Hoorah for Horses!

I am able to blog in the middle of a week day because my county is having (drum roll please….) HORSE SHOW BREAK!!! Yes. The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration is held in Shelbyville where I teach, and so many people go and are involved that we shut down school for a whole week! At first I thought it would be a bummer to finally get the kids into a routine after 3 weeks, only to have them leave and come back remembering nothing. However, each year so far the kiddos come back and things are completely normal. It’s a great opportunity to reinforce procedures, though, and I always do. We also usually get a few students moving around when we come back, so I may have a new kiddo to explain our procedures to.

During my Horse Show Break I have been to Dallas to visit some dear friends and their 14 month old daughter. We had a great time! Now I am reading, sunning, hanging out with my mom, cleaning, cooking, and sleeping in for the remainder of the break. Oh, and blogging!  

The first 3 weeks of school have gone very well considering (considering the crazy political drama going on right now regarding our budget and high numbers of students). My class is doing a great job learning how to be first graders! We have gone over a lot of procedures and they are picking them up quickly. I always block out the first few weeks of school because they are so hard, but this year I am feeling really good and relaxed! Maybe it’s just a great mix of kids, or maybe its that I am becoming more comfortable with starting a class. Probably both!

Quick room tour!! I do apologize that I took these pictures with the lights of when the room was messy . :/

A new addition to the room this year: my mom’s easel! She made this for us when we were little and I added some chalkboard paint to it. It will be great for word work!

I moved the small group table. The salmon colored shelves hold basal leveled readers, trade books organized by theme, my files, and mentor texts. The yellow shelf holds our math workstations, other math materials, and our “Penguin Pals”. And one broken ukulele .

Our carpet area got shifted around, too. You can see our heart that we crumpled during Chrysanthemum.

My door! I found this amazing Penguin Crossing sign at the St. Louis Zoo this summer and HAD TO HAVE IT!! We rezoned this year and our class lists were changing every minute it seemed, so I skipped out on putting names on the door this year. But I feel like this door is just as cute and inviting!

Know, Understand, Do (yes I know Understand is missing!) board. This is new following our curriculum maps. We will put what we need to Know, Understand, and Do on it as we move through our units.

Word Wall (post-it style!) and FACE board for reading. FACE goes with the CAFÉ book, but I saw someone had rearranged it to say face, so I changed it last year. I am having some pictures of the kids reading printed during break, so soon this board will be covered with cute kids and strategies!

Desks in rows this time. I usually do 2 long rows facing each other, but we re-read First Days of School by Harry Wong this summer and he suggested forward facing rows, so I’m trying it out. Only problem is that the rows end up like zigzags by the end of the day…

My desk! Got a new table cloth this year and moved the classroom library on that side of the room.

Classroom library! Blue bins for the kids (levels and genres) and red boxes for me! This is also where we keep other reading manipulatives. Notice our love of Helen Lester, Mo Willems, and Kevin Henkes .

Last Thursday we were able to take the kids on a field trip to the Horse Show! They really enjoyed it. We saw lots of horses, the stadium, ate “horse show donuts”, and even got to see some of the classes being judged!

 

The kids were cheering for all the “cowboys and cowgirls”, even though we didn’t have a clue what was really going on! I don’t follow the horse show, and it was my first time to go, too. So we just enjoyed looking at everything and eating our fried donuts. We got back to school and made a bubble map about the horse show, then drew and wrote about it.

This summer I got the idea to have my students write about things we learn as a class blog! They will decide what to write about, then write and draw or take pictures and I will put it up on the blog for them. I need to get permissions to have their work and photographs shown when we go back to school. I am really excited about this endeavor, and I can’t wait to share what we do with it!

Changing it up!

Watching So You Think You Can Dance... typing during commercials.

So, as I mentioned I am changing when I do calendar time to before math. However, I have made some other minor changes, as well.

First- furniture (pictures to follow). I do not have a giant teacher desk. I have a modest table with a pink plaid tablecloth. It is so homey :) . Last year my computer was on the computer station table. Now I have moved it onto my desk! I does take up a bit of space... But I think it will be handy.
Behind my desk I had my low kidney table. This is a kidney table with my own twist! I took the legs off! This lets me get rid of chairs (yay!) and it gives the kids a bit of wiggle room. I was lucky enough to find some foot shaped carpets at Old Time Pottery last summer. When I am at the low table I use a rolling chair that I make as short as possible. I had a separate chair for my desk and the low table. This year I moved my low table so I can just spin from my desk to the low table! Voila! I know this may be hard to imagine... Pictures soon!


Second- behavior system. Last year I used pennies. They exchanged them every Thursday to get prizes- the cheapest was eating lunch in our classroom on Friday! Big seller :) Here was the problem. Child spends all his pennies Thursday on a prize. Friday he breaks a rule- I tell them to bring me a penny for the offense... "But I don't have anymore!"..... grrrrrrr. Can't take away the prize... They earned it.... So... New tactics.
I used the clipchart my first year (check it out HERE if you aren't familiar!) and liked it. So this year I will magically combine the two! My mantra this year will be "School is your job!" I teach in a community where a lot of parents don't work, and I want my kids to understand having a job is important. So we will use the clip chart, and based on their behavior for the day they will earn pennies!! Even if they get to the very bottom of the chart they still get a penny cause they showed up to work :) There are 7 levels to the chart and if they make it to the top they get a BONUS! 10 cents! Wha-hoo!! I think it will be a big hit!


Last- Math Workstations!! If you haven't read it yet, here's a free link of the book... for FREE. I was pleased when I read the organization chapter. I am ahead of the game on that one! I have very little storage space, so I try to keep tidy and don't keep superfluous materials. Again, pictures soon.
The chapter on the procedures was great! A lot like D5- model, model, model.
The best chapters are the ones with all the station ideas! I realized I simply ~NEED~ these markers I've wanted for awhile anyway... So fun! I also realized which materials I am short on, fractions/geometry/money. But, before I buy anything I am going to wait for out NEW math series to arrive. Surely it will have some good stuff in it :)

And, you lovely readers, since you made it this far- a freebie game!! I used Scrappin Doodles clip art and some that I just found using Word. Grab it Here!!