Clip Board Makeover

Hi all! So far the year is going so well. I have a nice class, and you know that can make all the difference. I thought I'd post my latest project- a birthday present for a friend who is a kindergarten teacher. I got the clip board makeover idea from Mrs. Willis' Kindergarten (thank you Mrs. Willis!). It took some time between layers of Modgepodge and acrylic spray sealer, but I can't wait to make one for myself now. I didn't mind my plain brown clip boards until now!

Hope you have a great day tomorrow!

1

It's been a busy 9 days!

Whew... 9 days of school down. It's going well and I have a nice class this year. Thought I'd share some things we've done so far.

We made these the first week of school. My mom comes for 2 days to help and the kids make these people to look like themselves. I had a parent one year at Back to School Night say they looked creepy )-: I think they're cute. They sure are fun to do.

I enjoy reading If Take a Mouse to School. The kids have a page printed that says "If you take a mouse to school ____." They finish the sentence then color, cut out, and assemble the mouse from the story. We do this the first day and I won't help with spelling at all- kind of an assessment for me. I'll save them this year to put out at our spring Open House.

Oh, I love these projects! I bought the All About Me tees from Really Good Stuff. The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom coconut tree is an idea from Kim at http://www.kinderbykim.com/. She has great books. I love her math journal and am saving this as the first project for that.

I feel very lucky to have a friend who retired last year helping in class one day a week for the whole morning! She was there today and it was fabulous. We played a game I called "Stair Steps" that came from Math Work Stations. I should have brought it home to post... I'll try tomorrow. I didn't think of it till now. Anyway, it's the first math game we've tried and it was great. Kids were cooperative and followed directions. At least today they played the game and were then able to settle down for a lesson on patterning. I hope it stays this way.
We also did "Weekend Journals" for the first time. Weekend Journals are the only writing journal I use. I love having this to refer back to and to see students' progress. Most other writing I send home. The kids did very well. We all know how beginning first grade writing can be unreadable. I was pleasantly surprised at how many journals I could read. Woohoo!
All in all it was a pretty nice day.
Thanks for letting me share and for sharing all your great teaching too. Have a great day!

15

Here We Go!

Well the school year started for me a week and half ago. That's the cause for my lack of blogging. I can't believe I've been away from it so much the past few weeks.. I love it and miss it! I have been checking out the great classrooms and ideas that others are posting, however.
I'm finally posting photos of my room. I changed some furniture around to create a library area and now have a classroom "frog" theme. It's nice to have some new things going on (excuse the ladder, I was still setting up).

Here is what my calendar wall looks like:

I love my library! Very happy with the way books are organized. I just went down today and took in my book boxes so we can start Read to Self tomorrow and get rolling on the Daily 5.

I started Math Work Stations last week. So far they contain pattern blocks, linker cubes, and tangrams. Just things kids can do independently without much explanation. I like the way this turned out. The numbers come from Lettering Delights.

So far the math work stations are going well. I'm pulling my first group during that time tomorrow so I can help them work on number recognition. I plan for this to be a time for some math intervention.
Thanks to everyone for the inspiration to start Math Work Stations and Daily 5. I hope to post photos of some projects very soon. Meanwhile happy blogging! Wishing everyone a great start to the year!

3