Ready or Not Here They Come!!

 I think the title of this post says it all! The first day of school is Monday and whatever is left undone at this point will have to wait until after my Buckaroos walk out the door to go home! That is, anything in the actual classroom because I am currently finishing up some computer work this weekend. I think most teachers would agree with the statement below, and not just on the first day of school either! Let's face it, some of the best lessons happen because of this:

      I have stated in a previous post (or two) that one of my goals for the school year is to post at least once a week on my blog when the KRAZINESS of the school year begins! Well, it's here and I've quickly realized just how KRAZY my life gets once I head back into my classroom each year. Not only do I have a MILLION things to do in the classroom, but it seems like everyday after work there is something else scheduled. It's like this every year, but I seem to forget just how busy I really get!Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I just can't figure out how so many bloggers out there can post daily when life gets so busy! Maybe one day soon I will figure out their tips and tricks. (Which are welcomed!) I'm sure it doesn't help when you're a Virgo with a perfectionist attitude! LOL! I will not post something unless I think it's perfect. It's a blessing and a curse in all areas of my life, just ask my husband! That's enough of my babbling for today, let's move on to the real reason I brought you here. At the end of July, I posted some classroom pictures from previous years. Some things are the same, but as usual I have changed some things too!

Here's a peek into my classroom for the 2012-13 school year!!



Howdy Buckaroos! All the bandannas and horse shoes have the students names on them.



A peek into the classroom from my doorway.

New classroom displays... Hundreds Board Whole Class Incentive chart on the back of the door, classroom behavior chart (which I am so excited about!) and the "Back to School" bulletin board. The "Back to School" bulletin board will change approximately once a month to go along with our new Reading series called Imagine It! They call it a question/concept board and we build it with our students at the beginning of each unit (that's why it looks unfinished).

My new classroom behavior chart up close! Thank you to Cindy Cortez over at Teaming Up To Teach. She created this particular behavior chart and I found it via Pinterest. If you like it, and would like to use it too, click here!

The blue bookshelf is a home to an extra papers bin, a clear plastic bin where my students turn in completed assignments (there's a hanging folder for each subject area), orange Imagine It student materials, green Writing notebooks and blue Center folders. This bookshelf also helps hide the cords to my document camera and projector located on the other side of the shelf.

My new Word Wall! If you look closely you can see Miss Johnson's table with the fabric skirt around it and the Common Core posters hanging on the ribbon to the left of the Word Wall. Miss Johnson is my student teacher from Appalachian State University.

Here is the Word Wall again. Thanks for helping me put it up Miss Johnson!

Miss Johnson and I right before Open House!  I would like to say a HUGE Thank You to both Miss Johnson and Mrs. Estes, my wonderful assistant, for all their help! (Mrs. Estes is taking the picture for us!)

Writing Center

A different view of the Writing Center. The bookshelf houses dictionaries, highlighters, student offices, and baskets for sharpened and broken pencils. Cowboy Woody is sitting on the white shelves keeping an eye on our Class Cash!

Our  Creation Station... too bad it usually doesn't stay this neat and clean! Under the table we store classroom supplies like glue sticks, pencils, erasers, markers and crayons.

 

 

Buckaroo Birthdays! I found the cupcakes last year via Pinterest and they were created by Kathryn over at www.kindergartenkindergarten.com  and can be found here! I made the cute sign out of a place mat and a free font I found on the computer called "DRIFTTY PE". Isn't it cute?!

 

This is how we display student work in the hall. Yes, the glitter clothespins made their way into the hallway too! I just couldn't help myself!!

 

My area of the classroom!

Remember, the table is my Guided Reading area and my desk too!

You can see my new table with the printer and my lesson plan book on top of it; under the table you can see plastic drawers for storage and my monthly storage bin. The book shelf houses some of my most frequently used teacher resource books for Language Arts and Math and my laptop is hooked up on a student desk so it does not have to sit on my Guided reading table.

My new table up close! The pink cowboy (or in this case, cowgirl) hat that you see hanging on the wall is what I wear so that students know when they can't bother me. I usually wear it while doing Running Records or other assessments and during most Guided Reading groups.

Filing cabinet and Monday through Friday lesson plan drawers. I house everything I need for my lessons in these clear drawers each week. If you look closely, all the cards from Imagine It have been turned backwards until they are introduced.

 

Thanks for stopping by my classroom, I hope you really enjoyed it!

 

 

I also joined a linky party about Classroom Photos over at Teaching Blog Addict! If you are curious about other classrooms, click on the picture below.

 

 



Clothespins and New Classroom Decor!

I have been working in my classroom this week trying to get it ready before we HAVE to report on August 20th and the KRAZINESS begins! Last Spring (right before Spring Break), our school was painted so we had to take everything off of the walls. I was not about to redecorate my classroom with only a few weeks left in the school year and boy am I glad I made that decision! Staring at the boring white walls paid off in the end.

After both the students and teachers finished the school year, we had some training for our district's new Reading adoption called Imagine It! At the training we found out that the program came with about 45 sizable Alphabet/Phonics cards (the company refers to them as Sound/Spelling Cards) to hang up around the room. Not only did we have to find homes for 26 Alphabet cards, 5 Long Vowel cards, 8 Vowel Digraph cards and 6 Consonant Digraph/Blend cards but the cards have to be able to be flipped as they are introduced. Plus, we were also told that we would have more High Frequency Words to put on our Word Walls this year AND we needed to have a "Question/Concept" bulletin board that changes about once a month! Whew!

Since the training, I have been trying to figure out where in the world all of this stuff was going to go in my classroom and how to hang it so it can be flipped. The good news, I had a "blank slate" due to having nothing on the walls! It was mentioned at the training that we could use clothespins to hang the letters. I was sold...Cheap and easy! My friend and colleague Anna mentioned she had painted hers to make them more appealing. I was planning on doing NOTHING to the clothespins except hanging them on my walls. Needless to say, Anna inspired me! I didn't really want to paint clothespins so I got on Pinterest to see if there was a different way. What I quickly found out is that there are MANY ways to decorate clothespins...Who knew? Here's the way that I chose to do it:

This picture is the one I found via Pinterest, but the idea actually came from a blog called Clean Mama. 

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Clean Mama for the awesome tip! It worked great!

Here are the materials that I used for my clothespins:

I found this border at Michael's in the scrap booking isle.

Here's how my clothespins turned out:

 

Here are a few pictures of my new and improved classroom decor:

My Alphabet Sound/Spelling cards from far away.

 The letter cards are blank and boring right now, but as we introduce them we flip them and they have pictures and spellings on the back. The Long vowel cards are hanging above the Alphabet line and should be blank right now, but I wanted to see what they looked like.


Vowel Digraph Cards

These will also be blank until we introduce and flip them over. I chose to put them near my Guided Reading area, but the Buckaroos can reference them from anywhere in the classroom!

Here are two cards up close so you can really see the clothespins!

Consonant Digraph/Blend Cards

 Up close...

and far away. They are also near my Guided Reading area, but can be seen from anywhere in the classroom!

(Please ignore the messy bookcase, I took my pictures and then cleaned it off.)

Question/Concept Board

I am utilizing this space on my wall as my Question/Concept bulletin board. It's a blank slate right now, but that will change in a few weeks.

I am slightly obsessed with my clothespins! (Aren't they cute?!) Plus, I am so glad that all my new decor has a home! Let me know what you think about everything going on in my classroom so far, and stop back soon for more updates!

New look and classroom tour!

I hope you like the new look of my blog! I'm super excited about it! It's much more me!

I told you that I was going to be posting pictures of my classroom, but I was waiting until my new look was complete. Let me take just a moment to warn you that this post is really long, but I think you will like what you see. Le me know! Now, your wait is over!

My classroom...

Howdy Buckaroos! Welcome to First Grade!

This rolling cart is right as you enter my classroom. On top you can see the paper trays that I use on Open House night. These are where the parents return important papers such as Emergency Contact forms, "How We Get Home" forms and Volunteer Interest Sheets.

On the side of this cart is where I put my weather graph last year. We used the plastic links to make our graph each month.

This green table and the two shelves in the background are my Math Center. The tall bookcase contains Math manipulatives in white baskets that are easy access for my Buckaroos. The red and blue canvas drawers contain Math center games.

After school started, I added numbers to the front of them and tied them on with twine. So cute, functional and organized!

My morning meeting/ whole group teaching area. The white board easel isn't usually there, but was serving a purpose during Open House. I did the "feed the boxes" idea for community supplies. (See the boxes on the floor.) This year I am going to do the same thing, but use plastic storage bins instead!

Another view of the whole group area. On the board is my "Donation Station" where parents can pull off a post-it and purchase something for our classroom if they would like. I also displayed my birthdays on cupcakes above the white boards, with the alphabet line above that.

Here are the Buckaroo's seats with bandanna print chair pockets made by my friend Cheryl! I also used bandannas as my curtains. I simply drape them over a piece of twine. Too cute! Quick tip... Be careful what you hang over your windows and how low they hang. The fire marshal will either make you take them down or move them higher (which I did, because I was not about to take them down!)

Another classroom view. The round table is my Word Building Center, my projector is behind the cow print rug, and my area is under the TV in the back of the photo.

Here is a close up of my projector area. My classroom is not currently equipped with a Smart or Active board. However, I do have an Active Slate which helps to make technology lessons more interactive until the day my classroom is outfitted with Smart technology. The blue bookcase in front helps to keep cords hidden and comes in handy for storing various things. (Most of the things on the shelf were being stored there until after Open House.)

Classroom Displays

My "Student of the Week" board. This is where we place the Buckaroo of the Week's poster when it is their special week!

My classroom jobs are located on the denim pockets. I keep the student's names on craft sticks in the little red basket and we choose new jobs each Monday.

Reading strategies posters. No I did not make these, but please forgive me because I forget the source. I'm thinking TPT, but if I remember I will definitely update this post later. This board is located right next to my Guided Reading area. To the right of this board, you will notice my Center organization pictures (more Center pictures to come later in this post).

This was my Word Family Wall. There is a poster for each Spelling pattern we studied throughout the year that included a picture for those visual learners. They are blank to start the year and we fill them out as a group each week as they are introduced. Unfortunately, this year the Word Family wall either needs to come down or change due to a new adoption in our county called Imagine It.

This was an idea that I found last year via Pinterest and purchased from TPT. Deanna Jump is the creator and saved me (and other teachers I'm sure) lots of time. These are Common Core posters. We are actually implementing Common Core standards this upcoming school year, so I hope I use these this year! Deanna also has a great blog! Go check it out...

 

My Word Wall. Again, this will have to be changed this year due to Imagine It. Plus, last spring they painted our building and all wall decor had to come down for that. I chose not to put it back up due to the short amount of time left in our school year. I'm glad I did that because many things need to change for this upcoming school year.

Student work folders. Each student has a hanging folder that is attached with Velcro to the doors. The clothespins help us display student work (mostly Writing samples), then we store their work in the pockets when something new is going to be displayed. They come off easily for conferences and provide work samples for the entire year. Up above these folders you will see some plastic storage bins. I have one fore each month of the year and put seasonal lesson plans in each bin. This is how my colleagues had their stuff organized when I first came to my current school and I fell in love!

Behavior Chart

(Please note the easel was only there for Open House.) This is my behavior chart. The students can see the rules displayed right above the colorful dots. Everyday the students would start on green and would move down the chart for undesirable behaviors. They could EARN themselves back for great behavior also. The students earn "Class Cash" everyday for various reasons, but being on green at the end of the day is a sure fire way to earn cash! If they end up on yellow at the end of the day, nothing earned and nothing lost. If they are on blue or red at the end of the day they have to pay me some cash. Losing cash is no fun, especially when we have a class auction every two weeks where they have to bid on different jobs/items! For the 2012-13 school year I am revamping this to something I saw on Pinterest and it came from First Grade Fanatics blog. The new color system has ways for the students to move up for outstanding behavior! Click link below...

Center Organization

I use my white board right next to my Guided Reading area to house my center organization chart. Everything is magnetic, which makes it easy to move around! I have the small center signs here and put the students picture cards next to them. Every day, I slide the center signs down and leave the student cards right where they are. I also have bigger center signs that match these that I hang around the classroom at each individual center. These really help the students find the centers much easier (especially at the beginning of the year)! I also have "Meet with Me" red cards for when I'm taking a particular reading group. If they see the red card they know to come to me (or my assistant) for Guided Reading.

 Classroom Library

"Lasso Up A Good Book!"

Little chairs, a comfy pillow, some stuffed animals, a soft light and of course...

Organized books to read! I use a dot system that I learned from my friend Rachel (a former colleague, which is still weird to say) over at Teaching with Z. These books are not organized by level, unfortunately, but each book has a home which I love. Most of these books were given to me over the years and when we tried to level them, it was nearly impossible. So, this was a way to organize my books so that the kids were not just putting them everywhere and keeps the library fairly clean and organized!

Writing Center

Large storage drawers for paper organization; small storage drawers for crayons, markers and colored pencils; the plastic container with the blue lid has dry erase strips with lines, mini erasers and dry erase markers for handwriting practice; and a container for Writing prompt ideas.

A bookcase with student dictionaries, folder walls; (missing from picture is a bin full of yellow highlighters); sharpened pencil bin and broken pencil bin; and of course tissues and hand sanitizer!

Overhead Center

 This is where we store the overhead. I only use it during centers, actually the kids use it during centers. They love it! They are responsible for rolling it out, plugging it in and cleaning up when they are finished. Almost any game/activity can be made for the overhead, simply run a copy on a transparency and you are ready to go!


My Area of the Classroom!

Here's my corner! I choose not to have a desk, so the table serves as my desk and my Guided Reading area. It helps to keep me organized, but I can promise you it doesn't usually look this clean each and every day!

 This bookcase holds my personal books, both children's books and teacher resource books. The gray magazine bins are how I organize my Guided Reading resources for each group. They now have labels for easy access. The blue baskets hold various Guided Reading materials like pointers, flashcards, highlighters, etc.

Here you can see some clear plastic drawers that I use for storage (post-its, paper clips, staples, pens, pencils, etc.), a smaller bookcase with more teacher resource books and on top of it is my very own printer/copier/scanner (donated by a parent when my old printer died). I love it and am so very grateful for the donation! You can see my computer and my teacher cart parked under it. Now let me tell you about that white board... I bought it for a great price and wanted to put it up on the wall behind my computer so that I could use it during Guided Reading if necessary. Well, I tried everything to keep it up on the wall (nails, 3M hooks, Velcro, clothespins, all of the above) and nothing would hold it. The janitor told me he would hang it, and needless to say, it never made it up on the wall. :(

I use my filing cabinet for many things too. I'm trying to keep myself organized anyway! I found the gray, magnetic file boxes at Target last year and just had to have them. Hopefully, I will use them more efficiently this year. The pink bin is where we store the Buckaroo's take home readers for the week. That way at the end of the week, we can go and put them back in our K-1 book room.

Here are the drawers that I store all my lesson plan materials in for the week. They are labeled Monday through Friday and have really come in handy! Now here's the bad news... I searched and searched for something with FIVE drawers so that I could do this. It took me FOREVER to find this! I would always find great four drawer or three drawer units, but not five drawer ones.  I like it, but if I ever find a more sturdy FIVE (heck, at this point even a six) drawer piece of furniture I will probably replace it. The only thing I dislike about it is that sometimes the drawers get too heavy and will fall off track. This drives me CRAZY!

I hope you enjoyed looking into my classroom! Please know that I change things each school year, even if it's just a tweak here or there. With that said, I'm sure there will be a few more pictures to come and I will try not to make the post be nearly as long as this one!