Five for Friday - Back to School Style!

WOW!

First week back to work complete.

I am exhausted!

How is it that an experienced teacher can never be completely prepared for the physical and emotional back-to-school demands?

I set up my room the first week in August. I lesson planned for the first weeks and have my year long plans done. I started waking up at 5:00 a.m. a week ahead of time. I was taking about 10,000 steps each day during my final weeks of summer.

And still, I came home from the community cookout and scrimmage last night feeling a lot like this:

I seriously limped to bed. :-(

Anyway, let me give you a peek at my week Five for Friday style!

Thanks Kacey for this weekly link-up!

1

The Christian Teachers Facebook Group leaders have put out a prayer journal for this school year (started Monday). It is based off of Psalm 119 and covers four verses a week. I'm accepting the challenge to memorize it! I love this app for practicing my memory verses. 

2

Monday morning it was back to work for inservice. It was plagued with technology issues. Ugh! I felt so bad for our administrators who had planned good things, but nothing was working correctly. One of the drawbacks of a small school...no full-time tech person. I did manage to score some goodies though! Can't wait to read this book!

3

No tech person means we have get to do a lot of techy stuff ourselves. I had an issue with my computer/projector connection all last year, so they promised me this Google Cast thingy would solve my problem. I was a bit skeptical, but happy to report that it did solve the problem after I spent an hour installing it and setting it up. I fear it will only work when our internet is working though. Can anyone confirm that?

4

Thursday was our first day of school, so of course, I had to make my kids get in a picture with me! He's a junior. She's a sophomore. Me...well, I'm a 2nd grader (year seven).

Also, from the first day of school, my students working/playing with their morning tubs. 

This is new for me this year, but so far I'm liking it. We have our morning meeting in the gym, students come to my room and do their lunch count, check their GO (getting organized) book, and then head to breakfast (if they choose to). The morning tubs keep the non-breakfast eaters busy and encourage the breakfast eaters to be quick! I rotate the tubs each day and as the year progresses, I'll add different activities. The first few weeks, we are sticking to Legos, Play-Doh, and Pattern Blocks.

5

Day two (yesterday) we started building our stamina for Daily 5. The students did 3 minutes really well, so they wanted to try 4. It really went better than I expected based on some of my littles this year!

We are also building our stamina for school right now. This bunch is doing pretty awesome in the morning. The afternoons are a little rougher, but we will get there I'm sure. So thankful that our administration agreed to a morning and afternoon recess PLUS our kiddos get PE every day. :-)

I even got things done during my PLAN time (if you've followed us long, then you may remember I did not have a plan time during the school day the last three years) so I do not have to go work at the school today! I think I'll go up for a few minutes just to make a video classroom tour for you though. We'll have to see the how the day goes. ;-)

Have a great weekend!

First Official Day!

Today was our first official day back and I have to say that I am already exhausted physically and mentally.  I am thinking of the millions of things that I need to get done before those kiddos walk in that door on Thursday.  I decided that since I was feeling the stress (which I'm sure I'm not alone on that) I would share some cute no teacher ever said quotes.  Maybe if you are feeling stressed as well, this may give you a little laugh and relax you some.  Here they are:

There are many more of these out there but thought these were cute.  I hope if you are feeling stressed this helped a little.  :-)

On another note, we are so excited to be featured in the K-2 Back-to-School eBook! Thanks to Deanna Jump for putting it together! It is filled with back-to-school tips and links to freebies from each contributor. Be sure to check it out! 

Hope you have a stress free week!

Classroom Tour and First Day Activities

I'm happy to report that my second day teaching K music was much better. There was no jumping off benches, rolling around on the floor, or banging on instruments. There still may have been a couple of boys plugging their ears and refusing to participate, but at least they were sitting/standing in their own space! I'm thinking baby steps...

 

Anyway, I finally got around to snapping pictures of my "completed" room (I have already rearranged the desks once) and I thought I'd give you a peek at a couple of our first day activities in 2nd grade.

 

When the students came in on the first day (last Thursday), they had an All About Me page waiting for them. I found this (via Pinterest) here. AMAZING amount of FREE printables on this site so be sure to check it out. Here's how some of mine turned out:

 

 

I always read David Goes to School on the first day to introduce our rules. I used this craftivity and writing freebie from Angie Neal. I always think it is funny to see how they turn out so different...

 

This Back to School Fun Packet from Smiling in Second Grade was waiting for them to start on when they come in Monday morning.

 

 

Now for the tour of my VERY small room...warning - lots of pics!

 

View from the door looking right.



View from the door looking straight ahead.

Wall of bookshelves to the left of the door.

My reading "nook." And yes, I sewed the pillowcases (don't look too close)!

 

 

Here's my desk area...first year without a teacher's desk. Still working on getting organized!

Eventually this will be where the kiddos do Listen to Reading...and also where my paras can work with students.

Mountain Math/Language sheets. I copied them front to back...we will do one sheet each day M-Th to finish the chart page (see below).

 

 

Calendar Area with those famous cupcakes...it is fun seeing them pop up on Pinterest!

Here's my board...all ready using our freebie Morning Routine posters. Check our TPT store. I tried to link, but TPT must be having  a problem right now.

Here's another look of that writing bulletin board from A Cupcake for the Teacher. The giant pencil is from The Teacher Wife. I also sectioned off an area of my whiteboard for math charts.

This wall of white board has been devoted to writing and reading. I have the names of our class written here for easy access - thanks Tammy at Forever in First for the idea. I've got my reading and writing goals posters - pinterest inspired. The baggie next to them has pencils and books ready with student numbers to add to the posters. I also have my Daily 5 anchor charts on this board...you can see the Read to Self one. The others just have the titles waiting until we introduce them.

Another peek at my reading focus wall. Technically this pic should have been by the calendar, but Blogger is having a fit...

Mailboxes, lunch check-in, and homework club...



Job chart!

Kansas Jayhawks! My son made that for me. I wonder how many days until basketball season... The poster was left by the former teacher and I just liked it. :-)

Have a great week! I'm exhausted already!

 

New Appreciation for Kindergarten Teachers!!!

If you would have asked me how the first day of school was today at 1:29 p.m. I would have said, "It was my best first day ever!"

 

Then came 1:30...

 

...and Kindergarten music class.

*Remember I'm teaching 2nd grade and K-2 music this year.

 

I wondered why I didn't have any back-to-school "nightmares" this year. Obviously, it was because I would be living one for 20 minutes today. Ha!

 

You know those dreams where the kids are out of control and won't listen to you...

 

Yep! That was me today in Kindergarten music.

 

All I can say is Kindergarten teachers are amazing!!! I mean, I knew that already, but I didn't really know that (with first-hand experience if you know what I mean).

 

In fact, I'm pretty sure this picture should say "I teach K...What's your super power?"

 

 

I have a new plan for tomorrow and it includes "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Couch Potato Pokey" which I'm hoping praying will capture the attention of those little 5-year-olds.

 

Nightmare aside, my new bunch of 2nd graders (and even the firsties in music) were great! It was a fun day in my new school...and best of all, when I was so exhausted I just needed to get out of there, I was home in about one minute! ;-)

 

Oh, and if you have advice for dealing with Kinders, I'd love to hear from you!

 

First day with those little ones!!

Ok, can I say it..........I'm tired :-).  I had my first day with my new little kiddos.  It is so much fun to see how excited they are about coming back to school.  They get excited about every little thing....which is awesome!!

 

I don't know about you, but every year I get very nervous for the first day of school.  I have been doing this for 15 years and you would think it would get better.  The night before, I can't sleep and in the morning before the kids come in my stomach gets in knots.  So, today was no different....stomach in knots and couldn't sleep much the night before.  After it was all said and done, it was a good day!!  :-)

 

I will say that I am very tired and I'm sure the little kiddos are as well.  We have our Back to School Night tonight, so I'm sure when I get home I will crash and be able to sleep. 

 

I hope all of you are having a great year so far if you have started and for those who haven't started, I hope you get rested up before you do start back up. 

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST DAY BACK AND BATHROOM PROCEDURES!

Today is the first day to report back to school for the year, at least for me.  Crystal still has like another month off!!  LOL!!  Not really that long but she does have most of this week off. 

 

 I am excited to start another year with a bunch of little kiddos.  I have tried to get as organized as I possibly can here at home because I know how very exhausted I will be by the end of the week.  It is amazing how we teach most of the year and get a couple of months off and then it takes us at least me forever to get back into the swing of things.  I am always so exhausted by the end of the week.

 

I will be starting with the kids on Thursday and will have 1/2 a day with them and then a full day on Friday.  I'm sure that by the weekend I will be ready to rest up.  :-)

 

You know how before the first day of school, you have like a million things on your mind....thinking of everything you need to do and hoping you don't forget anything!!  Well, one thing that I know I need to figure out quickly is my bathroom situation.  Last year, I had bathrooms in my classroom and loved them.  Unfortunately, this year I lost them because I moved rooms.  I was curious what your bathroom procedure is if you don't have a one in the classroom.  I have been trying to decide how I will manage this since I no longer have them in the classroom.....I am going to miss those bathrooms!