Where It All Goes Down Wednesday

Ok, this will be my favorite part of teacher week!! Not so much to show my room, but to see all of the super cute classrooms out there! Head on over to Blog Hoppin' and check out all of the fabulous linkys!

So here's just a few pics from my Work Sweet Home!!...

I've actually posted a picture of my meeting board before, but I was able to snag this fabulous rug at a yard sale this year just before school started.  I'm lovin it!

Student cubbies. 

Leveled library and student book boxes.

Reading corner.

Math manipulatives, read alouds, puzzles, and files.

Word Wall (This was actually taken at the end of last year when ALL of our first grade words were up on the board!) I also now have a separate book shelf for the books that were on the ledge.



My workspace.

Guided reading and small group area.

Well that's about it! Right now it's actually a mess from surving the first 3 days of school. Soooo glad that you stopped by my room! (giggles)

Teacher Week Day One: Meet The Teacher!

I'm so excited to link up for Teacher Week!

It's so amazing to find out about the wonderful teachers that make my blog stalking and hopping so much fun.  Here goes...

Tell us a little something about you...

Well I'm sort of new to the blogging world, just beginning my blog in June. However, I've been stalking for longer. I'm married to a high school basketball coach and calculus teacher. I have a daughter that I just love to dress up and have a slight obsession with hairbow buying. I'm a teacher nerd and a children's book junkie. I have so many favorites that I couldn't even begin to list them. Let's just say all things yummy, bright, funny, crafty, organizational, fabulous, chic, sparkly, and Hollywood.

How long have you been teaching...

I am beginning my 6th year as a first grade teacher. I have been in the same district since my first year of teaching and I just think there's no better place.  It is also the same school district that I grew up in! I can't imagine teaching any other age than first graders.

You might not know...

I thought that I wanted to be a high school drill team director! I actually was for a few years! Don't get me wrong, I loved working with the girls, but I had them decorating Christmas cards with glitter, pom poms, and construction paper for the cafeteria staff one year when the principal mentioned that I might love elementary! She was right.

What are you looking most forward to this school year...

Definitely implementing the Daily 5. I'm sold on the idea of my students building stamina with the added bonus of less literacy station preparation. I'm also excited to get to know my new teaching team and see what the year ahead has in store for us.

What do you need to improve...

I am so passionate about teaching literacy. I get so excited with every new lesson, strategy, book, and story. I need to improve my passion for math.  I don't mind teaching math, and I feel like my kiddos do pretty well, I'd just like to make it more fun and exciting! Thank goodness for the blogging world. I've already seen some fresh ideas.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without...

Well this one is a pretty long list to, but I'll try to cut it down!

1. 3 Drawer Plastic Shelves

2. Filetastic Organizer

3. Cutesy File Folders

4. Sorts of All Sorts (The Mailbox)

5. Teachers Pay Teachers!!!

6. Frogstreet Decoratives

7. Sweet Tea in the teacher's lounge

8. Thirty-One totes

9. My team (ok, clearly this is not in order of value!)

10. Really Good Stuff Plastic Containers

Ok, I'd like to share so much more but today was our first day of school and my Thirty-One large utility tote is jam packed with home to-do's to prep for tomorrow! Toodles everyone, and I'm so anxious to meet you too!

A Year of Change & Birthday Cute!!

Well here we are, 2 days before the first day of school! It's such a year of change for me. I've mentioned in previous posts that this year we are diving in to the Daily 5. I'm also welcoming an all new team of teachers to my grade level this year. I am the only returning veteran. Although I will miss my previous team dearly, I have already fallen in love with my new girls! They are so much fun and such go getters! We are going to have a blast. And my final big change...I say this teary-eyed...my baby girl will begin Kindergarten on Monday!!! I thought I would be ok with this since we will be on the same hallway and closer than we've ever been, but apparently I'm going to be an emotional mess on Monday. You see as I walked out of my classroom late Friday after preparing my room for my firsties, I walked passed my daughter's kinder classroom.  They had a letter posted on the door to kinder parents about kissing them goodbye on the first day and it was signed Love, Your Big Kindergartener! Oh my, my eyes filled with tears immediately. Apparently, I'm not as strong as I thought!!

Now back to business!!! I want to share this super cute way that one of my teammates is displaying birthdays in her classroom.  I think that it is just adorable!!

Magnetic Letter Organization!

Well I'm ALMOST ready to post the before and after pictures of my classroom, but not quite.  Until then, here's a little organization project that I worked on today.

I have had the same organizer for my magnetic letters since my first year of teaching and even then it was a hand-me-down.  It just wasn't cutting it for me anymore! Not cute (no glitter!) and not very practical. So my letters got a re-vamp this summer. Check it out!

This is what I was using for the magnetic letters in my guided reading/small group area.Great organization, but I had to pull open a drawer for each letter every time I wanted to build a new word.

Here are the supplies I used for this project. The divider system is from The Container Store.

I am loving the result and I cant wait to try it out when I start working with my new firsties! I have to admit, it's definitely cuter (glitter!) than my previous letter system. Tadaaaa!!!

The container only had 24 letter spots so I did have to compromise just a bit with the last few letters. The alternative was a container much larger than I wanted to use. I also added stickers to the inside just to speed up the letter hunting process and to limit the singing of my ABC's just to find a specific letter (giggles!)

I will also be able to make my letters mobile with this handy little container in the event of a training or modeling in another classroom. SO MUCH BETTER!

I know everyone is busy perfecting their own rooms as I am thoroughly enjoying the photos on everyone's blog. I hope to post my own classroom photos in the next day or two as well as a few photos from the Wonka room my teammate is preparing. So cute! For me, next week begins inservice and things will be kicked into turbo gear. It's such a fun but fierce time of year. I hope you all are doing well and finding time for pinning, creating, and a little blog stalking of your own. Giggles!!!

Label Love!

Well I'm up for 2 big reading changes in my class this year. 1 is implementing the Daily 5 and 2 is switching from using Fountas Pinnell leveling to DRA. Sooo....one thing HAD to happen...I needed to take a look at my classroom library!! The switch had been going smoothly until it was time to show the level for each book in my library.  I have several hand-me-down books and some are already leveled with handwritten letters so these would need to be covered! I just couldn't find any leveling methods or products that matched the decor or the style of the rest of my room. TIME TO CREATE!! I'm loving the new labels that I made! Just perfect! If you are interested, the labels and instructions are available on my TpT store. Here is a little sneak peak...

       



I am lovin these labels!!!

I also have a set of Matching Literacy Genre Headers!! 

I'm all over the polka dots this year. Giggles!

Winner, Winner

Thank you so much to everyone that commented on our giveaway.  We are so excited to have everyone! Here we go...

The Grand Prize Winner (Container Store Card and both TPT items)...is...

#17!!!

 Kim and Scott said... I follow both your blogs now. Adorable btw!!!

The 2nd PrizeWinner (both TPT items)  is...

#36!!!

laughinbrunette (Jennifer) said... I follow both of your TPT stores! Jennifer

Congrats to both of you. I will be emailing you about your goodies! Again we appreciate all of the nice comments and are so fortunate to have these entries!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

Last Chance To Enter Giveaway...

Only an hour left before we choose 2 winners for our sweet little giveaway! Check out the post below and make sure you are entered!