Week 1 done! classroom pics!

Week 1 of year 18 is done!
My class this year is comprised of 10 boys and 9 girls. 1 of these boys, was brought to me the first day of school, from the Dominican Republic. He does not speak English and my Spanish is limited to what I can remember from High School. Thankfully, I have 2 adorable students who are bilingual and can help this little guy out. First Grade is probably the hardest grade I have ever taught (and I have been teaching it for half my career), but it is also the most rewarding. All my students are excited to learn Spanish words, when I am trying to translate.

In Addition, I have an ASD student pushing in for my Reading Block without a para. He is brilliant, and adorable, but doesn't want to work....yet. I spoke with my ESE chairs and they gave some encouragement and advice. I am so happy to say that yesterday he worked, listened, conversed with students at his team and left with a caterpillar sticker happily stuck to his little hand.

Of course there are always hiccups in any school year, but I am determined to be Unshakeable and enjoy my students and my calling as their teacher.
 I usually do a little linky party for showcasing classrooms, I've just been so swamped this month with getting things ready for the year that I could not do my usual link-up. However, I invite you to take a peek inside my classroom below.

 

Decided to use Creative Teaching Press' 6 inch dot cut-outs to make line spots on the floor.

A view from the door.

My daughter posing! She was a big help putting this room back together again.

A view from the back.

The AC broke on the 2nd day of school, thank goodness for fans! This is where I house my books for Reading Groups and my Reading response notebooks. My classroom faces the playground, and gets a large amount of sun, so we usually keep the blinds closed.

Love my easel

Library and word work storage

Calendar, Library, Fabulous First Grade Work and Self Portraits

Schedule-Cara carroll freebie and Jobs board. Creative Teaching Press library pockets and border. I made the numbers.

Don't worry, there are goals up there now. lol! the first couple of days my only goal was to follow the rules!

Our hallway bulletin board. I enlarged Melonheadz graphics and printed with the poster option. Letters and border are from creative Teaching Press. Teachers Names are on the music notes.

This is my AWESOME first Grade team on pre-planning week. We all brought in something for breakfast and spent the morning planning our our 1st quarter!

First Grade Rocks!!

Do you follow me on instagram? Here's advice I would give to anyone just starting out.

Cassie Thompson at Adventures in Teaching is a doll. This pack is perfect if you are getting ready for open house. I suggest you get some bright colored paper (Astro-brights is brilliant) and go and buy this Meet the Teacher Pack right now!

1. Stitch Fix is so convenient and easy especially if you are so busy you don't have time to shop. They sent me the dress, I wrote a note to my stylist telling her about Open house. I paired it with a pink cardigan and my new aerosoles shoe.sandals. If you want to get your fix click Here or on the link above for my referral. 2. Our Pod is one in a Melon!! Thank you Jennifer, you are 1 creative girl! 3. My new student and I were so happy to be matchy match.

Before: The first day of school. Again thanks to Stitch Fix, I was matching, stylin' and comfy for the first day of school.              Get your Fix Here

But First let me take a Selfie!  Son starting 4th grade!. Daughter Middle school, 6th Grade!! Lord Help me!

Can you tell i'm not good at these?

No explanation necessary!

Wake-up Work Poster (on the back is Pack-up procedures) someone remind me to take a pic of that please.

My dear Kindergarten friend Jennifer gave me this great idea. She read that it's good for little ones to be down low on their bellies or even sitting on the floor. She and my other pod-mate Amanda, lowered my table for me! Thank you ladies!! See those pillows...I made them!! What? My other first grade teammate Kim, convinced me to buy a sewing machine. I bought 10 yards of fabric--yup, (insert Jerry Seinfeld voice) Do you know how much 10 yards of fabric is?

Yes, I still have a teacher desk.  I am not sorry to say this at all. We get about 20 emails a day, and I'm the team leader. I need a separate space to organize myself, or it would be nightmare!

Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum

I've been doing this craft for a few years now. I'm happy to say that I still love it. Even though each student gets the hearts cut for them, the way the glue the ears, draw the eyes and bow, make it an individual product!

This adorable 7th grader is my peer mentor. One nice thing about working in a K-8 is having responsible hard-working students to help out in your classroom. He helps me so much! he cut out all the hearts for the Chrysanthemum craft, pulled all the math homework out of the math books, sorted it and hung up all the work you see hanging in the pictures. Bonus---He's my cousin!!! Such a blessing!

Mrs. Berggren is out of this world!-Did I mention I love teaching 1st graders!

Jitter Juice on the first day of school. 7up, fruit punch and sherbet.

Hope you all have  or have had a great 1st week too!
I've linked up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd for #2getherwearebetter

Ladybug Love-Custom Classroom Decor

About a year ago, I made a custom classroom decor set for a wonderful teacher named Kari. She was kind enough to send me the pictures of her finished classroom. She asked for a green, black and white Ladybug theme. I worked hard to meet her needs and make her set to match her style and vision for her classroom. She had a room full of green, red and white baskets and pom poms--which turned out to match absolutely perfectly with the Ladybug love Decor!

As you can see, Kari's bulletin board is meticulously designed. I love how she separates the board with different colors. The simple black border makes it easy on the eye. In front of her board on the table she has baskets labeled with the Editable Chalkboard labels in the set.

Kari asked for calendar numbers and month cards. I created a pattern with the background colors of green, black and white. The red ladybugs truly POP on this calendar! Each month had a matching background to the theme, and graphics to fit that specific month.

Here, Kari has used the editable file to meet the needs of her classroom. I love how she used these!

Kari, made her own custom name Banner. Love it!!

Kari decorated her Wall with hand-painted letters with some more ladybugs.

 I love the how she color-coordinated everything in her room. Even the poms hanging above are matching. Do you see the daisies in the corner of the bulletin board on the left? What a great idea!

Here you can see how all the colors come together in her classroom. Between, the baskets and poms, the bulletin boards, wall decor and labels, Kari has created a beautiful classroom.

The Word Wall was created using the Word Wall and Banner from the Decor Set. Also in the corner, you catch a glimpse of the color cards.

Another view of the classroom, I love how she has organized all of her baskets and bins!

Here is another example of how Kari made the editable file work for her classroom needs.

Here Kari has used the Editable file for a birthday wall.

Here's a close-up.

These are the number cards that match the color-scheme and theme of the room. The backgrounds are green, black and white. The ten-frames are filled with ladybugs.

Thank you so much Kari for sending me these photos. I love how your classroom came out and I'm sure your students loved it too!
You can find the Ladybug Love set here. 
Baskets came from The Dollar Tree and Walmart.
Poms from Oriental Trading.

The longest-short week ever!!!

Today was the 13th day of school! Happy almost Friday!!! My class know the rules, the routines, Daily 5 and I was even able to run a couple of real rounds of Daily 5!  But boy am I pooped!
Here's a little 15 second look into my classroom--This is what my kids see as they walk in the door (just a note, I changed the beehive jobs chart out after this video was taken)oooh, before I forget
If you haven't had a chance to enter The Pencil Sharpener /Labels Giveaway, click HERE
Or
If you still want to link up with beautiful classroom pics click HERE



I always feel bad when I don't have time to blog--but frankly, I just can't seem to stay awake!
After school it's homework with my kids, making dinner, a load of laundry and if I'm lucky--I get to vacuum! (well I guess that would not make me lucky but ---maybe the kids will do it?, Nah...)
Don't even get me started on early morning before school meetings!!! I am meeting'd out!  
Here are a few pics of some of the things we've been up to.

Our Class Name Graph from my Back to School Fundamentals pack

OUr Elmer E for the Alphabet Exchange with Chrissy from First Grade Found me.  By the way, she just started her own TPT store, she has a really cute First Freebie, click HERE to go to her store, follow her and leave her some love!!!

We learned about NOUNS. First we brainstormed on this chart together as a class. Later, we went on a Noun Walk around the school and on the playground. The students recorded the nouns they saw onto a Tree map, organized as Person, Place and Thing.

I have been using an alligator to teacher greater than or less than since I student taught back in 1997--yes, that's right 1997~  I made a little "Allie the Alligator" for each student.  I told the class to put him in the center and draw a "pond" around him.  The circle or pond, would be where Allie would stay. Most math workbooks, tests, etc, always have a circle for the symbols--so by calling it a "pond" it makes sense.  I have a large Allie that I stick on the board.  They use their dry erase boards and write the numbers as I write them on the board. They then had to turn Allie and trace his mouth to make the symbol.  Easy==Effective and FREE!!

 Of course we've done loads in 13 days--I just haven't been able to take pictures--That is my goal tomorrow!  Take more pictures!!!!
Have a great Friday!!!