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!

Who, Where, Why, When, What???

Happy Saturday everyone! 

I just finished my first week back to work--and wow--I am tired! 

So glad Kristi picked up the slack and blogged EVERY day. 

Can you believe it?

I'm going to chime in here (and link up with Blog Hoppin') with what may be picture overload, but hey...I know I love picture-filled posts so here goes...

This is me and hubby--attempting to take a selfie. We need a little work, I think. :-)

We've been married almost 18 years! We were "high-school sweethearts" except we didn't go to the same high school. We met at church. We have lived in the same small-town area all of our lives--except when we went to Phoenix, AZ for hubby to go to school at UTI. Talk about culture shock! Still miss the weather there though--loved it!

Here's our kids on the first day of school:

Last year, I started teaching at the elementary school I attended for K-6. One of the things I love about it is how close I am to work...

Now for a peek in my classroom...

Now remember I said this is where I went to elementary school...SMALL classrooms. When I went here, we had combo classes (1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, and 5th/6th) and there were only 6-8 kids in a classroom! Now the two towns that make up our district combine for K-2 here in my town and 3-12 in the other town.

I only have 16 students this year! Hooray!

Last year with 23 it was so crowded!

Here's just a couple close ups because I really didn't change a whole lot this year. You may have seen these birthday cupcakes that took Pinterest by storm last year...

These are the same ones! All I did was swap out the candles. If you want directions on how I made them, see this post from last year. Weird Side Note--my class has no summer birthdays (the one in July is mine) and I have two different sets of two students with the same birthdays.

As far as decorations go, this is really it. I added "Seuss Club" which is really Mastery Club. I found the editable documents in the pack were not very user-friendly--but here is what I came up with...

I will put stars on their name tags as they complete a challenge. When they get 16 stars, we will move their name tag below the Hall of Fame words and add their picture. I love the idea of this, and I really think my kids are going to enjoy it. 

For the why of my post, glance back up at the pictures with my desk groups. Each group is a color team. You will notice the blue team has blue book boxes, but down below they also have a team tub of supplies and a math tub. I started this last year and it works so much better for me. There is less waiting to get out supplies. This year, I also added dots to my desks inspired by this pin (click the pick to go to Owl-ways Be Inspired and read about them):

I love these dots! In two days of school, I have already used them several times. For example, I might say, "Green dots get your team's supply bucket out," or "Yellow dots please come help me pass these out." LOVE IT!!!!

Also loving that I got rid of my job chart, but I'll post more about that later.

Now here's a peek at my schedule:

All I can say is that I can't wait to actually be using this schedule! The first two days were...well, you know. Basically a list of things I hoped to accomplish! 

Finally, what I love to teach...I don't even know how to pick just one thing! I absolutely love teaching--and I love my new class! Thursday was by far my easiest first day--ever. :-)

Schedule Tweaking...

Well, I made it through my first full week last week! That said, I'm oh, so thankful for this Labor Day! I definitely needed the extra day to rest and relax. I spent some time playing volleyball with my kids--in the pool and out of the pool, baking Banana Oatmeal cookies for hubby, and making sure all the laundry was done for the new week.

 

I also ran out of coffee...this is not good. Those of you who have read our blog very long know that I have a "coffee drink" every morning. You may be thinking...go to the store! Well, I live about 25 minutes from the nearest grocery store and I didn't want to make the trip. I did call the gas station and found out that a small can of coffee would be $6.29. Um, no thank you. I will survive...maybe!

Last week was all about getting used to my schedule...which looks like this on paper:

7:40 Contract time begins

8:00-8:30 Plan time*

8:30-10:00 Reading*

10:00-10:30 Recess*

10:30-11:40 Math

11:40-12:10 Lunch*

12:10-12:40 Writing Workshop*

12:40-1:00 Science/Social Studies

1:00-1:30 MTSS (or RTI if you aren't in Kansas)

1:30-1:50 Kindergarten Music

1:50-2:10 1st Grade Music

2:10-2:30 2nd Grade Music

2:30-3:00 Snack/Story/Pack-Up*

3:00-3:30 Plan time*

3:50 Contract time ends

All those little * mean something, of course, so let me explain...

First plan time from 8:00-8:30 with no secretary (praise the Lord I think we have one now) who is also the nurse means one of those mornings, I spent that plan time in search of ice packs and baking soda paste for two of my little sweeties who were stung by wasps on the playground.

At 8:30, we meet in the gym and say the pledge and have any morning announcements before stopping by our lockers and then heading to class which means I don't have nearly enough time to teach reading. This is something I'm going to see about tweaking...

Recess - Each of us takes one week of recess duty at a time so I haven't had duty yet and I don't this week either. Woohoo! That being said, I think when I have duty it is going to be rough not having that little break!

Lunch is not so much lunch as it is getting ready for music. :-(

Writing Workshop doesn't start on time because of a restroom break after lunch...

Snack/Story/Pack-up should really just be called chaos. I HATE strongly dislike this time of day. I tried reading the story while they are eating their snack, but they are just done and ready to go home so I feel like I'm wasting my breath. However, the reading prevents the talking. Beginning next week (not tomorrow), we are starting Mission Possible Math with our "calendar time" so I am strongly considering moving it to this time of day. The kids will be busy with something they enjoy...we will see.

 

And then plan time again...which after that crazy afternoon schedule is more like sit and stare at the wall time, trying to get up the energy to think about planning.

 

As I read back over this, I realize it sounds very...negative. So let me tell you the positives of my new school and schedule.

 

1. My new teaching team and I are having a lot of fun together!
2. Small school - means the "team" includes everyone. Everyone pitches in to help out when needed.
3. No morning duty (unless someone gets stung by a wasp).
4. Did I say small school?
5. Fitting reading AND math into my morning.
6. You guessed it! Small school!
7. The morning meeting in the gym... There are only around 60 students in the entire school. It is pretty neat when we are all saying this school pledge:

 

Today, I will try my best,

to do my best.

I will listen.

I will follow directions.

I will respect the rights of other people.

I can learn.

I will learn.

Say it, and do it!

*Pam and Debbie - Forgive me if I messed it up. I'm still learning!

 

Sorry, no pictures...that shows how my week went. I will try to do better this week! We have started Read to Self, Word Work, and Read to Someone. We're going to keep practicing them this week before adding our other Daily 5 components. This week we're starting our reading series--2008 Reading Street. I'm so excited about this website I found with LOADS of resources for it!

 

Have a great 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!

 

First Full Week of School!

Yay....we made it through the first full week of school!  We had an awesome week and the kiddos are already starting to get into a routine.  Although, I will say that I believe that they were extremely tired along with me yesterday. 

 

I was very excited because we learned our first math game and played it with a partner.  It was our first partner activity so I was a little worried and nervous about how they would do with it.  They did an outstanding job!  They played it just like I would have wanted them to play.  Each student stayed on task and played nicely with his/her partner.  Therefore, I was very happy that they are already able to work with a partner nicely.  Of course, we have such great kindergarten teachers that they train them so well to do all of this stuff already!  Check them out!

 

 

I was also excited because this is the first year that I am trying to incorporate some Whole Brain Teaching.  I have taught a few things to them so far, but by far my favorite one is the Hands and Eyes.  This has so far been such a great way to redirect them if they aren't focused in on what I am teaching.  I am excited to incorporate more Whole Brain Teaching as the year goes on.

 

Next week, I will have a tour of my classroom and will be posting some pictures.  I found some really good ideas on pinterest that I incorporated in my classroom this year to help with some organizing.  It has worked out well for me. 

 

Hope all of you have a great weekend!