Saturday, September 5, 2015

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

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Peek at My Week: Week 3

Good Morning!

It is a beautiful Sunday morning and I am actually done with my lesson plans for this next week. I am very excited for this week, not just because it is a 4 day week for us, but because we are starting a Science unit. I love teaching Science and doing experiments with my firsties.

To show you my plans I will be linking up with Mrs. Will's Kindergarten for her Peek at My Week linky. I love this linky! I have already gotten great ideas from others who join the party and it has really forced me to have my lessons done earlier, instead of 10 or 11 Sunday night.


This week I will be starting an Earth Science unit. We will talk about landforms, rocks, and soil this week. We will also be continuing to learn how to use our math interactive notebooks. We began them last week and will add a few more pieces this week. I will also be introducing our math key words wall. I want my students to learn the meanings of all the words that we use in math. I believe that learning the terminology and understanding it is just as important as learning to manipulate numbers in different ways.

Links to all available packets can be found below.

Math Journal Prompts Set 1
My Remarkable Rock Report
Math Key Words
GeoBoard It

Thanks for letting me share my plans for the upcoming week! Have a wonderful Sunday and a wonderful week!

Ashley

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Peek at My Week: Week 2

Hello Again!

This morning I am linking up with Mrs. Will's Kindergarten for her Peek at My Week linky. I am loving this linky. It is motivating me to complete lesson plans earlier and provide images of the packets I am pulling things from. This proved very helpful last week when I forgot what packet held what I was looking for.


I am very excited for this week. Last week was the first full week of switching for the different subjects with our little firsties and it went really well. I am loving only having to focus on half of the subjects that I used to teach.

This week our theme is Arizona. We spend a week looking at Arizona symbols and history so that students can become a little more knowledgeable about the state they are growing up in. We will start by reading The Three Little Javelinas and then work through a state symbols book from Melissa Schaper. We will end it by making the Arizona state flag to hang in our room.

I am also introducing number bonds this week. Our school uses Saxon math but I weave as much Singapore math in as I can because I love how much easier it is for students to master things when using those methods. I am using pieces from two packets this week. Both packets are from Brenda Cosby and the links can be found below. 

Math Journal Prompts Set 1
Math Journal Prompts Set 2

Have a wonderful week!

Ashley

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Peek at My Week - First Full Week

Hi Everyone!

Well it has been over a month since my last blog post. I have had many adventures with family; some planned and a few unexpected. I ended it all by heading right back to the classroom. Life is finally starting to go back into a routine so with the encouragement of some dear friends I am returning to my blog. For my return I decided to try something new. I am linking up with Mrs. Will's Kindergarten for her Peek at My Week linky.

This will be our first full week of school and we are diving right in. I am excited. This year my teaching partner and I have decided to do the teacher switch, so I am only teaching math, science, social studies, and handwriting. It definitely is making lesson planning a lot easier.


We start off our week with a lesson in Creation. We make a book for the days of creation and then we follow it up with a coloring activity the next day. In previous years we have used the book template that allows for our kiddos to draw the pictures but this year we have less time so we are using the book template that already has pictures for the kiddos to color.

We use Saxon math and it starts off really slow for first grade so we spend several days learning about Mathematicians. We did two activities last week (books about what good mathematicians do and the numbers of me) and we do the parts of a mathematician this week. This helps make the first part of Saxon math a little more exciting as well as the beginning of the year assessments that we have them take.

We also start with a Social studies unit all on routines and rules within the home and school. It is a really short unit and allows us to purposely spend a week reviewing routines and rules while covering needed material within our curriculum.

The Days of Creation and I Am a Mathematician packets can be found in my TPT store if you want to get a glimpse of what we do.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Ashley

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Together We Are Better: Making Improvements

Good Morning,

I am continue to catch up by linking up with Schroeder Shenanigans in Second and Lucky Little Learners for this months Together We Are Better linky.

 

This month's linky topic goes along perfectly with thoughts that have been swimming in my head all summer. This coming school year I will be doing a teacher split with my  partner teacher. I will be teaching all the little firsties math, science, social studies, and handwriting. She will be teaching the rest of the subjects. This requires some big changes in my room. I no longer need all the reading, writing, and phonics posters in my room. Along with this I have been reading Mindsets in the Classroom, Teaching with Intention, and Learn Like a Pirate. These books have also given me lots of ideas for my classroom.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos at this time. I have only been in my room twice since school let out a month ago so it is still a disaster. It is also slow going since I bring my one year old with me.

All of my bulletin boards/covered wall spaces are receiving face lifts. I have chosen new colors (blue, green, and purple) for my room. One of my boards is becoming an "I Can" wall where I will post the statements for science, math, and social studies. I am adding a space near my classroom library for a bible wall. This will be where I post bible projects and verses throughout the year. Outside my room I am turning one of my walls into a gratitude wall. I will be having my kids write what they are thankful for once a week and then posting their thoughts on that board so that we can be reminded of all the wonderful gifts we have all been blessed with. I have not decided quite yet what the other boards/wall spaces will be yet but pictures will be posted when I finish my room.

I am also excited to have expanded my library/meeting area. It has always been small and in a corner of my room. We have always struggled to fit in that space so this year I have moved furniture around and made it larger so that we can easily fit in for class meetings and they kids have more reading space too.

That's all I have for now but I will be in my classroom all this week so I will try to add a few photos to show a little of what I am talking about above.

Ashley

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Learn Like a Pirate: Chapter 5

Good Morning!

I am continuing to catch up this morning by finally linking up with The Primary Gal for chapter 5 of Learn Like a Pirate.

 
This chapter was all about the different ways that Solarz gives the responsibility of running the classroom to his students. He has a group of formal jobs that are assigned to students and everything else is considered a collaborative responsibility. I like that he teaches his students all of the things that need to be done to keep the classroom running and then empowers them to jump in to complete these tasks on their own when they see that they need to be completed.

I have thought about how to accomplish this with first graders and I haven't come to a conclusion yet. I have decided to expand the jobs that I assign to students this coming year which will give them more responsibility in their classroom. I will have to think a little longer on how to instill that collaborative responsibility in my little firsties because I love the idea of them being more observant and concerned about how their classroom looks and runs.

Solarz continues on to talk about rituals vs. routine. He states that rituals are activities that follow the same pattern but are motivational for students and make students want to be a part of it. Routines are activities that follow a similar pattern but are not motivational to students. After reading his descriptions I could clearly see the few parts of my day that are ritual and the larger amount that are unfortunately routine. I do like how he pointed out the routine parts of our days can be turned into rituals for our students. My goal will be to turn those routines into rituals for my students. I am hoping that by doing that I can make things easier for subs when they are in my classroom. I try not to be absent but I do end up staying home more with my sweet girl when she is sick and feel that my subs would have an easier time if my students took more control of the routines.

My goal for this coming year will be to expand the classroom jobs and work on making rituals within my classroom versus routines. Solarz is excellent in painting such a wonderful picture of a student led classroom that you can't help but get pumped up and ready to dive in to changing your classroom. I look forward to reading all the other thoughts and ideas over on the Primary Gal's blog.

Ashley

The inLinkz code is:

Monday, July 6, 2015

Teaching with Intention: Chapter 5

Good Evening!

I took last week off to deep clean my house and then spend time with visiting family so tonight begins catch up. Tonight I am finally linking up with From Kindergarten with Love and The Kindergarten Smorgasboard  for chapter 5 of Teaching with Intention.
 
What a great chapter! This was a beautifully laid out lesson plan to help students comprehension grow and develop. I love the idea of using a poster board as a folder to post our schema (what we think we know), new learning, and misconceptions. I also love that she uses post it notes (in different colors of course) to post the thoughts of the students throughout lessons and readings. That is a great way to show them an example of moving thoughts around or evening "deleting" a thought if it is not accurate. It is also a great way to teach them to pull thoughts from their reading and write them on post it notes to share with the class. This will help them remember the information from the reading and it will give them the power to teach/share something with their classmates. This will be a great tool to use this year for my science and social studies classes.

Ashley