to be getting Saxon phonics (which I know nothing about) but I am going to use WTW during our intervention block.  We'll see how that pans out.

Oh, and my mini-project for the week is to work on my word wall words.  I am not kidding when I say I have made new words EVERY YEAR.  I end up not liking the set I had the year before and I re-make them.  

2.)  I have one more week of grad school stuff left for the summer semester.    Cramming three classes into a month and a half is intense.  It was worth it because it means I'll graduate next December, but it also meant my summer was spent either in class or doing assignments for class.  I actually have a paper that I'm SUPPOSED to be writing right now, but I got a little sidetracked...as soon as I hit "Publish" I will go do it, promise!  I only have two weeks before work starts back up again, but we're taking next week as our family vacation.  We will be at the LAKE for a whole week!

This is Little Miss at the lake last week when we went for the Fourth-she loves it.  She takes after her daddy and is a little fish!  The best part is all that swimming wears her OUT and she sleeps so good.  We are going on vacay with my in-laws, including my sister-in-law and her adorable girls.  Can't wait!

3.) Since we're going away next week, that means this week I gotta get in my classroom and do some work.  The building is going to be open a couple of days and I'm going to try to get in there and get some things done.  The past couple of years I have scaled waayy back on how much time I spend getting ready.  I have been in the same room for 4 going on 5 years, so I pretty much have everything the way I like it.  I didn't even take posters off the wall when I left in May.  The main things on my to-do list are move the furniture back into place, get the computers hooked up (hate hate hate doing that), and take a little peek at my classroom library.  I am hoping that my co-teacher and I can meet up and knock these tasks out super quick so we can resume vacation mode for a little bit longer!

This has been kind of a weird summer...normally I have a whole stash of school goodies in a corner of my office ready to head into the classroom...this year I have bought almost nothing.  NOTHING.  One pack of neon sentence strips, the Words Their Way book, and the polka dot buckets I showed you last week.  I am trying really really hard to adopt the "less is more" approach...we are being furloughed again next year, I have to buy books for grad school, and Little Miss needs a fall wardrobe...and in years past I have spent waaayyy too much!  I will go buy 100 glue sticks next week (because that's the bare minimum I require) and a few boxes of crayons, but that's IT for this year.  

I do have first day of school plans done...I'll try to share later this week...we start school on a Thursday this year, so I only did the first two days.  I figure we will have to regroup once we see who shows up and what kind of a class we have this year!  (PLEASE let all the babies on my roll be sweet!!)

OK, that's it for tonight...I have a paper to write on text complexity.  OH, JOY!  I have my Coke Zero nearby and Pandora blasting away...here's hoping I get it knocked out quickly!

TpT and a Ben Franklin FREEBIE!

Guess who's joined the world of TpT?  That's right, little old me!  The shop is still pretty empty, but there are a couple of freebies AND my first for-sale unit!  Here's what ya can find...

So you know how the first week of school is...busy, busy, busy!  And the mornings can be...um...how do I put this delicately...CHAOTIC.  Sniffling kids, lost parents, school supplies spilling out of bookbags, and let's not forget the two or three or four attendance counts that MUST be done by 9 AM.  It's brutal, especially when our little first grade sweeties are just getting used to the first grade routine!  The first week or so I try to have SUPER EASY Morning Work that they can do mostly independently so that I am free to handle crises put out fires take care of teacherly business...I also need assignments that might take a smidge longer than my normal MW assignments because the morning arrival stretches out just a bit those first few days (at least for me-late buses, new students, late morning announcements, et. cetera).  SO!  I will share with you in an upcoming post one of my tricks for first week 'o school Morning Work, but this might tide you over for now..my first TpT download is a little Book About Me for the kiddos to work on during the first week of school craziness.  Head over to my TPT shop to check it out!  It's pretty flexible...you could also use it for writing portfolio baselines, filler work, or toss it into a Sub Tub for an unexpected absence.

Okay, now on to the Social Studies goodness! Have I mentioned that one of my summer classes is a content literacy course?  Well, it is...I have learned SO much and I'm really thinking about how I teach Social Studies and how I can do it better!  One of my focuses (foci?  What's the right word here?) for the class is a specific standard that I have to teach about the most RANDOM collection of American historical figures ev-ah: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark and Sacgawea, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, and Theodore Roosevelt...if you're shaking your head right now because you can't figure out what these folks have in common, don't worry, I'm right there with ya!  But it's a standard, so away we go!  I am in the process of creating mini-units about each one of these fun Americans...believe it or not I'm learning a little bit as I go, too (which is a little scary considering I've been teaching about these people for going on FIVE YEARS!).  I posted my first one tonight and here's a little preview...

SQUEE!  I am just a leeeettle excited about this...emergent reader, graphic organizers, writing papers, vocab cards, quote bubbles, a poem (that I WROTE...and I would not call myself a poet...but I realized that there's ZERO poems out there about Mr. Franklin, so what's a first grade teacher to do?!), and this little cutie right here...

Yup, a craftivity.  I LOVE writing craftivities.  They are tons of fun for the kids and I totally hold them over their heads as an incentive to get their writing to a good place.  The whole shebang is available in my TPT shop!

Also...there is a teensy little freebie that I uploaded as a companion...it's an All About Benjamin Franklin writing paper.  Nothing fancy...but if you're interested head on over to scoop it up.

I am so excited to begin this new adventure!  I have been saying for a long time that I wanted to open a TpT shop and I am FINALLY doing it.  I have lots of ideas-if you are a Georgia teacher especially, get excited because I am about tackle some of these trickier frameworks lessons to make some things that are a little more teacher and student friendly.

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Favorite Pins Friday

Linking up today for Favorite Pins Friday!  (Side story: I :heart Mrs. Carroll's The First Grade Parade.  A couple of years ago, it was the very first teacher blog I discovered!)SCHOOL PINS first!

 

This one (from New Management)  is school-related!  How smart-send home reminders on paper bracelets.  In the past I have literally packing-taped notes to students' shirts, but this is a LITTLE classier.  

Crayons will fit in a soap box.  Whaatt?  This is news to me!  I love it, though!  I often have little friends who don't bring school supplies and of course the supply closet is well-stocked (by moi) with extra crayons and glue sticks for them.  This idea alone is Winning, but if you follow through to the post at Miss Squirrel's the color-coded organization will make your heart go pitter-patter.

I just pinned this a few minutes ago...adorable Petes from A day in first grade!  We are Pete-obsessed in my class, so we will definitely be doing this.

ALL my pins aren't school-related...  I made these (skinny!) pizza logs last night from Emily Bites.  They are AMAZING.  I am still working on losing baby weight (hah!  19 months later, that's what I'm calling it!) and these are only 2 WW Points Plus each...yet they taste as yummy as pizza rolls.  I had four of these little puppies and was stuffed, yet that was only 8 points.  Going in the recipe box for sure!

Another recipe...this one is from the Clean Eating diet site.  This pasta was SOOOOO good!  I loved how easy it was to throw together (the worst part was cooking the pasta and the turkey!  Seriously!)  and it made a ton.  We threw the leftovers into the freezer.  That will be a nice treat one evening those first few weeks of school when I am soooo tired and my feet hurt soooo bad!


Not a ton of pins because I haven't been Pinterest-crazy this week...summer classes for grad school are wrapping up, which means I have been stuck in the research-write-research-some-more cycle.  I am such a nerd though because I LOVE it-I am so excited about this degree.  I am getting my M.Ed in Reading, Literacy, and Language...it's a 1.5 year program BUT when I'm done I will be certified K-12 in reading!  Yay!  (Right now I'm certified P-5 in Early Childhood.)  The only bad thing about grad school on top of working full time (and a part-time job on the side, and being a mommy) is that I have less time for the fun stuff in life, like Pinterest!  (And sleep, but that's another story...and what the Keurig I got for Mother's Day is for!  Haha!)  Another post will be coming soon about my first-few-days-of-school lesson plans...and hopefully an announcement about my new TpT shop!

Open House 2013

How is it July already?!  I swear, the summer flies by when I'm not looking. Guess what's 3 weeks from today exactly?  Dun dun dun...OPEN HOUSE.  Doesn't seem possible, does it?

I don't know what Open House is like at your school, but at ours it's...well...usually a little disappointing.  It looms over us for all of pre-planning ("OPEN HOUSE!  We have to have our rooms ready for OPEN HOUSE!") and then when it arrives, I don't usually have that great of a turn-out.  Last year I think my co-teacher and I had 8 or 9 parents show up and that was a record.   It's okay, they all turn out EN MASSE the next morning bright and early.  I have accepted this.  (I can't call parents ahead of time to remind them because usually class lists aren't printed until right before Open House starts due to students withdrawing/registering/etc..  One fabulous year our lists CHANGED IN THE MIDDLE of Open House because they goofed up the inclusion list.  That was fun.)

Anyway, I still like to have a little treat to hand out at Open House for the kiddos and parents who do show up.  I do something a little different every year...I've done the cute kindergarten goody bags (with the penny for good luck, the eraser because we all make mistakes, etc.)...the popcorn bags...Starbursts ("because we are all first grade stars!")...and last year my creativity was ebbing low so I passed out cupcakes.  This year I'm doing Tootsie Pops.  The hubster and I went out to eat last week at a restaurant while we were on our 5th anniversary minibreak and they give you a Tootsie Pop on your way out the door.  I couldn't remember the last time I had a Tootsie Pop!  Turns out, they're pretty good...and I realized I could use the cutesy "Thanks for popping in!" slogan that I used on the popcorn bags a few years ago.

So, this afternoon (during the baby's naptime) I got to work.  Well, I guess I should backtrack...this morning she and I went to Target.  Here is a picture of my goodies:

Aren't you impressed with the restraint I showed?  The only things I needed for this project were the neon paper and the snack size baggies.  I don't know how the polka dotted and galvanized mini buckets and that chevron/polka-dotty dress ended up in my cart.  I blame Little Miss.  (THE DRESS IS SO CUTE....it has a purple polka dot bow!  Ahem.)

Next, I printed out these tags that I made.  They say "thanks for popping in!" if you can't read them.

 Oh yes, and I ordered these from Amazon.  I ordered the minis-they were $12 for that big bag (200 pops).  I figured I will use these for bribes treats for the first few weeks of school.  (Confession: I bribe reward students for bringing back their beginning-of-school paperwork, especially their lunch applications!)

Then it was just a matter of putting the tags in the baggies and dropping in a few Tootsie pops!  Easy peasy, lemon breezy!  And look-my bag of mini Tootsie Pops came with a surprise!  (That's a Blow Pop, in case you can't tell.)

 Ta-da!  From start to finish (not including the Target shopping trip) this took me less than 20 minutes.  I only made 18 bags because I sincerely doubt I will have more than that show up, even if I give treats to sibilngs and parents, too.

Ready to go!  I can check one thing off my to-do list, at least!

PS:  If you want the tags, I uploaded them here!