More Photos to Share

The first two days of official work began with meetings and a LITTLE time to set up the room.  If the public new how much time teachers spend setting up before the contracted time I think they'd be amazed......"anyhoo"....It was a productive two days.

My team in first grade is excited to begin and liked all the ideas I have gathered from all the blogs I have stalked all summer.  It feels like a fresh new start with some great new activities.   

Big shout out goes to our awesome PTO hospitality committee for another delicious luncheon.  The salads were amazing and the Greek goodies are always my favorite...YUM!

So desks are labeled, activities are prepped and books are ready to read for the first four days.  I can't wait to meet all my newbies on Tuesday!

My literacy center rotation chart is waiting for the beautiful faces of my newbies to be added.  There will be lots of picture taking on the first day in various poses for various projects as you will see.  To the left is the rubric I made (well, really my 13 year old colored it) for what I expect when I say "Illustrate using details, please!"  Now the kids have a visual as to what is expected.

The art clothesline is ready for its first project to be added.  As you can see from a past year's photo I take a picture of the kids in one of those various positions I was talking about before so they look like they are enjoying a hot air balloon flight.  Soaring into a new year together!

Wild about computer center BB is a work in progress.  I'll add sites the kiddies can go to and work on learning games and various power points I have designed for skill practice.  Each site's name is mounted on animal print paper.  I'm digging the animal prints this year for some reason.  But I'm not ready for a total room transformation .....yet!

The poetry center is ready with one of our first poems of the year.  We will do a few together as a whole class to learn the procedure of the center, of course.  The second photo is showing the folders in which a copy of the poem is kept with another sheet that the kids write a connection they have to the poem with an illustration.  The have to read the poem with their partner first, then scramble the sentence strips (we call this scrambled eggs) and sequence the poem, then reread it before they move to the connection task.  I have lots of fun pointers they can choose from to do the reading too.  I have the directions posted in the center with photos of past classes doing each task for a visual reminder. 

And finally, a new photo of my writing center so you don't have to turn your head to see it :)

Classroom Set Up Continued

The classroom is getting there little by little.  I have a few more photos to share.  I adopted some shelving from my mom to help get that behind my desk area looking a little better.  It's still not as eye appealing as I'd like especially after seeing the organization some of the other bloggers have going on.....do you gals live at school?  I am in awe of your colors and themes.  I just don't have the time right now, but as the year goes on WATCH OUT!

So it looks better with the shelves.  I have a material USA map hanging to the left to hide the shelves underneath which house my monthly read alouds that I don't want little hands touching.  Next to that is a farm themed drape to cover my math boxes.  The adopted shelves allowed me to put photo frames on the counter in front which is nice.  It's a work in progress.

These are my leveled books for Buddy Reading during centers.  I do literacy centers based on Debbie Dillar and Fountas and Pinell guidelines.  (More on that another time.)  The sentence strip reminds my kiddies how to start their sentence in their reading journals after they read to their buddy.  The empty space below will house the basket of journals.  The directions for the center are posted on the red and white mini poster.  I also take pictures of the kids in the center doing the jobs and hang them in the center.  This visual is another good reminder for them of what is expected in the center. (Besides the fact that they love seeing themselves in photos.)

Our BB  for Writer's Workshop.  We brainstorm ideas that good writers write about and write them on a chart.   I cut apart the chart and hang all the ideas on the BB so the kids can look for an idea whenever they have a writing block.

I give up... I can't figure out how to rotate this picture so turn your head and take a look at my adaptation of pencils glue and tying shoes BB idea.  You can see her original idea here.  This will be my writing center with picture dictionaries and mini thematic word walls in the crates.  The white drawers hold the materials and assignments.

Well that's it for now. We have to prepare for a hurricane here on the east coast.  We even got a call that said our school building will be closed on Monday.  A bit premature, but necessary I guess.  Just puts me one more day behind in the set up.  Pray that Irene will spare us all.  Thank you!