Back to School

Ready or not were back in action and the school year is underway.

Prepping for all my parents and kiddos to meet me, see our room, and get back in a routine.

This year I decided to use a flip book to provide parents with important information from our room.

I purchased a flip book here

It was so easy to input the information I needed and assemble before Open House!

Beginning the year is all about creating a classroom community.

Another add on for me this year was this about me page

I downloaded the document here

This page was a great way to introduce myself to my kids and my parents.

I found students coming into my room more comfortable with me knowing a little more about me.

I love meeting my new students at Open House.

Upon introductions I send each student on a scavenger hunt around our room.

I love this activity because I think its a great way to get the students comfortable 

with their new room.

On the first day of school students already know where they sit and where to put their things.

Check out this amazing Scavenger Hunt I downloaded.

I love the graphics and my kiddos had so much fun finding items around our room. 

After their scavenger hunt they received a little prize from me...

Welcome to First Grade! 

These tags were so easy to print out and assemble on individual bags of Goldfish for my kiddos!

Parents also have an opportunity to tour our room as well and of course stop by our giving tree to pick up some items they would like to donate to our classroom.

I find our room is always in need of ... 

Soap

Paper Towels

ZipLoc bags of all sizes

Expo Markers

Snacks (Goldfish and Pretzels)

Glue Sticks

Prepping for Back to School Night!!!

As I speak with parents I like to have information on slides so we do not miss a thing.

This year I revamped my powerpoint and used one I downloaded from TPT

So easy to use and I love the graphics this presentation has to offer.

As I get ready for parents to visit our room again and hear a little bit more from me about our year ... 

I try my best to show what we have been up to in our classroom. 

The first two weeks of school we work on establishing rules and routines,

so far we have been working hard on Daily 5, and

building our stamina in reading.

We talked a great deal about good fit books and good spots in the room to read.

 

These kiddos have been working so hard and I love watching their growth and love for reading develop already!!!

In addition to taking pictures everyone answered the statement 

"If you give a first grader a book ..."

They rocked it and loved seeing their pictures up the next day at school.

P.S. Did you know that CVS has an app where you can upload your pictures and pick them up in store within 24 hours?!?! AMAZING!!!!!!

One, Two, Three ... Come In and See

Welcome back to the 2016-2017 school year!!!

This year will be a little different from the last but in a very good way.

I back in FIRST GRADE and so excited about this new year. 

Summer was long but flew and I have been hard at work in my classroom. 

A change in room is exciting in an interesting way.

I found myself traveling to school

sitting in my new room

just staring, 

looking around and rearranging until it all felt just right!

Here is a sneak peak into my room...

I love first grade mainly for the growth in reading that occurs in my kiddos.

Our district adopted a new reading program this year.

The program has a strong push on small group instruction and guided reading. 

Books are leveled and are a great way to keep track of where students reading abilities are. 

It is so important for students to know where their reading abilities 

books should enjoyable and not frustrational.

Once we determine students reading abilities they will better be able to choose 

GOOD FIT BOOKS!

Here is our classroom library.

Students can easily access bins, books are labeled and students reading levels will be clipped to their individual book boxes as a reminder what bin is a good bin for them. 

I love coupons and a good deal, I mean seriously who doesn't.

Look at this gem I snagged at the end of last school year. 

Hobby Lobby!

Did you know you could use one of those 40% off coupons on their tepees?

Well you can and I did!

How amazing is our new reading corner.

And those rockers add to the fun of enjoying a good fit book.

I had been looking into flexible seating for this new school year.

I do not feel I can completely adopt the new system just yet but have been investing slowly.

Through my research I found these adorable rockers and was able to pick them up at K-Mart!

I was so excited when I found them.

My Kindergarten kiddos started using them at the end of last year and I cannot wait to share them with my firsties.

Through connecting with other bloggers I got to reading about how other teachers encourage students to be leaders and remind them daily that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. 

I found these amazing rustic letters at Michaels (of course on sale).

The first day of school I took pictures of students and placed them around the word.

I wanted to students to be reminded daily that they all have an important role in the classroom.

The letters and pictures are displayed right above our Daily 5 bins.

As students retrieve their work for the day I want them to be reminded that although something is easy for them, it might not be for someone else and it is important that we help others. 

The pictures look amazing and my kids were so excited to see their pictures hanging in our room. 

Last year I used these bins for BUILD work in Math.

I love small group work and reinforcing math games on Fun Friday in BUILD centers.

B-Buddy Games

U-Using Manipulatives

I-Independent Work

L-Learning Numbers

D-Doing Math

Our district uses Everyday Math

I take games from the week, new manipulatives we have or will be using 

and other resources to reinforce the skills we are working on.

Everyday Math's spiral curriculum can be challenging but 

with Fun Friday centers we can reinforce the skills we are learning before moving onto a new week. 

Last stop on the tour today is my rules bulletin board.

Here is a freebie of my bee rules.

I believe that students should be told what to do.

We shouldn't be focusing so much on what is unacceptable but what is acceptable behavior.

When students follow our Bee Rules they move up on our clip chart 

and when rules are broken they move down. 

Behavior is reinforced and students are redirected by what could have been a better choice.

Have you heard of Class Dojo???

https://www.classdojo.com/

I use this site to keep parents in the loop about students behavior.

If you haven't heard of it ... look into it. 

It may be challenging to keep up with behavior at first but once you get into the swing of the site it is super easy and very effective for reinforcing positive behavior between school and home.

So far I have had nothing but great responses about this site.

Living in a district with school closings and changes to schedules often I can also keep in touch with my parents about events in the classroom, homework, and holiday parties or things we may need in the classroom. 

Another amazing part of this program is that there is an APP!

You can update parents via your phone

Notifications are quick and easy to keep track of messages and updates. 

The Luck of the Irish

We started the week talking about luck and what makes us lucky!

These kids amaze me everyday but their responses and writing blew me away.

I prefaced our writing with this short and sweet read aloud by Teddy Slater

The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever!

Their answers were so sincere and well put together. 

Students took this opportunity to really recognize the great things that they have that some others might now. 

I used another rainbow activity that we worked on earlier that day and added them to our writing.
At the end of the rainbow they say you can find gold but some things in life are better than gold and man did we prove that today!

Here is where I grabbed the writing prompt.

Scholastics this year has introduced me to these wonderful stories by Brandi Dougherty
If you have been following me you know I have used a version of this story so far for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Littlest Leprechaun is another great addition.

I love using these stories to talk about character traits and to discuss how the character has changed throughout the story. 

These little craftivity's came out adorable and students really showed a deeper understanding of the character in this story as well as the others we have read in the past.

Do you know Roy G. Biv?
In addition to discussing the colors and their order we also thought of things that remind us of each color. They definitely got creative!

This week we began exploring the colors of the rainbow and how rainbows actually form. 

I love PebbleGo .. They had a great video that explained to students exactly how rainbows form. 

They loved the video and later in the week when we had a rainy day, the sun began to peek through the clouds and my kiddos wanted to head out in search of that rainbow.

In the future I would love to incorporate more science experiments into this unit ... 

Check out these awesome science experiments...

How to here!

How to here!

Ever since my first year teaching I have implemented a tasting party every St Patricks Day!

What a great way to expose students to some new fruits and veggies and new healthy treats!

**Not in picture beans, edamame, peas, and avocado ... YUM!

I have also recently purchased Ten Lucky Leprechauns 

by Kathryn Heling from Scholastics

I cant wait to implement some ideas next year from One Sharp Teacher

So cute! and I love the math incorporation...

Check it out here

Here are some other freebies I found on TPT ... I used some of these for morning work this week.

One more great read aloud that I came across and would love to use next year...

How to Catch a Leprechaun

by Adam Wallace

I love all that you can do with this story about catching a leprechaun and the traps that you can make with your students. 

I have seen some teachers really get creative with this one and I would love to try it!

A lotta work and a lotta creativity!

Read Across America

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. 

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!" - Dr Seuss

This week we celebrated

Read Across America Week 

The entire week was full of Dr. Seuss stories and fun activities

I love celebrating the magic of reading
what better way than to review rhyming
and word families with a fun twist!

Monday we named: Who Day!

Students dressed like a who and we read ... 

Horton Hears a Who
By: Dr Seuss

I love how awesome these elephants turned out.

At the bottom students wrote...

"a person is a person no matter how small"

We talked a great deal about how we are to treat one another.

These came out amazing and I love that they will be displayed for a while on our bulletin board.

Tuesday we names: Tear it up Tuesday

Students came in animal print and we read ...

If I Ran the Zoo
By: Dr Seuss

For this book we gave students an animal cart to create there very own animal!

Kindergarten attached all their carts to make a crazy train of our made up animals 

then we finished the sentences If I ran the zoo ... 

Wednesday we names: Wacky Wednesday

Students came in mismatch clothes and socks

We read ...

Fox in Socks
By: Dr Seuss

We used these crazy sock day worksheets to graph the different socks we wore.

I let them wear their socks for a good portion of the day and they were thrilled!

Sometimes its the little things:) 

In the afternoon we made these adorable foxes and put rhyming words on their socks!

They look amazing in our hallways and I love how each fox came out so differently!

Thursday we named: Thing Thursday

Students dressed in red or blue or thing 1 and thing 2

We read ...

Cat in the Hat
By: Dr Seuss

Here is a great worksheet for students to make a text to self connection with the story

We made thing hats and read our Cat in the Hat poem
Students were able to read every word in this poem the first time threw
How AMAZING!!!!
They were so excited to be able to read it independently...

How cute did these little guys turn out!!

We tied in rhyming by adding -at words on the hat

Friday we named: Fun Food Friday

Students dressed at a character from the books and we allowed to wear hats

We read two books this day and had many yummy snacks!

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
By: Dr Seuss

Students were then given a handful of goldfish and they filled in this graph independently 

They rocked this activity and we had a lotta fun doing it!

What's a fun food day without some green eggs and ham!
Green Eggs and Ham
By: Dr Seuss

We used these worksheets before we began

Students made their predictions, drew their snack and 

then wrote how they liked Green Eggs and Ham

Bon appetite...

The loved the green eggs and ham and I loved being able to provide them with this!

Next week we will be celebrating Green Day where we will eat all kinds of green fruits and vegetables. I loved how willing they were to try something new and I can't to introduce them to some more yummy foods!

The community was very involved in our Read Across America week. 

We had several guest readers come to visit classrooms this week

Can you guess who came to visit us ... 

What an exciting week of reading!

Can't wait to continue to watch these kiddos reading skills continue to blossom!