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Monday, August 27, 2012

A Pick Me Up!

Today was definitely a Monday, and seeing this helped me to have a 
better attitude! Another teacher in my building sent this to us, knowing that we all needed a little pick me up after those first few days of school. Everyone needs a little reminder every now and then!


She originally found it on Pinterest, but you can find it here.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Math Activity and a Funny Story

We finished our Laura Numeroff unit this week. My students saw that there were other books by her that we didn't read, and of course that was all they could talk 
about all afternoon. They BEGGED for me to buy the books so they could read them.

Check out this math activity from the Jennifer Tice's Laura Numeroff unit
I was so excited about how well they all did!


So now to my funny story of the day:
After recess, one of my students was picking rocks out of his shoes. Later, he comes up to tell me that he has a rock in his ear. I checked, and sure enough, there was one of the small rocks that are on our playground! I asked him how it got there and he said he put it there! Poor kid told me that he was having trouble hearing, and that's when he figured it was probably a bad idea. They got it out though, so it ended up ok! 

Happy weekend! Mine will be spent leveling the books in our classroom. Yay for weekend days spent in the classroom! Maybe one day I won't have to do that anymore.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

If You Give A...

This week, my class has been doing a mini-unit on Laura Numeroff. We read 
If You Take a Mouse to School on the second day, and they LOVED it! So I decided to 
continue with her wonderful books! 

Yesterday, we read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and my kiddos did a writing activity on it today. They loved telling me about their favorite cupcake!




How adorable are those?! With Common Core pushing writing so hard, I will do any activity that gets my kids excited about writing!

You can find this unit here. It had 2 writing activities, 2 math activities, 
and a graphing activity. So great!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

First Week Crazies

I feel like I have now had 4 first days of school. I had hoped that by this point, 
my kids would at least know to take the things out of their backpack before they put it in their locker. But we are just not there yet.

Some good news: 
I have been assessing my kids to see where we are starting, and we are in great shape!

I only have 22 little angels in my class! (The kinder teachers in my building all have 28 or 29--too many! Say some prayers that they can add another teacher to their team!)

Everyone in my building is wonderful. My team has been extremely helpful and the rest of the staff always make me feel welcome.


The bad news:
My kids remember nothing from one day to the other. You would think I got a new set of students every day. I guess they just aren't in the school mindset yet!

My kids think they are outside 90% of the day--running, jumping, and spinning in circles for no reason! That made my comfy, relaxing reading area go from looking like this...


to this.


I guess I should have known that it wouldn't last long. We'll see if I get around to putting it back up anytime soon!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Survival Mode

The first day of school is officially done! It was thirty different kinds of hectic but--I survived! My kids were wonderful and so excited to be there! Look at this precious Pinterest gift that one student gave me! They look so cute and brighten my day every time I look at them.

Thank goodness for the teaching blog world! It supplied me about 90% of the activities that my firsties did today! We did the First Day Jitters activities from Anna Brantley at Crazy for First Grade. And the kids LOVED it! They were so surprised by the ending of the book!

I got this page from one of the other first grade teachers. It was the perfect way for the students to reflect on their day, and a great way to fill the awkward 20 minutes between specials and the end of the day.


For those of you who start school on a Monday, I don't know how you do it. After this short two day week, I will definitely be ready for the weekend!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

First Day Excitement

I am BEYOND excited for my first day. I thought that I was excited before, but after meeting my kiddos tonight, I am so much more excited!

Our PTO was WONDERFUL to us today! Since we had to be at school from 8-6, they provided lunch and treats. How cute are these cookies?!



Aaaaadorable!

Say some prayers that I survive my first, first day of school!!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Meet the Teacher

It seems like the time I've had in my room has flown by. Meet the Teacher night is tomorrow! I am so excited to meet my students! Thank goodness for the teachers on my team. I would be so lost without their help. 

With all of the wedding festivities this weekend, I was pretty useless the last few days. Somehow I managed to end up with no pictures of myself and my sister at her wedding--but she looked beautiful!


Today, our staff met to talk about Common Core. Overwhelming to say the least. But after our team planned out some units for the year, I am so excited about it!  Now all I have to do is survive Meet the Teacher night and the first day of school and I'll feel so much better!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Completed Classroom!

So first off, I feel like it has been YEARS since I posted.  This last week in my room has felt like the biggest whirlwind.  My mom, younger sister, and cousin have been helping me in my room the last few days.

On top of that, my AMAZING sister has been helping everyday that I have been there--even though she gets married in 36 hours! So needless to say, things have been hectic.

But thanks to all of this, my room has gone from this...




to this!






My wonderful sisters helping out!



Now I can focus on curriculum and lessons, aka the reason I am there in the first place! :)


But for now, I will have a weekend of wedding fun, then I can refocus on Monday!