My Classroom is Ready!

My classroom is finished and ready for open house!  I have had a great summer getting my room ready and preparing for all the new changes coming this fall.   I have enjoyed getting ready with my carpool buddy.   She loves teaching as much as I do and we share the love of creating new things and putting the finishing touches on our classrooms.  She is an awesome teacher and inspires me every day!

I am excited to start a new school year, with a new reading series, a new smart board and my first ever brand new rug in 32 years of teaching. I have 13 kids and it is going to be a much easier year. I have done a lot of work with the new series and am looking forward to doing my lessons on the smart board. Check out the pictures below of my classroom. I love how I have it set up! 

 

 

 It has been a very busy summer. We started with our son, Paul, getting married and it was a beautiful family and friend event.  Check out the video here but grab a kleenix!  Then Dave and I took a wonderful vacation that covered 12 states.  We went 3600 miles with the garden gnome (that Anne, our daughter gave Dave for father’s day) and have great pictures to share.  We went to some really fun places and ate some amazing food along the way.   We visited my Dad and his wife, Vera in Florida.  We stopped in to see my friend, Toni, in Georgia.  Anne joined us in one of our favorite places… Nashville.  There is so much to do there and we always leave wanting to come back!  Check out just a few pics!

                                                                                              

 

I also have all my binders done and ready to start the school year.  I worked hard on my calendar math last year and it is all done now and ready to go for the school year.  I love the science binder I had last year and it too is ready to go.  I found some more exciting and fun experiments that I will add along the way to go with our new reading themes.  New this year, I am adding an “Office Binder”.  This binder will include a fluency component, writing focus with anchor charts, an updated dictionary and a mini –thematic word wall.  There will be a reading focus with anchor charts and vowel and sound cards.   I can’t wait to use this new resource with my kids!

 

I hope to take more time writing my blog this year.  Another exciting change is a student teacher during the second nine weeks.  He is so excited and it will be fun to have an extra pair of hands and new fresh ideas. 

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

First Graders From Mars

We had a great time this week learning about space.  We made a project that showed how the moon goes around the Earth, how the Earth to go around the sun.  It really made it clearer for the students.   I also used space units from Jodi Southard.  The class also made a diagram of the phrases of the moon from her unit. Her units are also great for math and literacy centers and the kids love the fun pictures and activities.  We created cute aliens and wrote descriptions based on a free unit from Mrs. Tabb.    We read our descriptions and matched them to the correct alien.  The class had a great time with this project.

Here are the fun aliens we created in our class.

 

Calendar Math

Every day in my classroom, we start with our calendar math pages.  Each child has a binder to hold these pages.  We practice our math skills that are based on common core standards and follow the Houghton Mifflin Expression math series.  I have also added constructive responses to my pages to encourage the children to create their own math problems.  These pages have been a great way to practice a variety of skills and to check for student understanding of these skills.   I have also modified these pages for one of my struggling students to help him work at his level. My class does a great job each day and has really made good progress with their math skills.

Cover



Sample page from unit 3

 

Sample page from unit 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trip Book

When children in my classroom take a vacation I like to send a "Trip Book" with them to journal about the experience.  I had a parent who told me she still has her child's book from when he was in first grade many years ago. I am selling the book on TeachersPayTeachers check it out here.





                      

First Grade Scientists

I have seen so many good ideas for using science journals with kids.  But I wanted to put together a complete unit that covers what I think is important to help my students learn about scientists and the scientific method .  So I have put together "My Science Journal Pages" that I can use with my first graders.  Here is what I came up with to start teaching science with my class.

This last week, we had fun putting our science journal binders together. 
First, we put our covers on the front of the binder.
Next we started our table of contents.  We will add to the table of contents each time we add a new page to our binder. We will also number the pages as we go.
Then we went over our science journal expectations. (got this idea from the blog, kindergartenkindergarten check out all her cool ideas on science journals and experiments to use with young children)
We add the free scientific method booklet, "What Do Scientists Do?" that I got at Deanna Jump's Teachers Pay Teachers Store linked here. 
We brainstormed and discussed what scientists do and filled in the boxes on our worksheet. 

The class made cute scientists and I took pictures of each child dressed as a scientist. We wore scientist badges. I will add the picture to the bottom of the "I am a scientist because...." worksheet.   Lastly, we filled out the worksheet "Things I Want to Learn About in Science" with our 4th grade buddies.

This unit will be found soon at my Teachers pay Teachers store here .  Check out  "My Experiment Worksheet"  here that is free and can be used with any experiment.  It follows the scientific method. I plan to use this worksheet with the experiments from each of my science units throughout the year.  I am looking forward to working with my first graders on their science journals.  Below are some sample pages from my unit.

Classroom Pictures

 

I moved into a new room this summer. It was a great chance to purge

and organize my materials. I love my new arrangement and

look forward to my first graders getting off to a great start.

 

 

 

                                         Here is my classroom as you come in the door.

Classroom Library Pictures - books are labeled and ready for kids.

 

 These are more views of my classroom. I am so excited to have all my teaching resources and read alouds in order on my shelf.  Hopefully no more looking for books in 3 different places.

                                  Everything is in a place and there is no clutter.  Love It!

Getting Started

This is my first time blogging, so here we go.....
I am very excited about moving into a new classroom.  It has been great to purge and organize my classroom. I will be putting my classroom pictures on very soon to show all my hard work.  I have also been working on all kinds of new things to use in my classroom.  I have also been updating my materials from the past to make them more user friendly.  My plan is to start putting things on Teachers Pay Teachers and using this blog to help me get the word out.   So I hope you follow me as I take this new adventure.