Classroom Reveal 2015!

Friday finished my 4th day of school. My class is so sweet! We played our first partner math game Friday and they did a great job! Everyone was cooperative and had lots of fun. Well, one pair had a slight disagreement but for the 4th day of school I was thrilled to see them playing so nicely with each other. 

I hadn't gotten around to posting pics of my finished classroom before school started so here they are today- better late than never, right? This year my classroom is decorated with frogs and yellow and lime green polka dots.

Sorry about the glare, it was the best I could do. The calendar pieces are little light and dark green frogs in an AB pattern.

I love the look of pennant banners for bulletin board headings to I made these in lime and yellow polka dots.

This is right behind my reading table. Everything I'll need for my small groups.

I love having stuffed animals in my room! They're so cute and later they'll be reading buddies for Daily 5.

That larger empty bulletin board is for writing.  This is where I'll post anchor charts and student work. We'll start Writer's Workshop tomorrow. I'm excited! Hopefully this group will love it as much as last year's. Closer up the banner looks like this. You can get it free- just click on the pic. I'd really appreciate if you'd leave a comment below too!

 We did our If You Take a Mouse to School writing. I love this because it's cute and fun and the kids really enjoy it! I go over how to do the whole thing and then let them work. It also tells me SO much about their abilities. It's one of my favorite assessments. You can read more about it {HERE}.

My mom paint kids hand to make these flowers. After school she painted each child's name above the flower. It gives kids a place to put their jackets and lunchboxes during recess. Plus it looks fun!

Thanks for taking a tour of my home away from home! Leave a link to your classroom photos in a comment and I'll be sure to stop by!

Off to plan the coming week. What else would I do on a Sunday afternoon?

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It's been a busy 9 days!

Whew... 9 days of school down. It's going well and I have a nice class this year. Thought I'd share some things we've done so far.

We made these the first week of school. My mom comes for 2 days to help and the kids make these people to look like themselves. I had a parent one year at Back to School Night say they looked creepy )-: I think they're cute. They sure are fun to do.

I enjoy reading If Take a Mouse to School. The kids have a page printed that says "If you take a mouse to school ____." They finish the sentence then color, cut out, and assemble the mouse from the story. We do this the first day and I won't help with spelling at all- kind of an assessment for me. I'll save them this year to put out at our spring Open House.

Oh, I love these projects! I bought the All About Me tees from Really Good Stuff. The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom coconut tree is an idea from Kim at http://www.kinderbykim.com/. She has great books. I love her math journal and am saving this as the first project for that.

I feel very lucky to have a friend who retired last year helping in class one day a week for the whole morning! She was there today and it was fabulous. We played a game I called "Stair Steps" that came from Math Work Stations. I should have brought it home to post... I'll try tomorrow. I didn't think of it till now. Anyway, it's the first math game we've tried and it was great. Kids were cooperative and followed directions. At least today they played the game and were then able to settle down for a lesson on patterning. I hope it stays this way.
We also did "Weekend Journals" for the first time. Weekend Journals are the only writing journal I use. I love having this to refer back to and to see students' progress. Most other writing I send home. The kids did very well. We all know how beginning first grade writing can be unreadable. I was pleasantly surprised at how many journals I could read. Woohoo!
All in all it was a pretty nice day.
Thanks for letting me share and for sharing all your great teaching too. Have a great day!

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