A peek in my room on the eve before the first day!

Well this is it.  I'm as prepared as I'm going to be!  My room is as done as it can be!  My sweet first graders will come tomorrow for their first day!  I'm very excited to get to know them and begin this journey with them.

Here's a peek into my room as I left it today -

A view from the doorway into my room....on the opposite wall you will see my word wall and my schedule

Our carpet for carpet time with my chair and circus wall

My "messy" corner of centers storage and outdoor play toys along with our
Juggling Jobs clown

My boys' and girls' restroom with our library in between.  A few of our first days books are on top of the library with SkippyJon for now.

Each bucket in our library has a different type of duct tape on it.  Each book in that bucket also has the same strip of duct tape across the spine.  This enables my student whose job is librarian to know which bucket to put the books in.  

More of our library...

An example of a bucket with the strip of duct tape

The left front of my room with student boxes, centers trays, color words and our Whole Brain rules

The board area of our room

My agenda board with our essential questions and objectives as well as my teaching table

Looking back at the door into the hall with our 200 chart, shapes and number words

My data wall to hold student benchmark scores as well as goals and "Did we meet our goals?" information.  Please excuse my mess under the board.  Some are my items and some are supplies but those desks will hold my student netbooks when we receive them later this week.

Well I better get to finishing up my last minute things so that I can go to bed.  I hope I can sleep!  Can you sleep on the night before school?  I'm always SOOOO excited and nervous that it's hard to actually rest!

More back to school planning!!

I think I may have finally figured out my centers dilemma.  Whew, I had so overthought (is that a word?) the whole process.  Tonight, feeling overwhelmed by my large number of students and my even longer "to do" list, my brain shut down and I just began to click through old blogs and links that I had saved from years gone by.  On the second link, I came across a page on centers.  I think it was an answer to prayer! Here it is if you are interested - Mrs. Mcdowell.

I'm not going to share her chart here because that would be "plagiarizing" but basically she suggests only 3 rotations a day - me, centers, seatwork.  This will give me eight students at each rotation and since they work in pairs, there will be four groups in centers at a time.

SO....for my class of 24 students, I will have 8 working with me, 8 working with partners on seatwork, and 8 in centers.  We will have three rotations of 20 minutes each (actually around 18 minutes with 2 minutes to move about the room).

Since there are five days in a week that we will be doing centers, I will need five centers (the other way I had planned 9 centers each week - YAY for extras!).

My five centers are as follows -
1.  Bump/Scoot Game
2. Computer time
3.  ELA center
4.  Math center
5.  Writing center

I feel so much better about all of it!

I also worked on desk name plates today.  I often have my kids work in pairs and also in teams of 3.  Last year I felt grouping 3 confused some of my kids because they weren't sure who to group with.  This year, I have a plan!

On their nameplate, each child will have a color and a shape at the end.  This child is a member of the purple pair and the triangle group.  Each member will be at the same table sitting next to each other but this will show him to speak to if I say "color group chat" or "shape group chat".

How do you do centers?  How do you group students for class chats?

Working in my room, pictures, and a giveaway coming soon!!

If you've been following along with my journey, you know that Friday at lunch 

I left my almost set up classroom in order to get a larger one.  

I've worked really hard since then to 

"catch up" to where I was when I decided to move rooms.

Yesterday and today, my boys and I have spent full

work days in my room (read that as 8-5) in hopes of 

it being finished by the time I go back for inservices on Thursday.

How in the world is it already time to go back to school?!?!?  

With the exception of cleaning some more of my junk and 

decorating the last bulletin board (which is behind some stuff that needs

to be moved out of my room to another room, we are pretty much done with all that I can 

do before I get student names.  

Here's some pictures of what it looked like today when we left.....

This is going to be a student work board after school starts but I hated to leave it bare

so I put all of the encouraging monster posters

in the middle of it.  My banner across the ceiling is the same one 

I used last year.

On the far left is my schedule for each day.  Color word balloons in the center and my 5 WBT 

rules are on the right.  The red pockets on the right hold my papers for each day.

My calendar....I obviously don't do calendar time.  I've never felt that it was as beneficial to my 

students as it was time-consuming for me.  We do 

morning work in the mornings that covers both math and ELA as a review

but we do not do calendar time.  The white paper under my calendar is our "Strive 65" 

behaviors and the poster will hold my birthdays once I know who my kids are.  Oh yeah, you

thought I had gotten my kids right because I said last time I had 23 but we now have so 

many that we may have to adjust or add a teacher so I may lose some.  

The empty spaces under the birthday poster will hold our school monthly calendar and lunch calendar.

Off to the right of this one you can see the bulletin board that I have not finished.  My hall board is done but I am waiting on names so I will share it later.

This weekend I'll be celebrating my one year blogiversary and my 100 follower celebration!!  Someone will win my entire store as well as prizes from a few other fabulous ladies who have

been gracious enough to share with us!!!  Come back Friday for a chance to win!!!

Surprise of the Week and a few pictures

I have been trying to go to school each day for a few hours these last couple of weeks to prepare my room and purge the extra stuff I had from last year.  Junk just seemed to grow in my room.  I was just about finished purging and was beginning to put stuff on my walls when......I heard that one of our "big" rooms was available.  

This room has its own a/c, 2 bathrooms, and is 1.5 times as big as the other rooms.  It's one of the rooms we drool over at our school.  So what does a good teacher do? Yep go to the office to ask to be moved!!!  

THEY SAID YES!!!!  

So, all my decorations.......

(I had chosen clown #2)

All of my decorations had to come down.  

My really organized teacher shelves.....all coming down.  

I started moving yesterday at lunch time and with the help of a super sweet facilities gentleman who stuck it out with me to the end, we finished a little after 4 yesterday.  It's all moved into the new room.  It is not however organized or decorated!  Did I mention that my kiddos come to meet and greet on the 5th??  

One last look at my old room.....it was nice and cozy (read: cramped) but it was home for the last year.  

Part of my new room....my four student tables are already set up.  The open door in the back left is the boys' restroom with the girls' restroom on the other side of the black bookshelves.  

The other part of my new room....excuse the coke machine!  This was going to be a teacher's lounge this year but we have too many students!  The small door in this picture is a "sink room".  I think this must have been some kind of art room long ago.  The "sink room" is about the size of a linen closet with a HUGE sink in it so it's completely unusable to me but this room is amazing!

The computers on the shelf are not mine so don't get excited yet!

A view of my his/hers bathrooms with my class library in between.  

I also got my class list yesterday and I have 23.  23!!!!!  I've honestly NEVER had 23 before in my life so that kind of worries me.  I had my centers all set up for 20 which is our "perfect class size" at our school but sadly I'm going to have to make more!  I also don't have an even number.  I hate odd numbers because someone is either left out of a partner for Whole Brain Teaching OR I have a group of three where someone really doesn't share as much.  How do you handle odd number classes?  I've asked for one more/one less but for now I have 23.  

SO that's where I am at in my classroom just one week before I meet my students for the first time.  I hope you have a great weekend!  I go back officially on Thursday!

Warning: Completely Random Thoughts with a little of school, home decor, and real life

I could really use a "Sunday Smorgasboard" linky today.  I really want to blog but my mind is a bit crazy and I haven't done anything really school related all week except actually going to school.  

On Monday, I went to say hello to everyone at school and scope out my room for next year.  I'll be staying in the same room so it will be nice not to have to wait for all of my stuff to be moved.  The floor wax LITERALLY stopped AT my door's threshold.  The hallway outside my door was waxed.  The classroom inside my door was not.  Since I can't touch anything until they finish, I figured I would take my before pictures and dream about what I want my room to look like this year.

Yes, this is what it looks like right now.  An island of tables, chairs, and boxes.....  Oh yeah, see that purple circle?  That's  a new bookshelf!!!  I now have 4!!  Not sure how I got that lucky but somehow I keep getting new ones.  AND NO, I didn't steal anyone's.  The janitor (sweet guy) was very proud and came to show me that he had given me a new bookcase! lol...

More of my "junk".......bare bare walls......oh boy, do I have a lot of work to do.....

Whew, excuse my finger....my kidney table is at the bottom left.  More of my junk in this picture with a view of the back corner.  My other "full" bookcase is right under my finger.  That makes two tall bookcases and two short ones.  I really need to figure out where to put them.

So since I couldn't get rid of my energy by working in my classroom at school, I decided to tackle a remodel project in my office at home.  We just purchased our home after renting it for two years so we are finally able to redo it and make it our own!  

My poor husband left on Monday morning thinking that everything was normal and all was well in the world.  He came home to stuff all over our bedroom and living room with the carpet and padding pulled out of this room.  He was a WEE bit shocked to say the least.  After the shock wore off (I even moved a 6 foot tall hutch by myself), he was happy that it was done and he didn't have to worry about it.  

The before pics.....I really didn't like the pepto bismol pink on the walls.  I'm not a "pink girl" to begin with but this was too much!

It looks different depending on which light you are standing under......pink or peach??  Either way, it's now gone!

After my husband climbed over numerous piles in the living room and bedroom, this is what he saw.   

More of the end of day 1 pics.....

I painted the first coat of new paint yesterday and LOVE it but yesterday was a disaster so I have no pics of that. In the middle of painting, our pup got loose and got hit by a car.  He survived but ran away for about 6 hours.  We thought he had died because we could not find him and he would not answer our call.  

After spending a couple hours looking for our dog, my oldest started complaining of not feeling well.  He's not one to complain so I knew something was really wrong.  Yep, fever and all so off to Urgent Care we went.  

My boy is 5 feet tall at 11 years old.  He's going to pass me up in NO time.  This makes me sad!  Look at those feet people!!  He's going to be a big'un!!   lol.....

Hubby texted me while at Urgent Care that our pup returned home and looked fine.  I was so excited!!!  When I got home from Urgent Care, I took the pup to the Emergency Vet clinic.  HELLO DOLLAR SIGNS!!!  Geez louise!!  They think he will be fine and that he didn't even break a bone!  We have to watch him for three days to make sure nothing inside is "leaking"....yuck!

I took this picture at about 2:30 a.m. this morning on one of my many scheduled wake-ups to check on the dog and my older boy.  The dog was actually sleeping on the side that got hit so that he could rub his nose on my youngest son's face.  It was so sweet!!!

Well that's all I have for today!  I wish I could tell you that I had these great new products or that my classroom was ready but that's not the case......for today at least!

Have a great rest of Wednesday!! See you tomorrow!

Back to School Products and Flash Freebie!

This weekend flew by so quickly and now I sit staring at a full week of training sessions.  I really don't mind the training at all but it's so hard to come out of  "summer mode" for a week.  We are used to sleeping late, going to the movies, making crafts, playing with our pets and now it's get up early, prepare for the sitter, FIND a sitter (my boys run off so many.....), and sit in class all day.  Besides I was just beginning to fill up my TPT store with new items and I don't want to lose the momentum!  But hopefully I'll come home and have things to share!

Last week I worked on a Back to School clip art set which I put in my TPT store Friday night.  

The kit comes with every graphic you see here in both color and b/w.  For this week only, you can get it here for only $2.  After this week, it will be $2.50 in my store.

After finishing my clip art set, I began working on my Back to School writing center.  This center kit should be in my store sometime this week once I finish packaging it up.  I'll explain my plans for a personal word wall for each student when I share about my writing center.

Just for the next 24 hours, I have a flash freebie in my store.  

This math center game works well with high pre-k, all kinders, and beginning first graders.  It consists of cards labeled with the numbers 1-20 and dots representing the numbers 1-20.  Students will play a game of Memory with the cards.  Even numbers are on green apples and odd numbers are on the red ones for another easy lesson.  

Go quickly and grab my Apple Number Match game in my TPT store for free!  This time tomorrow it will be $1.50.  

Thank you for stopping by!!  Please leave a comment to let me know that you were here!

Centers

Well, summer is here and I am loving it!!  My boys and I are enjoying the summer movie clubhouses at the local theaters.  We are also loving the Passport to Imagination at our local Michael's.  In fact, here is a pic of my youngest painting his Liberty Bell this morning.

During the summer I always try to plan for the next school year.  This year I'm lucky enough to be staying at the same school and in the same grade I was in last year which gives me PLENTY of planning time.  

One of my struggles last year was with centers.  Being the first year in that grade after so long I was more concerned with teaching the common core and focusing on that rather than adding on those fun extras that I love to do.   SO.....my goal this summer is to set up every single center for the entire year and have every one of them ready for the first day of school.  Yes it is a big task but I've spent lots and lots of time on Teachers Pay Teachers this week searching and I've found some great deals!  

Each week I plan to have 10 centers.  Ideally I will only have 2 kids at each center each rotation but I don't have my numbers yet.  Last year I only had 17 kids so I'm hoping that I won't have more than 20 this year.

My 10 centers are:

1.  Reading/Reading Tent

2. Computers

3. Language/Listening Center

4. Seatwork

5.  Spelling

6.  Social Living

7. Math

8.  Writing

9.  Teacher Table

10.  Math 2

What centers do you use in your room?  How do students rotate through them?  How long do you let students stay in each center?

Another goal of mine was to have my students answer a graph a week and then discuss it during the week.  I sat down and began to make a list of every graph that I wanted to use.  While  searching online for graph question ideas, I came across the perfect set!!

I don't know if you are familiar with Sailing through 1st grade but she is amazing!!  I use all of her Imagine It! creations in my room and many of her centers games are on my list for next year!  Take a minute and stop by her shop to see what's new!

Well it's time to get back to work!  I hope you have a great rest of the day!