Back to school update!

It's official! School has been back for a week now, and no matter how long I prepared for it, I never felt ready! Oh well, I guess that's how it goes. I think it will come along as time goes on. Still, I'm very proud of the progress that I have made! I'd like to share a couple of pictures, but I'm terribly sorry about the quality! I just figured out how to upload them straight from my phone to Blogger, but I'll have to go back to the old tedious way of transferring them from now on, because I am not pleased with the product.
So here's the classroom tour! Enjoy! :)

CLIP CHART: On the wall right beside my classroom door is my Clip chart, which I turned into the THINK-O-METER this year! I LOVE my think-o-meter!! I was going to change it up this year so that it sent the message of "Great work!" and "GET BACK TO WORK!" but I never found a good time. This will do for now. :)

REINFORCEMENT POSTER: I got this idea from something that I used last year. I will need to take a picture of the tool that I use this with, but basically they will find extra copies of each reward in the pocket. They can bring it back to their desk and work towards it. :)


HELPING POSTER: They will move their clip and rotate around the jobs every week.

CALENDAR CORNER:

Here is my calendar board with our schedules on the right side. We have a kindergarten schedule as well as a first grade schedule. I LOVE the calendar and weather pocket chart provided by my school last year. It is SO much better than the one I got from Oriental Trading last year :)

READING ZONE: Here's my reading corner in progress (I still have to get the book labels printed out):

STUDENT DISPLAY: I still have to organize this writing center better, but for now I just LOVE the Great Work display! I thought of the idea to hot glue clothespins to these little pencil guys that say "GREAT WORK!" and I just love that I got them from the dollar tree :D.



FOCUS WALL: I'm probably most proud of the hard work I put into my focus wall. It makes it very difficult to keep up with standards and EQ's when you teach more than one grade, so last year all of my stuff wouldn't fit on the dry erase board. This year, I had the idea to tape up some bulletin board paper and put the standards in page protectors. (I will post an updated picture soon) Well, it was a great idea until I ran into the issue of putting this massive thing up. After it began falling off, and I ran out of book tape, I went to the dollar store again and got some duck tape. Which finally did the trick ;) All in all, I think it was a great idea at first, but I don't think I'll ever do this again. 


TEACHER AREA: I love my teacher desk location this year! I'm finally going to use my filing cabinet this year (for paperwork) instead of using it solely as a barrier for the "Calm Down" center. I'm excited that I will have everything I need just inches away from my desk this year. I hope I will be much more organized as a result.

I loved the idea of the continents map on the front side of the teacher desk! I was so busy that I didn't even realize that my assistant completely did not put them in the correct locations until I actually looked at the picture! Hahaha, oh well one more thing to add to the to-do list! On the side with the green paper, I hope to make a magnet word work center.


DESK ARRANGEMENT: I'm excited about the layout of the desks this year. I think it is perfect that they are centered around the ActivBoard. Luckily I only have four students so far, and it will be quick and easy to move them into a new layout if I want to. 


WORD WALL: Our school uses the Fry word list for First grade, so I found this excellent resource on uniqueteachingresources.com ....All in a PDF file, it includes checklists and flashcards that you can print and cut out yourself. I printed them on this bright yellow paper, and if you are interested, you may find that HERE.

Student computers - back to back. Love it!




For open house, I created First Grade Survival Packs that I got from another teacher. I also stole the idea of the "Sweet Dreams Magic Confetti" ... both very cute items, but I cannot take credit. I know one teacher got the Sweet Dreams Magic Confetti idea from Pinterest, but I do not know where, so I cannot exactly give credit. If you know where/who it came from, please let me know! :)


Does anybody give out snacks and juice at Open house anymore? Well, it's very important for me to make a good impression, especially because so many parents think I'm "too young" to be a teacher (pssh... puh--lease), so I hope it sent the right message. 

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So the first week went pretty well and I am totally in LOVE with my new class!! I actually have 5 homeroom students this year, instead of two that I had last year, so I am really excited! I am hoping to do a postcard exchange this year, so if you are interested, please let me know!

I hope every one makes a great transition into the new school year! I just know this is going to be the best year ever, because I already have the class of my dreams! (I mean, Kindergarten and first grade?! It doesn't get BETTER than that!) Happy New School Year, everyone!! :)

~Sarah