Swinging New Year Goals, Bucket Fillers, and more!

Hey there everyone!  We just finished our second full week of school and I. am. tired.  Why is it I always forget how tough the first month of so is?  I've been teaching first grade for 11 years and yet, I'm always shocked at how long it takes to do anything.  I guess I take for granted how far each group comes by June.  I just have to remind myself... it will get easier, they will get faster, and they will get more independent.  

We've busy building up independence for my version of literacy centers.  If you want to read more about how we do our independent reading checklist, click here.  We have established Read to Self, Read to Someone, and introduced the listening center.  They are doing really well and it has allowed me to chug though and finally finish all of my beginning of the year running record benchmarks.  Next week, my plan is to attempt our first checklist.  I'm only planning to do one reading group a day so that I can be available to troubleshoot and help out.  We'll see how it goes... the past two years, I tried to do too much myself on the first week and it ended up being a longer process to get the kids established.  This year, I'm hoping a more relaxed approach where I am more accessible will help the process along and allow students to develop their independence more quickly.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

We had Back to School Night on Tuesday night and it went very well.  We were busy doing special projects to share with parents and these were just a few of the cute things we did!  

Students write about their goals for the new year.  We also used this adorable craftivity from Valerie at All Students Can Shine.  

Goals for a "Swinging" New Year!

In first grade I want to do hard homework. 

In first grade I want to learn hard math and read long books.

They looked so adorable and colorful in the hallway and I got lots of compliments on the display.

Another great project we worked on were Our Bucket Fillers.  Of course, we read How Full is Your Bucket.  This lead to great discussions and lots of brainstorming of what we can do and already do that fill others' buckets.  If you are not familiar with the concept of bucket filling you need to check out the variety of books for children and adults that demonstrate the simple concept.  Students wrote about what they would do to be a bucket filler.  We used a wonderful freebie provided by Bucket Filler guru, Tiffany at One Fab Teacher.  I just modified her lines with white out to make them larger and with dotted midlines.  And I photocopied her beautiful colored clip art because I needed to save color ink.  Students used a gray square as their bucket, added a handle and face.  And then... the best part... glitter heart and star stickers to show their bucket full.  When I pulled out the glitter stickers, you might have thought I had shown them diamond jewelry.  It was hilarious!  I also used another freebie from Christie at First Grade Fever to add to the display.

I am a bucket filler because I raise my hand.

I am a bucket filler because I take care of my brother.

I'm setting a goal for myself to blog at least once a week.  I'm putting it out there for you all to see so that I feel accountable to follow though.  I'm also trying to remember to take more action shots.  I think I'm just so busy managing at this point, taking pictures is the last thing on my mind.   Thanks for stopping by!

First Days of School and Classroom Pics!

Whew!  I. Am. Exhausted!  What a week!  I got home from our vacation last Sunday, set up my classroom in record time and started school with a new bunch of firsties.  Tired doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.  I know, I know... preaching to the choir!

Anyway... I went in on Tuesday after Labor Day for our first in-service day.  All of my colleagues had already been in while I was on vacation.  (We are only allowed in during the last two weeks of August and coincidentally, that's when my family takes our vacation.  So I'm left with no choice but to bust my butt two days before the kids come to get it done.)  So I unlock my classroom door expecting to find everything similar to where I left it in June.  (You may remember I came in to set up my new classroom a bit in June.  I put up some bulletin boards and covered them and arranged the furniture.  I actually asked the custodians if I should take pictures of how I wanted it so that they could arrange it, but they told me not to worry they would.)  To my surprise... it wasn't.  I screamed a little in my head, set my boxes down and headed to our upper elementary school for a day of stimulating in-service, wink!  

This is what I arrived to see, Ahhhhhh!

So I arrived back to my school a bit after 3:30 to begin to tackle my room.  I worked until 8pm that night and again until 7pm the next day and these are pictures of the finished project.  I'm so happy with how it turned out!  I want to also give a thank you shout out to my mom!  I couldn't have done it without her!   (Please excuse the quality of the photos.  I'm not a great iPhone photographer.)

View from the door of the front of my classroom featuring my SmartBoard and my main teaching area. My desk is on the far side.  ( We are required to have our teacher's desks directly across from our door at the front of our classroom for technology reasons.)

A view from the door of the rest of my classroom.  

A closer view of the front window side of my classroom.  I love my animal print alphabet and number cards.  The alphabet cards are from my TPT store.  The number cards are from Peterson's Pad.

The front door side of the classroom with calendar, rules and schedule cards.  My How We Go Home clip chart is on the side of the cabinet, next to the door.

The back inside corner with lots of storage.  I need to put some curtains or something up to hide it, though because looking at the boxes is driving me nuts.  My behavior clip chart is on the closet door, too.  I'm loving my horseshoe shaped table-- never had one before!

Another shot of the back corner.  

The computer center- 2 laptops and 4 Chromebooks (I had one with me at training.)  The black wall above is our future word wall.

My classroom library... loving my great built in bookcases, too.

My desk area.

My desk- those that know me, note the lack of desk clutter!  Four days in and it still looks like this!  Woo hoo!  The pocket chart has daily objective on it.  

A closer view of the rules posters and schedule cards.

 A view of my door from the hall.  New rules per our wonderful fire inspector... nothing can be hung on the inside or outside of the door.  So my welcome pennant and student names are behind it when it is open.

So that's the quickie tour of 1G.  I'll post more about our first two days tomorrow... hopefully!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School Goals! (A month early)

Hey there!  

I'm linking up with I {Heart} Recess to share my goals for Back to School.  I still have a month before I really need to think about this but, that's okay!  So here it is!  I'm hoping if I put them out there, I'll be more apt to follow through with them.  Fingers crossed...

Personal:  Running is cheap therapy.  It helps me de-stress and I come home a happier, more peaceful wife and mommy.  Plus, fall is perfect running weather.  But, it has been very difficult to fit it in lately.  I need to start putting myself first sometimes.  I need to sign up for my next race so I'll be more accountable.  Do I go for the 10K that I've done before and I'm comfortable or take the plunge and go for the half marathon?  Thirteen miles just seems SO long!

Organization: Since I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers over a year ago, I've accumulated so many great resources.  Now, I just need to find a way to organize them better.  

Planning:  I WILL get back to having my lesson plans done before Friday morning for the next week.  Planning is not my forte... I admit it.  But this year, I will be co-teaching part-time with an inclusion teacher so I need to be prepared in advance so modifications and accommodations can be made for our diverse learners.  I want to be able to leave on Friday knowing that I am ready to rock on Monday morning.  

Professional:  I'm probably not alone in this one... If there is a committee to work on at school, I'm usually volunteering to get on it.  I am our school's rep to our local union.  I also served on our contract negotiations team.  I've written curriculum, served on text book selection teams, joined book clubs, and helped out various special events committees.  I need to find balance between home and work and say "no"  (at least some of the time).  

Students: I want to find more ways for my students to use technology on a daily basis.  We don't have iPads at my school, but we are going to have 4 Chromebooks in each classroom.  I'm still working on coming up with ways to utilize these besides just going to websites.  The apps are not as great for elementary school kids as the ones on iPads.  I'm hoping that I will get some great ideas, though.  

My Motto:  Start each day with a smile and make every day a great learning experience.  This is kind of a "duh"  but I do think a great attitude is half the battle.  We all know when we're in a bad mood, we are less patient and our lessons are more inclined to not be as effective.  

Thanks for stopping by!

First Day Picture Book (FREEBIE)

Hey there!  I posted a few weeks ago about how excited I was to use the Pete the Cat books for this year's back to school theme.  If you want to read my previous post, click here.  (It had a bunch of cool freebies!)

So I'm linking up with The Teacher's Chair to share my idea for Back to School read alouds.

Anyway, I'm excited to share this little baby.  I have used a much less cute version for years as a first day of school writing activity.  

So, what I have done in the past is make an anchor chart of how students (and teachers) feel on the first day of school.  Then, I model filling in the blanks with the student's name, he or she, and his/her feelings about the first day. Next, the students complete it (mostly) independently.  

When I used it after reading The Kissing Hand, I left the frame part empty and put each child's hand print in it.  Then, I took each child's picture and cut it into a heart shape.  Then I glued the picture onto the hand print.  I wish I had a picture,  but it's not an original idea.  (I got it back in the day, pre-pinterest, pre-blogger explosion, from some one's website.)  I laminated the pages and bound them as our first class book.  It's always a hit on Back to School Night!

For this year though, I'm going to take each child's picture holding my little stuffed Pete the Cat (bought it at Barnes and Noble).  I made the frame a little larger than 4x6 so our first day picture should fit nicely.  If you could use this for the first day, click here to download it for free.  There is a version for kindergarten and second grade, too.  It really could go with so many beginning of the year favorites.  

Don't forget that Tiffany (from One Fab Teacher) and I are planning an awesome celebration (some well-known and AWESOME bloggers are participating) for reaching our first big milestone.  Help us reach 100 followers by following both of us with Bloglovin'.  If you already have, thanks!  This has been an incredible ride!  Thanks for stopping by!

First Days Activities- Pete the Cat and a FREEBIE on Facebook!

Hey there, everyone!  I have a confession.  I have been doing the same first day of school activities for the past ten years... I know... with all of the great ideas out there, it's time to switch it up a bit!  I've done The Kissing Hand read aloud and themed activites for years.  I know it's more of a kindergarten thing... but I LOVE the story and when I started teaching first grade in my school, no one else in the school used it.  Then new kindergarten teachers joined the staff and suddenly my materials and ideas were not so original.  Since only one of my K colleagues used The Kissing Hand, I continued to use my stuff and tried to add some different things to make it different from what they may have done in K.  In reality, it's scary for me to try something new on the first day.  I had my Kissing Hand stuff down to a science.  I knew how long each activity would take and that the kids would have a great first day.  It was one less thing to worry about on a stress-filled day anyway.

But that all changes this year!!  Am I gonna worry?  Goodness, no.  Because the main character of our first day book and activities would just keep reading and working and singing a song.  Do you know what we'll be reading yet?

You guessed it... Pete the Cat.

Here are the purchases I made today to get the year off to a great start.

Don't you love the stuffed Pete- adorable!  I had to splurge and get him!

(Click on any of the pictures about to link to Amazon to order them.)

I've found so many great FREE activities to go along with the Pete books.  Please check out my Pinterest board for tons of great ideas.

Here is just one of the ideas I'm definitely going to be using compliments of Heather's Heart.  Click on the image to visit her blog and download this fantastic freebie.

And I can't wait to use this little treasure!  Hop on by Inspired By Kindergarten to download school tour cards.  I love using a character hunt to give the students a tour of the school... makes it so much more fun!  Click the cat to get your copy!

Here's another great freebie for I Love My White Shoes compliments of The Groovy Teacher.  Click the image below to visit Leslie's page to pick up this sequencing activity.  

I just know my new firsties are going to love starting the year with such a cool cat!  

And now for a FREEBIE from me!  I recently started up my facebook page and would love it if you would swing by.  You can also pick up an awesome soccer themed freebie perfect for the beginning of the year.  Just click on the Fans Only tab to get your freebie!  I will also throw in a copy of my Superhero Pal Math Centers for my first three new facebook fans.  Just like the FB page and come back here and leave your email address in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!