First Day!!

I have to say that the first day of school this year was probably the best first day I've ever had! Everything went so smoothly, and the day went by quickly! I was not expecting this because there have been so many changes with our school...half the students were from the former Union Grove Elementary, half our teachers were too, all teachers were in a different classroom, bus schedules were crazy, well I can go on and on. Here are some first day pictures and activities we completed.

The self-portraits and the names my students traced with torn construction paper will stay up all year. I always love their self-portraits...they all make me smile, but a few crack me up a little everytime I see them. It's amazing how some of these portraits look JUST like the student!! As usual, it looks like I have a few artist in the group!

T.R.A.V.E.L. Binders

This year we are trying to be a little more organized, so we came up with a binder that will hold everything important for our 3rd Graders this year. We are calling it a T.R.A.V.E.L. Binder (Teach Responsibility and Valuable Everyday Lessons). Students will have to take these home every night, have them at school everyday, and take very good care of them. This is what they look like, and what we have in them...

The cover...

The first page has an explaination of everything located inside as well as "directions" for each section. Our Course of Study for reading and math is on the back...

The next few pages contain our 3rd grade "handbook". This handbook just explains a few things we do and expect in 3rd grade. We are very thorough teachers, and I think we covered just about everything you can imagine. Parents will be able to refer to this whenever they have any questions.

Next, we have a zipper pouch for money and notes, our weekly newsletter, monthly calendar and lunch menu, and then our planner.

Finally, we have a series of folders for important papers, homework, reading log, graded papers, and parent signature sheet.



 So far these have worked wonderfully!!! I can definitely tell my students are much more organized by having everything located in one nice spot.

Orientation

What a busy night orientation always seems to be! Most of my students made it out, and all the new little faces from Union Grove was a little overwhelming. I'm looking forward to getting to know them and their parents over the year. My room was ready for everyone, and I took a few pictures of the final look as I waited for parents and students to arrive. Well, I still need curtains...maybe one day soon!

So school started, and...Whew!!

It has been a while since my little blog has been updated, SORRY!! It seems it takes me a while to find time to do anything extra during the first few weeks of a new school year. Well, the mid-term has arrived, and tonight I found a little time to update...YAY!!! Lots has been going on in my class so far, and I can't wait to share. I have a wonderful new class, and I look forward to coming to school every morning to see them.

A few weeks before school started, my shelves were finished, painted, and taken to my room. I was so excited about having them actually in my classroom I forgot to take a picture! I finally got one during my next trip to school, and here they are...

During this time, I also painted my stool, and fixed up some clothes pins for my clip chart.

 Just a few more things to do, and I'm ready for orientation!

My Shelves!!

You know it is getting close to the beginning of the school year when you get really excited about things you buy or make for your classroom! This morning I found myself way too excited over the shelves my husband and his friend are making me. They finished one last night, and will hopefully finish the other two Monday so I can get them painted black and put into place. Then of course once I get them there I will have to spend a day or two at school deciding what I'm putting on them. Even though there is only one right now and it is far from finished, I can already tell they will be absolutely perfect! YAY!! Here is a picture of what we have finished now...

A New Year in a New Room at a "New School"

I did not have the typical "end of the school year" this past year. Our school merged with another elementary school in our area, and it all happened within the last month of school! It was crazy and chaotic, but I honestly believe it was the best decision for our community! Union Grove and Grassy were two PreK-5th grade schools outside the Arab, AL area that fed into Brindlee Mountain Middle and High Schools. Union Grove is now Brindlee Mountain Primary with our PreK-2, and Grassy is now Brindlee Mountain Elementary with our 3-5. EVERY TEACHER within these two schools had to move either to the other campus or to another room at the same campus...yes, it was insane!!! I only had to move to a different hallway in the same building, but it was tough nontheless. I moved, cleaned, painted, cleaned some more, arranged, and decorated my new room all in one week! I LOVE MY NEW CLASSROOM! Anyway, with all the changes I thought it would be a good time to start a blog...it's kind of like a new start, so why not???

Now, I am extremely new at this blogging stuff, so be patient please. It may turn out to be a disaster, but I have to at least give it a try. Since I started off by mentioning our big move, let me show you some pictures of my old room, my new room before I changed it all up, and my new room now. I still have a few things to do, but I think I'll wait on those finishing touches when we go back in August!

Here is my old room (I usually have my desk in groups of 4, but these picture were taken during state testing week while they were in rows). This room is only 21 ft x 22 ft! I "lived" in this room for 6 years and grew very fond of my little cracker box...I was a little sad to leave it.

Here is my new room before I painted and decorated...look at how much bigger it is!!!

This is my room a week of long days and late nights later. I went with a black and white, with splashes of bright colors, theme. It was a little scary at first as I began to put the white paint on the walls because it looked so blah, but I love love LOVE how it turned out when I finished!! Oh, and I used a lot of Pinterest ideas...LOVE PINTEREST!!

My door will have our schedule, newsletter, and monthly events calendar on the top. I used the bottom for Boggle, one of my Daily 5 Word Work choices.

Our reading program takes us around the world on various rivers. I use this wall for minor map skills and to show where we are in relation to where we are visiting at the time. We start off in North America and finish the year in Australia, my favorite!

"Around the World in 180 Days" fluency wall. This wall also discusses our DIBELS benchmark goals for beginning, middle, and end of the year.

Daily 5 Choices...posters from Pinterest.

Yes, this is also from Pinterest! I loved this for my clock, and it will come in handy when teaching time!

Reading strategies we study throughout the year.

Math focus wall for our new Common Core Math Standards and new math curriculum, Go Math (it isn't finished because we will add to it throughout the year).

I spray painted my filing cabinets black, finally weeded out some old files, and organized each drawer. Loved how they turned out!

Title for the wall to the right that will showcase student work throughout the year.

Homework board.

Student "Spot"light wall...I laminated scrapbook paper and hot glued a clothespin with a name on top to hold the papers that will be displayed.

We will be using the Clip Chart Management System this year. I'm excited about implementing this!

Look how much room I have to move around!!! Black polka dots are my husband's idea. He made them as well as arranged them on the wall! :)

My new favorite thing ever...contact paper!!! I ordered a roll of black from http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/ to cover my cabinet doors. It worked perfectly! Highly recommend for things you cannot paint.

My husband and a friend are making some shelves to go the length of my whiteboard for more storage. I cannot wait to get those installed. I also need more black dots...yeah, my husband is often recruited for classroom projects.

Well that is it for now! I will update pictures when I finalize and perfect everything before school starts. I'm excited to start this new year in my new classroom!