Well the inevitable happened... first cold of the school year.. lasted almost a week. You know how it goes though, better for a week, then sick for a week, then better, then sick until June ;) My overused phrase of the week has been "hands and fingers away from your nose and mouth."
I finally took some pictures as I've started to settle into my new classroom. I also found out this week that I have another new girl starting November 1. So happy to see the school and my classroom growing so quickly!
My room is not huge, but there is plenty of wiggle space. This is also the first time I can't fit my whole room into one shot, so that's a good thing :D My husband is supposed to be painting a Very Hungry Caterpillar mural for me on that empty wall over the library. This isn't an immediate item.. might be a Christmas break project or something. We (more he) have been super busy making our new house a home.
This is our meeting area. A lovely colleague and close friend of mine set up her meeting area like this a few years ago so this idea was snagged from her.
Here is a close up of the calendar area. The pattern pieces are made by me and can be found here. We count to the 100th day by using base ten blocks in separate baggies. This introduces them to place value and counting by 10's. It's similar to the straw system that many teachers use, but I like that the base ten blocks is a concrete manipulative that they'll see for many years to come in math.
We have been reviewing a letter each day and I found this gem. It has a movement for each letter of the alphabet. My kiddos get so excited to find out what they get to do each day.
Love the nice long window. Dollar store curtains. Dig? As you can see, I'm also continuing with the clip chart. It's worked well in the past and a HUGE motivator for my competitive boys.
Word wall..
This table set is a work in progress. Another husband project.. he wants to finish sanding and then stain it. This is the word work area. 2 students at a time do word work and those 2 wooden things will also be painted and contain their stamps, white boards, letter tracers, magnets, etc. for word work.
Here is our classroom library. It is organized the same way I've done it in the past. So you can read an old post about my classroom library here.
And lastly, this is Pinterest inspired. As the students walk back in the classroom I'll give them a sight word or letter (differentiation at it's finest!) that they have to high five. My colleague and best buddy teaches prek and she saw this on Pinterest too so has the kids high five their names before they come in.
Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into my classroom. Stay tuned for a post on literacy. A few of my pumpkins with little alphabet recognition in September began reading level A's this week. LOVVVE the glow on the face when I praise them for being READERS.
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