Classroom Pics and Tour!

LOVE my new group of firsties!!  They were SO well behaved, listened well, followed directions, etc. etc.  Knock on wood ;)  Really tho, they are a wonderful group.  I'm very excited for this year and all of the new things I want to try.  I think they will be able to handle it all well.
Now, drum roll please........ Here are the classroom pics :) enjoy!

The door... love those paper fans in our classroom colors :)

Entering the room... the blue round table is the word work/writing center and the two shelves behind it hold supplies like dictionaries, thesauruses, letters of all kinds (foam, magnets, tiles, stickers, etc.).

Here are the desk groups.  There are 5 groups sorted by the cubby colors (purple, red, green, orange, blue) at the center of each desk grouping.  They hold their crayon baggies, scissors, and glue.  LOVE LOVE LOVE my new carpet with the squares labeled 1-25.  I can do a carpet seating chart now.  Woohoo no more fighting about who sits where... fingers crossed 

Better view of the word work/writing center.  There is the pocket chart with all of their writing folders, labeled and ready to go.  I have 5 crate seats that my mom and dad helped me make last year.  They survived last year's lils and are still going strong.  Great seats and storage!  Highly recommend making them.  I placed foam on top of a sturdy wooden board (a little over .5 in thick) and then stretched yellow vinyl over the top and stapled underneath.  This is where I needed help.  I stretched and held the vinyl in place while my dad used the staple gun to secure it.  Lastly, I looped a ribbon and stapled it on the underside too.  This makes it easier to lift the lid by pulling on the ribbon.  Lots of posters ala the lovely blog ladies that I found on pinterest.  http://www.zeekszoo.blogspot.com/2012/03/writing-posters.html and oh gees can't find the blog where the A Sentence poster came from... sorry!  and the Bb Dd posters are from Mrs. Carroll http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/search/label/B%20and%20D  The alphabet is above this board and the Word Wall above that.  Quite a stretch to get those up there... :)

There's a better Word Wall pic!  I have 2 computers for the kiddos to use.  We only use them for playing educational games online (like starfall.com).  The Star Student board is up and ready to go!  I got those quote bubbles and stars from Pat Catans.  They are felt and were quite tricky to hang and make them stay hung.  Then you have my desk area (a mess right now in the pic :)).  The Birthday Board is up behind my desk.  I bought Erica Bohrer's Birthday Board pack http://ericabohrer.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Birthdays.  Can't wait to take their pics and post them on the board.  It may get a little tricky tho because I have 2 sets of twins, one set of triplets, and 2 sets of students (not related) who are born on the same day!  YIKES!  Thank goodness she included blank number circles so I can write the repeated numbers.  Whew!  And last but not least for this pic is the listening center with the lime green table cloth.

Here we have our mailboxes and math center area.  LOVE these carpets.  Got them from Big Lots.  The colors go perfectly with the room. :)  The shelves are sad and empty for now but will fill up with the buckets for math centers.  Thinking of putting a Boggle math board on the radiator... hmmm.  Got that amazing idea from....http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Boggle-Math-Boards-Mega-Pack-288469

Here is the leveled library that I made with our old reading series leveled readers.  The yellow bucket holds our Phonics Phones that my mom and I made with PVC piping.  The blue bin holds animal masks that the kiddos can use to help them focus on the words when they read at centers.  We'll see how that works... it sounds fun but could quickly escalate to the land of sillies.

This is our classroom library.  Last summer my mom helped me sort ALL of the books into categories.  Each bin has a label on the front and then every book in that bin has the same picture from the label in a smaller size taped to the top left corner.  This system worked wonderfully last year.  I didn't have to monitor it because the kids simply knew where to return the books.  Hopefully, the system keeps going strong this year.  LOVE my library!   

Here is the Boggle board (for making words).  I have worksheets in the folder above the door and clipboards in the blue bin.  The kiddos write down the words they make on the worksheet.  I update the letters on the board about once a week when we learn a new sound.  Our first sound is short a so that is why a is the only vowel.  Also, you can see some paper and art supply storage and our religious table.  

Here is the math info area.  It's across the room and diagonal from the math center carpet, but that's just how it had to be this year.  The Gumball Math wall worked wonders for last year's firsties.  They rocked their fast facts.  To learn more about that amazing idea go here: http://www.madefor1stgrade.com/p/math-resources.html.  While pinteresting over the summer, I say this behavior chart and loved it so much more than the regular traffic light.  I adore the fact that students can move up for good choices and even better and super behavior.  My lils seemed pretty excited about it today, too, so hopefully it will do its magic. :)  I got it here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/clip-it-behavior-chart-675475  Oh, and you can see half of my SmartBoard.  So blessed to have one.  I use it every day along with an Elmo or document camera.  Life changing tools.

Here is our morning routine area.  We do calendar, the date, counting down to the 100th day, the number of the day, and the weather.  Sorry it is kind of tough to see all of the neat things in this area but the kiddos were arriving in the hall and I was snapping pics real quick before they came in.  It's hard to see but by the door are foam Die Cut hand prints.  I write our vocab words on cards and tape them to the hands.  They have to read and high-five a vocab word before they leave the room for a bathroom break, specials, etc.  This was not my idea... again pinterest but I can't find the link... :/  Oh, and the Schema anchor chart above the colors came from here: http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/2013/07/throwback-thursday-and-few-million.html

If you have not discovered wordle.net, you need to.  It is the coolest site ever.  You can make word collages of all kinds.  Found this idea on pinterest which led me to this blog: http://www.thedigitalscoop.com/the_digital_scoop/2012/07/back-to-school-wordle-project.html

Lastly, I made this lil craft over the summer. I got the frame and felt flowers from Michaels.  I painted the frame green and wrote the words with Bic Metallic permanent markers.  LOVE those things.  We did not have time to take our pictures in the frame today, so hopefully we can do it tomorrow!

Well that's it folks.  I hope you enjoyed my pics and tour.  As you can see, so many of you are an inspiration and all over my room.  Thank you again!  Here's to a GREAT school year!  Now on to typing up the class rules we made today and my behavior plan so that the families know what's up.  I should have done that before doing all of this, but I was excited to share with you.  :)

Samantha :)