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