Week One...Done...and a Whole Bunch of Fun!

Whew!  How do we always forget how exhausting that first few days back can be?  I have an awesome group of 21 kiddos who all came to me from kindergarten already READING!  They are all at a 3 (C) or higher already!!!  Our all day every day kindergarten program is a blessing!  This year should be amazing!

Hang on tight because there is a whole bunch of first-week-of-school randomness in this post. If you make it to the end...there is a freebie for you! : )
I purchased Abby's (from the Inspired Apple) Fun with Firsties unit and it was worth every penny to get the year started!  We made Jitter Juice, surveyed our friends, made darling backpacks and school house books.  I would highly recommend purchasing it and tucking it away for next year!  She also has a unit for second graders as well.  A few things from the unit are in pictures below. 

 

School House books...my awesome retired-teacher-mom cut all of these out and assembled them for me before school started!

Our adorable backpacks!  My awesome retired-teacher-mom also assembled these for me!  Doesn't the scrapbook paper make them extra adorable?  : )



Not only did we have fun with Abby's unit, we decorated our Reading Notebooks. And yes, my awesome retired-teacher-mom made these for the class as well!



Go to my post HERE to learn how to make your own Reading Notebooks!

We also decorated our canvas pencil pouches with Crayola Fabric Markers.  The kids will keep their pencil and a box of crayons in this pouch.  I have had great luck with these for the past 3 years.  You can purchase them from Discount School Supply for $8.99 for a pack of 12.

Since I have tables, the kids keep their pencil pouches and work folder in a tub at each table.

Scissors and glue sticks are kept in these numbered drawers.  Each table has a drawer that can be removed and brought right over to the table when they need scissors or glue sticks.  I have used this system for over 6 years and it works perfectly!

These are our name tags.  I found the name badge holders at the Dollar Tree last winter!!!  Score!

We read the Enormous Turnip to begin a discussion about cooperation.

Next, we colored people to make a hallway display to illustrate the concept of cooperation. 

All 64 first graders are included in this Enormous display!

If you would like a copy of the person template, you can download it from my TPT store for FREE! If you download it, I would love for you to leave your thanks in the form of feedback in my TPT store. Enjoy!



Oh...and one more thing!!!  My own two kiddos started preschool this week.  My amazing mom (yep...the one who helps with all things school) made these adorable chocolate covered mini-oreo apples for my kids' teachers!  We forgot to take a picture of them in the cute bowls we displayed them in along with their apple-licious cards.  : (

My Room Is Done!

Finally!  Tomorrow morning is our Meet and Greet when all the kiddos can come and meet their teacher and drop off school supplies.  It's always nice to see the kids before school officially starts!

Still waiting for my new calendar to come in...yikes!

This is where kids turn in their daily folder.  The whole school uses the same folder,  but each teacher can customize their own insert for the front.

Right outside my classroom door...

WHEW!!!!  These last few weeks were busy!  Glad to be done and I'm ready for kids now!!!  Let the fun begin!

Fabulous Find!

As I was going through my Google Reader and catching up on posts I have not read yet...I came across a post with the most amazing news!  Michelle from Fabulous in First shared a link to an Etsy store belonging to an artist who supports teachers 100%!  Go check out kpmdoodles and shop till you drop with her sale!  She is offering a free set when you buy two, and two free sets when you buy four!  But wait...it gets even better!  Enter TEACHER in the coupon code section when you check out to get 10% off your order!  And...the good news doesn't stop there...she allows freebies on your blog using her art (secured in a pdf) as well as your stuff on TPT for sale!  : )  LOVE!

PS  Don't forget my TPT 20% off sale...it lasts till Tuesday!

Celebrating Back To School!

Since us northerners don't go back to school until after Labor Day, I am throwing a Back-to-School sale of my own.  : )  I wasn't quite in school mode when TPT was having their back to school sale at the beginning of August.  : )  So for those of you who have a few days left of summer vacation and even those of you who have been with your new kiddos already, enjoy 20% off everything in my TPT store HERE.

Freebie and a File Conversion Tip

I have just LOVED this poster I have been seeing across blog land!  I decided to type up my own version, "fancied" it up and printed it at a local photo lab for $2.49.  I put it in a clear 8x10 frame and I am good to go!  I think it turned out quite cute!

Click on the picture above to get a copy of the PDF from Google Docs.

Ignore the awful glare from the plexiglass frame...

First, I made the poster in Word.  Next, I changed it into a PDF.  From there, I uploaded it to Zamzar, a free file conversion site.  Zamzar allows you to upload a file and convert it to just about anything you want and it will email it to you with in minutes.  FOR FREE!  How cool is that?  Then...(I know...50,000 steps just for a cute poster...teachers will go to the edge of the world for something cool, right?) I uploaded the png file to Picnik to "fancy" it up.  Picnik allows you to upload a picture (jpg or png) and add text and stickers, use cool photo editing tools, etc.  FOR FREE!  I got the white picture to turn to black by using the color inversion tool.  I resized the original picture to be 1600x2000 so it would turn out to be a true 8x10.  Then...(I'm almost done) I uploaded that picture to my local photo lab for printing.  Whew...done.   Clear as mud? 

Room Pics Day #2 {Massive Library}

Another full day and a whole lot done!  I'm taking tomorrow off...I've had enough of my hot room for a few days!  Here are a few pictures of accomplishments from today!  They are mostly of my desk area and massive library.  : ) 

P.S.  If you click on the picture, you can get a better look.  : )

This is my little corner behind my desk (computer table). 
I gave up my honkin' teacher desk 3 years ago and LOVE it being gone!



Desk area to the left, meeting area to the right.  Blue tubs are filled with my leveled library.




This is my leveled library.  It "hugs" the meeting area. 
I love that it surrounds the kids when we meet at the carpet.



Just added new cute leveled labels today.  Thanks for the labels, Deanna Jump!

This is my "Look Book" shelf.  Mostly themed, non-fiction books that the kids can choose from to add to their book bags.

These colored tubs on top of my cabinets are also themed books.  They start with the first day of school type books and go in order by science and social studies units all the way to the end of the year.



The train of books keeps going and going and going.  LOVE!!!





I still have to unload the kids' lockers in the hallways to fill these tubs.  They are all specific author tubs.  The more popular authors in my room (think Mo Willems) have more than one tub.



 The custodians gave me permisson not to box up all the books in my room for summer cleaning this year because they didn't want to have to move all those heavy boxes. LOL I didn't want them falling off the shelves during the move for cleaning, so I stacked them in order in the lockers outside in the hallway. The tubs on the cabinets were just covered with garbage bags and the leveled library got to stay on the shelves because those shelves have wheels. : )

Our reading coach got a grant to purchase a bazzilion blue book tubs for us as well as lots of brand new leveled books last year! Our principal knew how much we needed them and purchased even more tubs and books! I have the best administrators who are in it for the kids all the way!!! It is so great to have that kind of support!

I have a poster in the back of my room with an illustration from David Shannon that says "Never Enough Books!" I hold that saying close to my heart!!! I would love to count them someday...wonder how long that would take?

Room Pictures Day #1

Whew!  I'm tuckered out...and my room looks like a disaster even though I got a TON (plus some) done.  It always seems to get messy before it gets better!  Here are some pictures for you to see...I'm going back tomorrow bright and early and hope to get it looking even better!  Ya, know...after 9 classroom set-ups, you would think the 10th one would be easy, right?  Wrong...all of the amazing blogs out there gave me so many good ideas, I feel like I am starting from scratch!  But...it's a good thing!

Walking-in-the-door view.  Here we go...

Back corner looking towards the door.

Other back corner.  I LOVE my tables for the kiddos!

Front corner looking from my desk.  See all the bags on top of the back cupboards?  They are covering just a fraction of my classroom library.  I have a serious book addiction that I will show you at a later date.

That little, tiny, skinny bulletin board took forever and a year to get paper and border on!

Close-up of the trim.  It is from Carson Dellosa and it is their Pop-up Trim .  Cute, but a pain in the rear to assemble!!!

Math shelf.  Tubs above will be my math tubs.

These drawers seem like a good idea, but the tracks break all.the.time.  And, to top that off, the company no longer makes replacement parts.  I am in the middle of an extreme label makeover.  Thanks to Deanna Jump and another blogger (couldn't find her name...yikes), I now have cute, new labels for my stuff!

See what I mean?  It gets worse before it gets better!

Whipped these labels up today for my math tubs.  LOVE!

The custodians wanted to leave for the day, so this is as far as I got on my calendar board before I got escorted out of the building.  The beehives don't have the magnetic bees on them yet for my behavior system.  More to come...

You can see my day #2 and my library HERE.

Back To School Student Gift

Are you looking for a cute back-to-school treat for your students?  You can download the tags for free at my TPT store HERE.  If you download them, I would LoVe for you to leave positive feedback at TPT in return.  : )  The tags come in 10 different colors and are sure to make your students feel lucky, too!  I was thinking of making a sheet of all green labels to use for a St. Patricks' Day treat...what do you think?  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms, clear treat bags, curling ribbon and the tags are all you need to make a special treat!