My Classroom & Our First Weeks

A Peek into my classroom. First of all, I hope to take more pictures soon... Some close ups on the different areas but for now I took a few pictures to use on my school website to update from last years. Here's the view from all four corners of the room (again, I apologize it's hard to see anything up close):

First week of School.  Can you believe we've been back for almost 3 weeks?! I can't believe how it flies by. Every year seems quicker and quicker!  Here's a few anchor charts we created in our first couple days as we tried getting back into the routine of school!

First Day Jitters.

Even though some kids have heard the story before... I like to read First Day Jitters to help remind them that even the teacher is nervous on the 1st day of school!

So cute! Especially because our school is SO small there's really only two hallways. One for the K-1 and the other is 2-4!

Dream Jobs. In the first few days we also like to brainstorm our 'Dream Jobs' to help emphasize that my students' current job is 'school' and they have to work hard to be 3rd Grade All-Stars so they'll be one step closer to finishing grade school, middle school, high school, and hopefully onto a technical, 2-year, or 4-year school to help in pursuing their Dream Job.

Each student then created a 'craftivity' for our bulletin board showcasing their Dream Job!

Choosing Books. As every teacher knows, helping students correctly choose their books will help them as a reader leaps and bounds!  We review the different ways they choose books and then work towards making sure their choices are 'Just-Right' or a Good Fit for them at this time.  

Setting up Rules & Expectations. Each year we work to create the rules and expectations together. We brainstorm different ideas that will help them to do their best learning in the classroom as well as being safe. We then incorporate each idea into our classroom Behavior Slips.

Finished 'Thinking Journals'.  In a previous post I was working on each students' Thinking Journal that we'll use for small group work in reading and responding to reading/writing and they're finally done!!

Open House/Parent Night. In just a couple days we have our Open House/Parent Night and I can't wait to see &/or meet the families again! Each year I try to incorporate a little goodie for my families that are able to come back after hours and help support their child's education. I found an idea on Pinterest. Of course!  Also liked this idea because it incorporated a 'healthy treat' with all our new FDA laws/recommendations I figured an apple would be better than something sweet!  They were easy to assemble too!

Pinterest idea.

Used twine I had instead of buying ribbon.

Printed tags from the 'Printed Press' blog and signed my name. I'll try to attach the link... if I can figure that out?

All ready for Thursday's Parent Night!!

 Well. It's been a FAST three weeks. This is just some of it in a nut shell. I'm hoping to get better at juggling all this new curriculum as well as keeping things updated. One. Step. at. a. Time!