First Day Name Search

Today was our first day back! We only went a half day, but it felt like a full day! Whew! 19 kiddos coming in with parents and Santa toy sack of supplies! It was wonderful to see so many happy faces enter my classroom! I always seem to forget how little they are at the beginning of the year and how we REALLY need to dig in to procedures. The first half day was all about welcoming them and getting to know each other. Tomorrow is when it becomes the real deal! Hope I get a good nights sleep tonight!
So this morning began as expected, lol. Our online attendance system was down which had me calling the office multiple times trying to figure out what to do! There's always something! I was so very proud of my students. I was worried that all control would be lost, but they stayed on task.  Now that is a welcoming thing to see on the first day. Our intercom system was also down which meant no announcements and a dlight difficulty with early dismissal.  We pulled through! :)

Here's a peek of what we did today...

I wrote all of my students' names in the easel in a word search. We cheered and laughed as each student circled their names! I told them I tried to trick them and that there was no way they'd find their names! This was so amusing to them! They proved me wrong! :) We discussed that they best strategy for finding our names was to look for the first uppercase letter since all names begin with an uppercase letter! Of course this activity was easy for them, but it also helped them to start learning each other's names.

We read the book, The Night Before First Grade and identified the rhyming words. 

On parent night which was a week before school began, I gave parents a sheet to fill out with their children the night before the first day. They had to draw a picture of how they felt, what they did, what they hoped their teacher would be like. After reading the story, the children shares these with their new classmates.  I got a lot of "I hope my teacher is nice, sweet, smart, and funny."  I hope I lived up to their expectations! :)  Find the freebie here

No first day would be complete without first day pictures of course! 

Newsletters!

These newsletters can be used monthly or weekly. For each new month there is a different newsletter (same framework) with cute clip art that goes with the month! :) You can also add a heading to the top, "Ms. Savannah's First Grade Class". The headings to each section are: reminders, events, what we're learning, and at home. These can not be changed, but you can include your information in the sections with a text box.

My newsletter all filled out!  I added a few other text boxes! I usually only send a monthly newsletter included with events coming up for the month and also what we will be learning about! I also throw in a "secret word" to help motivate parents to read it! If their child can find the word and show me the next day, I give them a class Dojo point! My students insist that their parents read the newsletter as soon as it comes out!

THESE ARE ONLY IN BLACK AND WHITE!

In the" at home" section, I usually tell parents what to work on at home and homework reminders.
Get it here for $3.00!

New ROOM! 2016-2017

There is always some delay in my posts! So hard to keep up with at times! Here is an update! At the end of last year we were given our classroom assignments and grades! I got to stay in first! Woot! But... I moved to a classroom down the hall.  I was okay with this (am I crazy!?!) because the new room was a clean slate, had a dry erase board, and had no wall AC units.  Most our classrooms in my school still have chalkboards and no white boards! Yuk! Plus we have AC units that take up most space on an entire wall.  My new room has air vents in the ceiling! MORE WALL SPACE!

I know most of you know Melanie's beautiful classroom decorations from SchoolGirl Syle. I simply fell in LOVE with the Color My Classroom decor. I knew that it was what I've been waiting for! All the colors! My heart swoons! I began a week after school ended in June. I have worked ALL... SUMMER... LONG.. on my classroom! Our school allows us to paint any colors we choose.  My last room was orange and mint green.  It was nice but after a while it was too loud! Not to mention any decor I placed on my walls had to match.  So in June I painted bright white and a light gray which turned out so beautifully! I figure as much as I change my mind on decor every year, I will be able to pick any look and on these walls it'll still look great!  I took Melanie's advice or what I've seen her do and painted all of my furniture to match.  Let's face it! Ain't NONE of our furniture matches unless you are so lucky.  Excuse my "ain't" but I have a slight attitude here. ;) We were once again denied any new furniture other than some chairs. My friend from third grade had NO chairs up until parent night I'm pretty sure! Not sure how that happened.

Anyways... moving on...

My last classroom room had a GIANT rug for 30 students to sit on which was too large for  my classroom.  I donated that to a classroom down the hall and wrote a Donor's Choose to get a new rug funded!  It was funded in less than two hours! :) It came in a few hours before parent night.  I was so happy, minus the new carpet smell that filled my room.  Here are some pictures, although I am STILL working!

Writing Center: YES, I copied Melanie's cute supplies idea!

My small group table! Spray painted my chairs to match my color scheme! Ignore the box in the background! I'm still working!

 Check out that new rug!!! Thank you Donor's Choose and the selfless people who donated! It matches all the fabric in my classroom!

 My theme is art so what is better than having my desk groups named after an artist! "da Vinci table please line up!" I was low on cash so I created nameplates by cutting the paint chip border up and putting my students' names on the cut pieces.

I painted this old computer table white and added fabric beneath to hide my junk! On top I show off my cute math manipulative buckets!

 I spray painted these chairs and purchased the cute pillows from Amazon.  What kiddo doesn't want to sit there and read!?!

 The desk took a little bit of work, but it turned out really nice! What a nice place to sit after school to plan, grade papers, and just take a moment to myself!

 Crates to store tissues, wipes, etc. The fabric covers my cubbies which I stored my things.  I have a very small closet that doesn't give me much space.  The students now have a cubby by the door.  I will post that later!

 I LOVE my book area! I painted both shelves of course! Labeled all of my books by guided reading level.

This room is going to ROCK this year! I have a few more places to show, but I'm still working on it!

Tops and Bottoms -Frist Grade Edition

About a year ago I posted about a mini unit that I made for the book, Tops and Bottoms and plants. This passed school year since I am now teaching first, I created a unit for my firsties!  It is available on TpT.  It was great and the kiddos LOVED it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/1st-Grade-Tops-and-Bottoms-Vegetables-and-Plants-2486586


-Assessing 10 more and 10 less.
-Assessing how many 10's and 1's in a two digit number.
-Nonfiction Reader on different vegetables.  They draw in the pictures!
-Punctuation assessment
-Reading  comprehension assessment
-and more!