First Week of School with Distance Learning

 I did it! I actually survived the first week of school with a new group of students that I only get to see through a computer screen. I felt so many emotions while navigating this experience that I sometimes felt like I was on a roller coaster ride. I think it will continue to feel that way for awhile longer as our district just made the decision to continue to with online learning for an unspecified amount of time. Even with this wild ride of emotions and continual changes I will still give this new group of kiddos my all and I will share with you how I teach my new kiddos through my computer screen.

Every year that I have been a teacher I have always spent the first week of school doing fun getting to know you activities, going over rules and procedures, and doing activities that will help us build a strong classroom community. I did not want to give that up so I searched for ways to still make that happen, but digitally. I found a variety of activities, resources, and tools that were a great help to me that I will share with you in hopes that it will help you in your first week of digital teaching. 

We are required to go live with our students twice a day at this time so I split my activities between those two time periods. I began with introductions. Before our first meeting I had typed my students names into a spinning wheel. I presented my screen so my new students could watch it spin and see who it landed on each time. They loved it and couldn't wait for it to land on them so they could introduce themselves and tell us something fun they did over the summer and what they were excited about this school year. You can click here to find the website with the wheel we used. 

                                

As a second grade team we also found a cute digital All About Me activity that the kids create and then share if they choose. We are still working on those but they are turning out so cute and we are learning so much about our kids. We got the activity from the amazing Amy Lemons and Katie King. It is a free resource that goes along with the story Our Class is a Family. You can find the resource here.                     

                              

Along with Our Class is a Family, I read several of my other favorite beginning of the year stories. I started with First Day Jitters on day 1. On day 2 we read The Invisible Boy and on day 3 we read Yoko. 

That is how we spent our first three days of our digital school year. We have many plans for this week that I will share with you soon. Remember we can do this!

Ashley

Back to School

It's that time of year again. The back to school madness has commenced. The never ending to do lists have been growing at a steady rate and people are clogging the aisles of local stores trying to fulfill the school supply lists for all of their little ones.


Normally I am right in the middle of this madness but this year is a little different for me. I am not teaching this year. I will be an aid in a kindergarten classroom part time. Its different but exciting. I will get to spend a lot more time with my little one before she heads off to kindergarten in a year which I am very excited about.

One of the things that my little one and I love to do together is create things. We also love to show her teachers as well as those I work with that we are thinking of them and are thankful for all they do. I want my daughter to grow up understanding how hard her teachers work to give her all she needs to be successful in her academics. So for her Meet the Teacher event we decided to create a little survival kit for all her preschool teachers. It was a lot of fun to make and perfect for small budgets. We were able to get all our supplies at Target and Dollar Tree. You can see how they turned out in the picture below.

My little one also helped me put together a cute little gift for my new kindergarten team that I am helping out this year. Those items we found at Target.

The tags for both of these back to school gifts can be found in my Teacher Gift Tags Through the Year packet.

It was so much fun putting these together and it showed those teachers in our lives that we are thinking about them and thankful for all they do!!

Ashley

Together We are Better: Classroom Reveal

Hello Again!

 

Today I am excited to be linking up with Angie from Lucky Little Learners and Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans for their monthly linky Together We are Better. This month is the classroom reveal. I am several days behind, which unfortunately is normal for me but I am super excited! This will be the first time I have ever shared photos of my classroom.

My favorite color is blue and I love things that are bright. I also love the jungle so you will see a little of all three in my classroom. I changed my room a lot this year. I really love it and I hope you do. Just keep in mind that I am not amazingly creative like so many of you out their. I am a pretty simple girl.

This is my reading area, although a lot more than reading happens here. We also use this area for morning meeting, calendar time, and any stories I read. I made this area much larger over the summer. This is probably my favorite area in my room. I love when we are all gathered here for calendar or stories. I also love the addition of my bible wall. I work at a Christian school so we teach Bible lessons every day. I love to do special projects to go along with those stories and now I can display them as a reminder of those lessons for the kids.

This is my desk area. We call this "The Lion's Den." This is the only part of the room that is off limits. This is where I will prep projects, sort, plan etc. and I can sometimes get a little messy. I switched everything over to drawers and bins this year to take away some of the clutter on my back counter. I have a drawer for each subject and that is where all the upcoming activities are stored. The bins are labeled Monday through Friday and that is where the week's work goes. This way if I have a sub they can just pull work from that day's bin. I keep all my teaching books and teachers guides on the white book shelf and then the tan one that is off to the side.

This is the back of my classroom. I always post the schedule every day so my students know what they are doing and the order we will be completing each subject. In a few months I will add mini clocks next to each one so that they will be able to tell the time we would like to begin each subject or activity as well. We are also adding brag tags this year to our first grade classrooms. These are hung on the other closet door. Our cubbies hold a variety of items this year because our students switch between both first grade rooms for different subjects so we don't rely on our desks very much.

The bulletin board that you see in the bottom corner is our Thankful board. My students will be writing a Thankful Thought every week until the end of the school year. This will hopefully remind them of how truly blessed they are. 

This is my teacher group area. Any time I meet with a group for math it is back here. As you can see I also use the back wall to display activities from science and social studies lessons. I keep all my math group materials in the four baskets on the counter. The baskets are underneath Little D the healthy dragon who teaches my little firsties the importance of eating healthy. It is a really awesome curriculum that I purchased through the state of Arizona. I have used it now for seven years.

I was able to create my own labels this year and I love them. You can see some on my math group bins, manipulatives, and supply drawers. I labeled everything I could label. I also store items in the crate seats. These crates hold all of my student flash card sets. 

This is the other side of my classroom. I love that row of cabinets. It holds so much. I have one section for art supplies, one for science, one for math, and the left over cupboard space goes to kleenex boxes, ziploc bags, and social studies. I am still building my social studies materials. My mth and science supplies are a little out of control though, which makes sense because those are my favorite to teach. The cupboard doors will eventually display math, science, and social studies Key Words. We just introduced our first set of math words this week so they are still being used in the pocket chart.

The front table is where I keep our science intereactive notebooks, good work baskets for both classes and our I Can statements board. You can also see my math group baskets hanging off to the side. The I Can board is new this year. I am excited to start displaying these for my students to see.

Well that is my classroom. It is simple, bright, and perfect for me. Hope you enjoyed my first ever classroom reveal, I did!

Ashley

TPT Sellers Challenge: Makeover Madness

Hi Everyone!

So I have joined the TpT Sellers Challenge this summer. Our week one assignment was to makeover a free or paid product. I have several products on my list that will be receiving makeovers this summer just because they were made before I had the crazy collection of awesome clip art that I have now. The one I finished today is one of my free products that I use at the beginning of the school year. I have a bottle of bubbles tied with a cute tag waiting for my new kiddos on their desk when they come to school. The tags were rather sad looking but thanks to the adorable Bubbles clip art from Educlips I think they look much better and I am excited to use them. This is just one of several pages. I hope to makeover a few more files this week as well.

Along with making over this file I also figured out Bloglovin' and got that all set up. I am learning so many new things on this journey and I have a feeling this challenge will have me learning even more. You can follow it here if you choose to.

See you next week for challenge number2!!

Ashley