First Week Complete!

I can't believe that school has already started and we've already finished the first week of school! It's been such a whirlwind!

Does anyone else ever find it hard to connect with their new group at the beginning of the school year? A lot of times, I think back to my previous class who already knew all the routines and I had trained to be super fabulous and thinking about getting my new class to that point is a bit overwhelming. Well, this year that is not the case! As of today, I have twenty-five super amazing little seven-year-olds in my class. My husband keeps rolling his eyes at me because I come home every day raving about how amazing these kiddos are! I'm so excited for this school year - I can't even stop saying it! 

There was one day this week where we were practicing independent reading for small group reading. We flex group during this time, so I had a mix of students from other classes as well. We had gotten to the point of practicing and they were so good at it and I was so excited that I ran over to my camera and started taking pictures of them just sitting there. It was amazing. Ahhh! This year is going to be so fabulous!

Anyway, I thought I'd check in here to give you a peek at my classroom. I did a lot of work over the summer to clean it up and give it a real polished look.

Here's the hallway display! I love, love displaying their work with clips. Especially since I don't have an actual bulletin board. It is seriously time consuming to have to display word on cinder blocks without clips!

This is my objectives board. Our team decided to call them learning targets. This was before school started and I ran out of mounting tabs, so I only put one objective up. Hopefully you get the idea!

Here are our classroom rules. I shared these a while ago, but they are up right now. I'm super excited about them, especially now that I've seen them in action. Rule #5 is probably my absolute favorite to see during the day. You can purchase my rules here!

This is the other side of my board. It's where I post my weekly posters, the sounds that we're learning about this week and our vocabulary words for the week. I'm still on the fence about whether I'm going to put math vocabulary in the math section or something else.

Here's a wide view of the front of our classroom. All of our classrooms were fitted with TeamBoards this summer which has been awesome. There's also a final board on the left that I can't find a close picture of. On that board, we record our test scores and make goals for future testing.

Next up - my updated word wall! I went through and recreated my word wall letters and words. I had to force myself to do it since I had spent quite a bit of time doing it last year also, but the kiddos just needed bigger words and letters so they were visible. Please excuse the fact that I have B words listed under E. I have no idea why I put them there!

Every year, we get a small budget to purchase new items for our classrooms. This year, I purchased these bins to give the area above our backpacks a more clean look. I love how it turned out. We store our community school supplies and student math manipulatives in the bins.

This was another fun summer project. This classroom wall used to be an exterior wall. Now it butts up to the office's conference room. For some reason, when they made the switch, they decided to simply paint what used to be a window. This summer, we added some cork board to make it more functional. Our school has a Pride Board that features outstanding work from one student in each class. I wanted to give the kids in my class more of an opportunity, so this is one just for our room.

This is my small group reading board to help me keep organized. I decided to laminate paper this year for listing the kids in each group instead of printing the group lists. I want my groups to be flexible, so this makes it much easier. I can just erase whenever I need to make a change.

I'm going to need to train a student to switch these each day because I'm so bad at remembering to, but I love how this looks! You can find the free, editable schedule cards here from Kelli! They come in a whole bunch of colors.

Here's a view of my reading table area. It was still a little messy when I took the picture.

Here's a view of my desks. Each student has their own cup to keep their everyday supplies. All their other supplies either go in their 'art box' (read: pencil box that I don't want them playing with all day) or in our community supply bins.

I got the idea of the numbers and letters from The Brown Bag Teacher. Her info probably describes it much better than I can, but I'll let you know some of the ways I plan to use this tool. I call helpers from each table all the time. Each of my tables as a number 1, 2, 3, and 4 to make it easier to get a volunteer from each table. It also lets me organize students if I want them to discuss with their group. If I want them to share their answer, I can tell them that number 2's get to share first. The As and Bs are the same idea, but they are for when students word with a single partner at their table. I can let them know that partner A gets to talk first or partner B.

Finally, here are two shots 'whole' classroom shots.

So that's my classroom this year! What do you think?

A Work In Progress

Today, I'm linking up with Kim from KinderGals for their Workin' On It Wednesday series. While I am nowhere near as organized as Kim is this summer, I really should be!

This week, I went into school for summer school training. I'm feeling the pressure to get things done even more this year because I will be teaching summer school in my own classroom beginning in July. There is so much to do and so little time since I will be off visiting Charleston for six of the eighteen days I have left. 

This summer, all the classrooms in our school are being installed with TeamBoards which is super exciting! Because the installers will need to do some work on our white boards and such, I needed to take everything off of my walls and I decided to hold off on switching the fabric on my side bulletin boards!

So, here is my to do for the picture above:

- Recreate reading focus wall on left

- Create goal setting board on the right

- Create math focus wall wherever there is leftover room after my TeamBoard is added

- Move classroom rules to under the white board

I think I saw class rules in the space under a white board in a blog or on Pinterest. I love the idea! When there aren't desks pushed to the middle of the room for summer cleaning, this are is our gathering spot. Under the board would be a perfect spot for quickly reviewing rules with friends.

Above and below are the two areas that need the most work, and I don't even know if I am at the point where I can make a to do list for them. The area above looks different during the school year. The students put their backpacks along this wall, and the shelves are rearranged in the right two cubbie areas to create our library. But I want to cut our library down a bit. I also want to make sure that all my buckets on the shelves match and get rid of the ribbon word wall. I just don't know where to move the word wall!

Below is where my small group table usually sits. This area needs some revamping as well. The two bulletin boards back here do not have any specific purposes. Part of me wants to make the word wall on this super tall board, but it's really not where most of my students can see. Dilemmas!

As of right now, my last project is my small group seating. I made super cute crates, but they are a few years old now and breaking. I can't decide if I want to make them again or come up with another option. I saw these at Target today and thought they'd be super cute too! Price wise, though, I can't decide.

Aside from normal summer school prep, that's what I'm working on!

I'm also working on my own link-up for the summer - Sell It Saturdays! We had our first one last weekend. Be sure to stop by this Saturday and link up with a product you are selling on TPT!

Class Update and New {School} Year Resolutions

It's been a few days since I've posted. I've been super busy in the classroom. Last post I showed a few preview photos to show off what I was working with, but now I'll get to show off the (near) finished look. It's basically just the bare bones as I have not gotten any posters or displays up, but the walls are done, and it's coming together nicely.

This is how it started.

This is how it looks now! I love it!

Another before picture - other wall.

New and improved wall!

Better view of my future class library.

But updating the walls isn't the only thing I've been doing. I've been adding details to help make the room more organized and/or inviting - depending on the detail.

A tablecloth gives the table a completely different feel! It really warms up the entire room so much!

These crates are due to be turned in to seats. They'll double as storage. A trip to Home Depot and Hobby Lobby are in the works for today.

Each set of five students gets their own shelf to store book boxes and other odds and ends I don't want in their desks.

So, those are some of the things that I've been working on. I have a bunch more little projects that will hopefully be the final touch. I also need to put stuff on the wall. That will definitely be a process, but I know I need to find space for my Daily 5 and CAFE boards. I will need a writing board. I had a word wall last year; we'll see where that goes. I'm sure that I'll eventually be running out of room.

Finally, I'm linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness for her New {School} Year Resolutions. Here it goes!

Number One: Stay organized! It's especially important because I got rid of my desk. I'll be using my Guided Reading table as my main spot, plus a shelf in the room for office supplies that I will be 'sharing' with my friends. Number Two: Plan! Last year I was so overwhelmed that planning was difficult. Don't get me wrong - I did plan, but it wasn't done as far in advance as I would have liked. Number Three: Guided Math. I was on and off and on and off with Guided Math last year. I loved it. My friends loved it, but (probably because of Number Two) I never was able to consistently do it due to planning constraints. Number Four: Take on some school projects. I'm putting this as a resolution, even though I kind of have already started. In theory - as long as no one else decides they want it - I'll be taking over Box Tops and Yearbook this year. So exciting, but I like being involved in things. And last, and probably the oddest one: Number Five: Stay late. What?! No really. My little puppy was so small last year - and still learning how to control his bladder, so I'd have to race home once our teacher hours were over so I could make it to let him out before he made a mess in my kitchen. Now, he's almost a year old (his birthday is on Tuesday!) and he is almost a pro. Still the occasional mess, but he's able to make it an extra hour or two by himself. But he's trained me to come home right away, so it's a habit I'll need to break. I don't need to stay late everyday - I don't want to stay late everyday - but I need to remember if there is something I want to stick around and finish, it's okay. Okay, I think that's it. I promise next post will be from my First Year Advice From a Second Year Teacher series. It won't be until next week though because we're going camping this weekend. Oh joy!
Until next week!

Caution: Work Zone

We finally were allowed back in our classrooms this week - although I don't think our principal anticipated how many of us would want to be back. We have twenty-four teachers grades 1-5, and at least six of us showed up and started working on our rooms for a few days this week. A few others stopped in just to grab something too. It is four weeks before school starts, so I kind of understand why she wasn't expecting so many of us, but I have so much to do!

I think I've mentioned it already, but this year I am changing grades and rooms. Lots of work - especially since the room I've been put in has seen a number of teachers in the last few years and has amassed quite the collection of things. We're talking teachers' guides, manipulatives, games, programs, anything and everything under the sun. Other teachers in my building tell me I should keep it, but I ended up getting rid of a lot of it. I don't follow the 'you never know if you could use it' belief system that many teachers do. My thoughts are more along the line of - if you think it's going to be stuffed in the closet (which I don't have) all year long, get rid of it. I did keep a number of things, but only things I know that I'll use.

One thing I found while cleaning/organizing my things...

... one of my little friend's erasers! I had to smile when I found it because I was just posting about it. You'll notice the lovely pencil holes, the chunks missing (from biting it?), and all the pencil marks around the holes. Quite the effective eraser.

This week, I've been working to tackle the ambiance of the room. A fancy word for what I hope will be a fancy room. Below are pictures of what I had to work with. Depending on what side of the room I look at, I feel like I'm in two completely different rooms. This isn't exactly how it started off, but close. We had already taken down some borders and moved desks around by the time I took these pictures.

This side of the room makes me feel like I'm in a different decade! That orange cabinet and that orange counter back... and the red shelves! Yikes! Not to mention the yellow butcher paper everywhere!

Would you have guessed this is part of the same room? Well it is! If I understood the previous teacher correctly, some of these walls were already covered when she got in which is why none of the panels match...

Well, I went in on three days this past week, and I have to say that I didn't get too much done until the last day. The first two days were mostly spent taking things down on one side and debating how much money I want to put into redoing the walls. (In case you are wondering, I found fabric at a amazingly low price - some at Wal-Mart and some at Hobby Lobby - and ended up getting enough for most of the walls.) The last day, I was finally ready to start putting up the fabric on the mismatched wall. My grandma has also been helping me get things ready. She's been tackling those interesting red shelves. In all reality, they may not have been so terrible if they matched the look I am going for.

We've been covering the shelves with wood contact paper. This is where my library will be.

The mismatched wall now matches! I still need to put borders up though. The other wall will have a similar color.

Not much progress here, but you can see the shelves in the background, and we're covering the orange cabinets with the wood contact paper.

I haven't done too much more this week. My poor pup has been sad that I've been at school all day, so when I get home, I spend time with him - or nap. One thing I did do is my school supply list. I'm so excited for it! It's not even that exciting, but I got the idea last year and it was too late to use it. Now I can! I don't know about you, but the kids in my school show up with various combinations of what is written on the school supply list. Just about everyone has something missing. I tried to encourage kids to bring in missing materials, but since it was my first year, I'll admit I wasn't always the most organized with that kind of thing. This year, I'm sending home slips asking parents to send in the missing supplies.

I'm sure this will work better than what I did last year - since I did nothing last year - but we'll see how much better it works. This list is tailored to my school supply list, but if you'd like to use it, feel free! You can download it by clicking here. If you'd like a copy without the little owl, shoot me an email. I made her the other day and think she's so stinkin' cute! She'll be on my name tags, also!
More projects to come! Leave some comment love!