Apologies for the Lack of Posts

As you can tell we've hit the ground running with school in Jessamine County.  Last Thursday was the first day I've left before 6:00 p.m. since school started.  It's just a different kind of year.  Today was our best day so far!  Whoo hoo!  We lost our first jar of marbles today (When other teachers and staff members give us compliments we loose a marble.  Each class has a jar of 30 marbles)!  I'm hoping my little first grade band members are finally adjusting to our wonderful school.  Now that we are almost finished covering rules, procedures, etc. we are getting to do some great, educational things.  I'll post more about those soon.  I hope your school year is going well!  If you have any amazing (or crazy) stories to tell please comment.  Thanks for reading!

~Kim

First Three Days and a Weekend

I believe it was one of the smoothest starts to a school year in all 13 years that I have taught at Nicholasville Elementary!  That's hard to imagine possible with teachers shuffled all around the building and a new Literacy Coach, Curriculum Resource Administer (with duties similar to a vice principal too) and principal too!  I'm proud to be a pony and know that I work in one of the best schools in the area.  Actually our entire district is great!  Who else works in a district where central office staff dress and cut up as Dr. Seuss book characters to share important beliefs about the upcoming school year?  

My new rockin band members are so cute, but each year I forget how small they are when they come from Kindergarten and how much procedural teaching has to occur before we can tackle the common core standards.  It's great that my district starts on a Wednesday and we can ease the kids into the back to school routine.  

We started the day off on Wednesday learning important manners!

Later we watched a Brainpop that helped us learn school rules.

We also watched Don't Sqeal Unless It's a Big Deal and met our Tattle Turtle.  

More about this coming school year soon!  I have another whole day of weekend to enjoy! :-) 

~Kim

One Week Away and It's Reveal Time

In one week I'll spend my first full day with my new class!  I can't wait!  My classroom is almost ready for Monday night's open house and the first day.  When students (and parents... It's first grade. More moms will be crying than kiddos) come to the room the first thing they will see is records that say welcome and 45's hanging from the door way.   

I made a giant iPod (but forgot to take a picture of it) that's assembled near the bottom of the door and shows our morning play list (What to do first thing in the mornings before announcements).  The upper part of the door will be an Instagram arrangement of photos that we will take throughout the school year.  The first photo will be of me with my Jitter Glitter under my pillow.  

These cabinets above our cubbies hold so much.  On the outside I have classroom rules and procedures as well as our tattle scroll. Sometimes I'll hang up anchor charts that I want the kids to see longer than a few days.  The cabinets run the length of one whole wall.  We are so fortunate to have them!

This is the back wall of our classroom.  We have so many windows that natural light is never a problem.  I hung ribbon from the ceiling and attached clothes pins to hold more anchor charts.  Our class library is on the back wall as well.  I have three book shelves for books and the top two hold the students book boxes.  Students pick 4 books per week (3 just right fiction books and 1 book of their choice for their book boxes.  I have lots of the crate seats around the room (super easy to make) and my cousin, who will be teaching down the hall, gave me four giant bean bag chairs.  The kids will love them.  

Our word wall is on the back wall as well.  Since this picture was taken I have added blow up guitars on both sides of the word ROCK.  The metal letters came from Hobby Lobby.  I love that store and their 50% off sales.  

This is our calendar area and where our schedule is.  The table underneath will house two laptops.  I am hoping to have 4 iPads again this year.  Those get stored in the 3 drawer organizer that you can see on the desk.  The Happy Day's display turned out great!  I'm writing each special that we go to on a record and the records are under the days of the week words from the song.  

This is behind our guided reading table.  Our reading strategy posters are hanging on the wall.  There are books, sight word games, and other resources on the shelves.  Sometimes we have guided math groups here too.  This year we have adopted a new math program called Stepping Stones.  I'm not sure if and when the math groups will fit in.

The Set List is where I am planning on writing learning targets for the week (or day depending on lessons).  See my previous post about learning targets for more information.  Our class jobs are beside the Set List.  

Our alphabet hangs above the white board.  I use the word RECESS as a noise monitor.  If the students are using the appropriate voice level all the letters stay.  When they get too loud a letter is taken down.  Each letter that is removed is 3 minutes off recess.  The whole class has to walk laps for 3 minutes.  That's no fun!  The drums and guitars in a circle in the center of the board have extra items that our class might need on them.  The parents can take one off the board and pick up item if they can.  It's a great way to get things that you don't want on every one's supply list and some extra treats for the kids.  

I'm using this magnetic tray this year to tell where my kids are.  When a student leaves the room they will move their number down to where they are going (or who they are going with).  The flowered circles underneath are for writing notes.  Often the secretary calls down near the end of the day with a transportation change or other important message.  I can put a reminder their.

 The Jitter Glitter and business card are on the left side of the students table space.  I put magnet on the back of the business card so parents could place on their refrigerator.  Teacher contact at their fingertips is a must have.  

I can't wait for the kiddos to find their Pop Rocks and very own guitar picks.  We are doing an experiment with the Pop Rocks on the first day of school.  If you'd like more information about the experiment respond in the comments section below.  I hope you've enjoyed my reveal.  I'll try to take a picture from the door of everything to give you the whole view.  I accidentally deleted the one I had.  

~Kim 

What Students See First: The Hallway

Today was another full day out at school.  I'm almost ready for the Rockin' Class Reveal!  This afternoons focus was the hallway.  

For years we had bulletin boards in our hallway outside each classroom to make really cute displays. After the remodel of our school (much needed I might add) we lost the bulletin boards but gained 2 rows of cork strips.  Of course by the time you staple up amazing work from students a bazillion times the cork is full of staples, looks unsightly, and possibly about to fall down.  Not to mention it took time to select the work, hang it, carefully take it back down a few weeks later so it could go home with the kids.  

After searching Pinterest and reading some great teacher blogs I decided to hang up clipboards last year.  After getting permission to put small screws with hooks into the cork strips I set out to find inexpensive clipboards.  Thanks to a friend I was able to purchase a class set for 50 cents each.  I bought some chalkboard paint and sprayed the clipboards, tied black and white polka dot ribbon on the clip, and wrote each child's name on their board in chalk.  

Here's the completed project this year with some rock star decor to match.  My students wrote about great first grade was at the end of the year and made the guitars.  Their "piece of advice" is hilarious!

~Kim

Let's Talk Learning Targets

I have a love-hate relationship with learning targets.  I understand the importance of sharing them with the students, making sure the targets are tied to standards, and lessons match the targets.  However, where do you post these things so that the kids can see them and we are not having to give up limited white board space?  Also, should they be changed daily, weekly, or depends on the subject?

Several years ago our school purchased large learning target posters.  You wrote the subjects down the left side and the targets on the right.  Although it was supposed to be dry erase I found it hard to erase and, at the time, the only cork strips for hanging near the front of the room where kids could see it was attached to the white board.  I'm thinking I used that poster two years and then abandoned for a new method... sentence strips in a pocket chart.  I thought that if I wrote them on sentence strips the students could read them more clearly and I could use the strips year after year.  Of course that didn't work!  Things change so often in education!  This year I'm trying photo frames.  I'll have to give up quite a bit of wall space, but I love the ease of writing and erasing on the frame.  Plus I think the frames make for a cleaner classier look.

Once I take these out to school I'll share in my classroom reveal how these are hung.  How do you post your learning targets?  How often do you change them?  Please comment below.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to know.  Have a great weekend!

~Kim

Shout Outs and A Sneak Peak

I was ecstatic when I stumbled across Teacher To The Core's Shout Outs on Teachers Pay Teachers! These positive reinforcement cards will be a life saver!  I can't wait to award a simple small certificate to some of my first grade "band members" every afternoon.  To see how Katie @ Teacher To The Core sets hers up click here.  I will do almost the same thing she does each afternoon except I'm keeping a chart to track which awards students have earned and how often.  Everyone has those kids that today is not their day to earn an award or those that earned one Monday, but was exceptional on Wednesday so they deserve another.  The chart will hopefully help me be as fair as possible without having kids on a 3 or 4 day rotation.

There are a few things that our school does specifically that I wanted awards for so I created a few of my own.  

Thanks again to Teacher To The Core for the great idea!

And one classroom sneak peak...

Stay tuned for the full reveal coming soon!

~Kim

Ketchup and Pickles

You probably think I'm loosing my mind with a title like the one above.  Well, it's been raining nonstop here in Kentucky so I'm close to it. Lol!  Someone told me it's rained twice this summer... the first time for 42 days and the second for 35.  Ha!

Last year I started my first ever homework club.  I bought a round pizza pan from Wal-mart and purchased these magnetic colorful dots.  I numbered the dots for each student in my classroom and placed them near the top of the pizza pan with Mr. Pickles.

Each week that a child turned in all of their homework and it was completed in their own handwriting they kept their magnet number up with Mr. Pickles.  When a student forgot their homework, it was incomplete, or obviously done by someone else they moved their number down by the ketchup bottle.  All students by the "Ketchups" had to catch up on homework during recess.  If a student turned in homework all month on time (kept their number magnet with Mr. Pickles) they were able to "pick" lunch in the classroom or lunch outside.  

The students loved Mr. Pickles and it was an incentive for some to do their homework.  Of course there were a few students who still never had homework, but in most cases, sadly, it was not their fault.  If you are a parent reading this check out the following links about Homework Stations: 

 http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2013/09/poyel-do-able-diy-homework-stations.html

http://www.cleanandscentsible.com/2014/08/homework-station-ideas.html

Homework is very important and the positive environment you can create for your child to do homework in can make a huge difference.  :-)  

Update:  This year, instead of using the colored magnetic dots from Walmart, I'm using numbered mini records (scrapbook embellishments that I found at a vintage shop).  

Mini records... I'll use white, circle yard sale stickers
to write the students numbers on them.  

Getting Started and Favorite Pinterest Inspired Project

I never thought I'd write about my classroom.  This summer, however, I've spent my time reading about other teacher's classrooms and it hit me that if they can share all the creative things that they are doing to prepare for their kiddos and then engaging lessons that happen once school starts that I can do the same.  

I've always had a classroom theme and worked hard to choose something that interests (almost) all students.  I started my first year with a construction theme as I was constructing a new class two weeks after school had begun (That's a post for another day!).  Then I switched to a race car theme to entice the boys.  Surprisingly, even my first grade girls got into it.  The year our school was remodeled and the primary students moved to The Primary Center we secretly named the building NES West and hence the wild west theme was born.  I only kept that theme one year as it didn't seem appropriate in a newly remodeled building.  The first two years after the renovation I stuck with something more simple, dots and chevron, but became bored of that quickly.  Therefore, this summer I've decided to ROCK OUT my first grade classroom.  ...Lots of pictures of the room to come as I finish it up in the next few weeks.  School doesn't start until August 12th, but I'm working a little at a time so I can take a day or two off before opening day and the many PD's that I'll be sitting through.  

I'm most excited about my latest Pinterest Inspired project (which doesn't have anything to do with Rock 'N Roll at all).  Thanks to Mrs. Terhune for the wonderful idea @ http://mrsterhune.blogspot.com/2013/10/ready-for-parentteacher-conferences.html.  She created a project board with ideas for parents and students to use to practice skills at home.  Mrs. Terhune pulls this out at parent teacher conferences and the parents can take activities that match skills that are needed for their child.  This gave me the idea to have a practice board out at open house.  I'll be meeting my first grade "band members" the Monday before school starts.  The students are able to see the classroom, take a tour of the school, drop off school supplies, etc.  It's a fun (yet sometimes nervous) night for all!           

This is the start of my board.  Sorry for the blurriness.  It says Ideas for Home in the top left corner.  This is what's on the top right...

I'm hoping to provide all the materials needed for the activity for each parent and student.  So far students need dice and a deck of regular playing cards.  Both can be found  at your local Dollar Tree.  

My favorite activity is a ring of 22 math games that are played with playing cards.  No other materials are needed.  :-) The other math games only need dice.  

I'm also including an extensive list of books that are great for the beginning of the year.  All of these can be checked out at our local library and some can be checked out at the school library, but I'm sure you'll find most of them in teachers classrooms the first week of school.  :-)

The titles for each folder of activities are paper clipped to the front.  This way activities can be changed out as the year progresses and content becomes more difficult.  I'm sure that I'll follow Mrs. Terhune's lead and pull this back out at conferences.  The rest of the activities I'm including (sight word games, writing practice, etc.) are at school.  However, feel free to comment below with suggestions for the board.  Have a great weekend!  Too much rain here in Kentucky!

~Kim