My Everest

I had planned on posting more classroom pictures and activities tonight, but left my parent permission slips at school. I'll try again tomorrow! But for now...

I bought this mailbox this year. I was so excited to finally bite the bullet and buy the one I wanted. My first year I just used an old one my school had. Then I bought a cheap one at Staples, that basically fell apart last year. I am in LOVE with this one. It is made entirely of wood. Sturdy, and a nice blue color. It shipped to my house and I attempted to put it together. I figured it couldn't be that difficult...



Boy was I wrong! I got to Step 2, and then gave up. :)



I took it to my school the next day and my wonderful custodian* assembled it for me.



And since you can almost see my desk area anyway, I figured I would post a picture of that, now that it is clean and organized.



I use the blue basket for the class to put their homework and class work in. I was so excited to find this basket at Porter's. It matched the mailboxes perfectly! The brown basket on my desk is for notes from parents, lunch money, picture money, etc. I don't always look through the blue basket, so I need to have a place for important papers. Sometimes notes would get buried in the basket... especially if it was a crazy, hectic week.

I use the black hanging file organizer for sub info and my materials/copies for the week.

The larger stuffed frog is used for decoration, and for my most favorite game to play with the class. I call it "Frog Ball". It is a simple and wonderful game. Everyone sits on top of their desk. They pass the ball around. If they talk, miss when I think they could have caught the ball, or throw a bad throw, they are out. It is amazing how well they play this game. Back when we had more time in the day/year, we used to play it for birthdays. Now I'm saving it for those days where I feel myself losing my patience. They children love it, and it gives me a few minutes of silence. :)

The time-out desk is beside mine. When a child gets to red, they get a piece of paper and a pencil and start writing the saying that is there. This gives them something to do until I am able to come talk to them about the problem.

Under my desk is the "Busy Buck Store". I use Busy Bucks as my reward system. I pass them out to children I see following the rules. I also give them a Busy Buck for any work finished during Workshop (our independent work time - more info to come). They turn in papers, and if they are correct, nice, neat, and have a name, they get a Busy Buck. They also have to give me one Busy Buck in order to go to the bathroom and if they burp (or any other bodily noises done on purpose). When we have extra time in Math, I let them count their Busy Bucks. We have a Busy Buck Store once a month. I have all kinds of items for sale - toys, candy, books, stickers, etc. When they choose an item, I have them count out the amount for me. It ends up being a fun and educational behavior management system. My favorite so far!

*A word of advice to all you teachers out there - Get on your custodians good side! I always try and clean as much of my room as possible before he comes in. I give him thank you treats throughout the year, my class knows his name and writes him thank you letters at the end of the year.

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First Day

We made it through our first day of First Grade! As far as I know nobody was lost or hurt. I would say that is a great first day! The school doors opened at 8:15, and I was so glad to see so many parents come with their child's supplies. Our school day doesn't officially start until 8:45, so we were able to get a lot of supplies put away.

I like to be an organizational wizard. Take a look at some of our supplies.

I just love the way everything looks when it is in its place, with a beautiful label on it!

The play dough activity was successful, although it didn't last as long as I had hoped. There were still a couple children with supplies I put away later on in the day, in order to keep the attention of the rest of the class. For the activity, I gave each child a number and their name to make with the play dough. Then I had them make something to represent their favorite summer activity. One boy made a frog, because he found one in his yard this summer. I thought it went perfectly with our frog theme!

We learned our classroom rules. I learned about "Whole Brain Teaching" this summer, and really like their techniques. They incorporate a lot of actions and active participation. When we learned and discussed the rules, we also learned actions to them. Ask your child to show you them!

*Names were erased*

I use the stoplight to handle behaviors. Everyone starts on green. They move to yellow after a couple warnings. Then to red for a time out. We have a time out desk by my teacher desk. If a child gets there, they write a saying I have there about how following the rules is important. This helps keep them occupied and in a place with few distractions. As soon as I am able, I talk with them about the problem and discuss possible solutions. They are also able to move their pins back down, if they are really well-behaved for the rest of the day. This seems to work for most children. A few may need a modified behavior plan.

We played a short game to practice following directions (similar to Simon Says, but just saying what to do). We are still working on rule number 3! But we are definitely making progress! We learned a few of our classroom procedures. There are simply too many to teach in one day! We use a lot of sign language in our classroom, so I taught them our main signs for yes, no, bathroom, and drink. I find this cuts down on the interruptions in the classroom.

We read The Gingerbread Man and I brought ginger snaps as a morning snack. As I went to get the cookies, I discovered the Gingerbread Man had stolen them! He left a clue to help us find them. We went all around the school as we followed his tricky clues! Luckily, when we got back to our classroom, we found those delicious cookies!

In the afternoon, we learned all the songs and activities we do with the calendar. Then we practiced the number 1. A few lucky children even got to write their numbers on our brand new Smart Board!

We drew our self-portraits.

Can you find your child's?
(There are still a few who need to finish their pictures.)

We played "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?" to learn the names of the children in our classroom. One child got to choose someone to hide a cookie picture behind. Then we kept singing the song until we found who had it. This game was so much fun!

Our last activity of the day was the "School is Cool!" hat and necklace. The children strung fruit loops onto their necklaces. I took a picture of each one of them with their hat and necklace on to put in their first grade scrapbook. They looked so cute!

At the end of each day, we sing our goodbye song. It goes to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". We use sign language for this song, as well.

Take a bus or take a plane.
Take a boat or take a train.
Take a taxi. Take a car.
Maybe near or maybe far.
Take a rocket to the moon.
But be sure to come back soon!

All in all, it was a great day! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but I am also looking forward to a good night's sleep!

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