Last Week in Pictures

I have officially completed 8 days of the school year! Woo hoo!

My new firsties are sweet as pie and are working very hard to master the routines. I am happy with our pace and can't wait to get to the good stuff! 

So what did we do the first week? I managed to grab a few photos... Look and see :)

We read A Bad Case of Stripes and did water color art :)

We read the gambit of three little pig stories and did lots of comparing/contrasting. My kiddos favorite was The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf :)

We discovered our knowledge of musical instrument and sang Up the Ladder/Down the Ladder!

And we practiced graphing with our shoes! This is always a favorite!

I wish I could have taken more pics, but the first week is just so crazy! I'm lucky to have gotten these ;)

Now I'm enjoying the weekend and holiday with some sun and water!

I hope your week was just as eventful and that your holiday is nice and relaxing!

Melissa

Where I Teach!

Happy Tuesday!

We start tomorrow....AHHH!

Deep breaths! Deep breaths!

Today I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for

Okay... Here is where I teach!

Well, okay, I don't teach here, but this is what you see in most areas near my school. Isn't it beautiful! :)

Now, on to the classroom...

I changed it up a bit this year. A different carpet space, new color scheme, got rid of my teacher desk... Enjoy a look around!

This is the right side of my classroom. That is the door that the kiddos use most often to enter and exit. Along the wall is my Toolbox bulletin board (lime) and  the Learn board. I am planning to hang my anchor charts on the learn board. Right now there is one prepped for starting conversations about capital letters! Below the boards are my pocket chart workstation and classroom library/book boxes.

Side note: Some may be asking... Where are all your books? Why such a small classroom library? I'll get to that in another post. There is a reason, I promise. Stay tuned.

This is just forward of the last photo. This is my guided reading table. When the curtains are open it is bright and beautiful in this corner and I LOVE IT! This picture does not do it justice. This year I got rid of my teacher desk. Boy did I have to purge in order to accomplish that fete! lol Instead, I will be using the GR table as a home base. Most of my curriculum materials are behind the table, as well as all guided reading goodies.

You can also see my language arts focus wall and job chart on the front white board. The blank space at the bottom is for any GR carry over from day to day that needs to be up for reminders.

 

Moving along the front wall is my main white board. This is also where I list our workshop activities (on the left). You can also see my reading chair, listening center, and the Treasures sound spelling cards, couldn't forget those now could I...

Boom, next wall. This is the MATH wall. All this math happen here. There is the morning calendar board, strategies and sentence stems for math discussions and our math workshop board.

 

 

And lastly, a view from the front. Along the back wall is my writing display board (yellow), the display that NEVER gets changed because it to darn high (the sun... it will soon have the kiddos pictures on it as well), and a cork board for hanging up the cute pictures that the kiddos always bring in.

You can also see my desks. I have 21 students and 22 desks. They are all set up for tomorrow! Just a few finishing touches to do when I get in, in the morning.


I hope you enjoyed peeking into my room! Can't wait to see yours!

Melissa

Who Am I?

Happy Monday!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Melissa!

I am a first grade teacher in Northern California. I am starting my sixth year in first grade this fall.

I am married to the Mr. And he is a teacher too! No kids or pets... Yet!

I love teaching, helping teachers, and enjoying my days off!

So for this link up I thought I'd share a few things about me! 

5 of my favorite topics to teach:

1. America!! This standard is my all time favorite! I even have my kiddos do a musical to go along with the symbols! 

2. Homophones! The kids just get such a kick out of these. They talk about them all year long ;)

3. Clouds! Their retention of this concept is astounding. Plus they can use their cloud knowledge daily!

4. Jump rope! So many if my kiddos have no idea how to jump rope. It's a good long PE unit and everyone has to work hard.

5. Fact Families! This one is hard too, but worth the weeks and weeks of number composition and decomposition. When they get it, their little faces just light up!

4 of my favorite read alouds:

1. Heckedy Peg

2. The Day Jimmy's Boa ate the Wash

3. The One and Only Ivan

4. Aliens Love Underpants

3 of my favorite classroom tools:

1. Dice! Seriously a game changer. I can take any activity (small group or whole class) to a new level with dice.

2. Brain Breaks! We have Just Dance for kids on our campus and I just signed up for Go Noodle. Everyone needs a break (even me!) so why not dance?! I love the added exercise bonus.

3. This is going to sound super lame, but... Tri-write pencils! They DON'T roll off their desks!!!

2 of my weekend relaxation favorites:

1. Shopping! I love it! Clothes, shoes, books, oh my!

2. Being outside! Running, hiking, etc... I know it doesn't seem like it's relaxing, but I love it; especially weekend races with the Mr.!

The Neon Run!! Anyone done this?

1 of my Favorite Places

1. Disneyland!!! I live a lot farther away now than I used to... Serious withdrawals! Lol

I can't wait to read all about you guys too! 

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow for a tour of my room :)

Melissa