Collaborative Phonics Graffiti

As we return to the school in the second week after break, I think it would be good to get back into blogging. I took a short hiatus at the beginning of the school year to fight a bout of appendicitis, but I look forward to documenting my adventures throughout the remainder of the year. Today I wanted to share the phonics "graffiti" that we created today. Each table was given a color crayon to represent themselves as a team. Each table was also given a poster with a phonics sound. The students worked together as a table to write as many words as they could think of that fit the phonics sound. After one minute, the posters were rotated and the next table would add words to the poster. At the end, each table had written on each poster in their own color so that we could see which tables wrote which words. It was really great to see all of the words students came up with!

Math Tools Exploration

This year I am so lucky to have a large crew of English Language Learners in my class. They present the most unique opportunity of introducing children to a new language, new content, and new methods. Before throwing students in to an overwhelming amount of math curriculum, we explored tools that help us to learn math (manipulatives).

We broke up into six groups and rotated throughout the classroom. Each table had a different manipulative for students to explore. We worked on identifying the tool, drawing what it looked like, and thinking about how the tool can help us to learn math. My hope is that by all of these different exposures, students will be more comfortable using the tools in application settings later on in the school year! And it was a really fun way to explore math!

Don't Worry Wemberly...

...we're excited for first grade!!

Happy first day of school to all of the teachers who started today. What a whirlwind the first day always is! The first day of school is one of my absolute favorites as students walk in with that fresh sparkle of excitement in their eyes.

I love to start the school day with a read-aloud and first day of school books are so great! One of my favorite stories (and authors) is Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes...as I'm sure many others can agree. Such a sweet story that students can easily relate to. Today after reading the story we created a graph (hats off to my teaching partner for the idea) to chart how we felt before the first day of school. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised that 19 kiddos were excited! We had so much fun using sticky notes (a first grade favorite) and interacting with the anchor chart.

Following our graphing, we did a readers response coloring/writing activity. Typically I have students finish the sentence frame "I was worried about..." but today the students wanted to write "I was excited about..." and their answers were just the sweetest. From meeting the teacher to making new friends to reading new books...they covered it all!

I can't wait for the second day of school and I hope that my students are just as excited for day two!

Classroom Tour 2015

Welcome to my classroom for the 2015-2016 school year! I am so excited to let go of the primary colors from last year, and adopt a calming color scheme. One of my co-workers painted me an amazing picture of a peacock (see below) that was the inspiration for the colors. Enjoy!

Come on in! (door mat from Target)

Math Board and bookshelves

 Front wall

Desk area

iPad Storage. Keeps them organized and it is easy for kiddos to take and put away!

Math Centers and Manipulatives 

 I love having kids highlight their names during the first weeks of school. Reminds them to put their name on their papers before turning them in!

 Books!

Cute reading nook

Back wall with displays for student work and book boxes

I love having my word wall on the back cabinets. Makes it super easy to organize!

Classroom Library

Love these "If you give a..." stuffies from Kohls. They are only $5 each and the proceeds go to charity!

I keep books about the time of year, season, holiday, or theme we are studying in a basket on the coffee table.

 Books that I couldn't quite fit into a category, but that I absolutely love!

Kidney table for group work. (I call it the rainbow table because it is so long!)

Beautiful painting...beautiful inspiration!

Student seats. I'm trying something new this year and having name tags on the chairs so that they are easy to move around.

Table top school supplies. Other shared supplies are on the front bookcase.

A closer look at the front wall

Learning targets, schedule, and anchor charts for the day.

I am obsessed with these great file boxes. They fit perfectly in my storage cabinet.

Read Aloud storage & organization

I love using these magnetic hooks on my doorframe! The line leader uses this sign to remind following students of hallway behaviors.

 Storage

Ready for the year with my amazing Erin Condren planner!

My timer bucket...you can never have too many!

Thanks for taking time to check out my classroom, and happy first day of school!