Back to school!

  Hello there!  Happy almost first complete week of school.  I was talking to the secretary at my school and we were saying how nice that is was a 3-day weekend (last week).  And I said school should start gradually, one day a week, then two, three, and so on.  It would make the transition for the kiddos AND me that much easier.  Do you agree? LOL!  That being said, I must say that I love my new kiddos.  I am so happy to have an entire class that is first grade.  Don't get me wrong, the combo class last year was really a dream class and taught ME a lot.  But there is something to be said about an entire class that is in the same grade!

  Let's see, here are some things we did.  The basic back to school activities.  We started with my First Grade Smarty pack, which they loved! I thought I had taken a photo of them working on this, but I was obviously too busy teaching/modeling to do so;)

We also did some graphing of how we get to school, favorite colors, etc.(FYI, I just spent 20 minutes trying to look through my files looking for the back to school pack I got it from.  Turns out, I have like 25 BTS packs! Not really, but a lot and I couldn't find it).

Here are my two Melonhead kiddos gluing how they get to school.  They did pretty well.  I gave directions first, and they followed, who knew???

  Don't mind the poor cutting skills (mine, not the kiddos).  We counted and then recounted until it all made sense.  Our first graph of the year!

Ahhh...Journals.  My kiddos love them.  I mean so much that they came in the first day of school asking where they were (thank you kindergarten teachers).  I actually did not start on the first day (shocking, for me), but we just had too many procedures to go over.  So day 2, it was.  I created this set of journals last year, and I love them (if I do say so myself, LOL).  There is a topic every other day, with the second day always being free write.  We started with a topic (which I normally do not do (but somehow, the machine messed my journals up;))  So I went over the basics and we added the date together, underlined words in the topic, and talked about what a good journal entry looks like.  I then created my own as a model and they were off.  They were to write 3 or more sentences, and they did pretty well.  I could quickly see where they were with writing.

(click on the journal picture if you would like to take a look).  Now during journal time, I do something that many do not like to do.  I read EVERY.SINGLE.JOURNAL.  yep.  I do.  It is the only way I have found that I can keep up with how my kiddos are doing and what my focus needs to be.  I do not however, pick apart each entry.  I focus on differnt things.  It is a lengthy process that I should get down on this here blog...one day.

Before I go, I thought I would end it with an organizational tip that I picked up from The Clutter-Free Classroom.  She organized all those donated zip bags into a cardboard box and then stored it.  I loved the idea when I saw it, but then forgot about it.  I really don't need to find another place to store a box(I am out of space), but then I thought of something.  I have this 3 drawer cart by the sink in my room.  I decided to empty the middle drawer and use it to store my ziploc bags.  We only ask for 2 sizes, quart and gallon, so I divided it in half.  Not quite in half, but you know what I mean.  And they ALL fit!  Ahh, so much easier grabbing a bag for items.  And no hidden ziploc boxes around the room.

  Here is to hopping that this next week is a good one!!