First Full Week Of School!!

What a week!! It was l.o.n.g. but great! My class is still working on getting into a routine. Hopefully, we will have one by the end of next week...fingers crossed!!

I began the week teaching nouns. Every year, my students enjoy cutting pictures out of magazines and sorting them into the categories of "person, place, thing, or animal".  I set the Classroom Timer on 15 minutes and said "GO"! 

I was thrilled that every student was able to do this activity regardless of his/her disability! I think the ending result was fantastic!! 

A few teachers have pinned pics on Pinterest of students writing on tables with dry erase markers. Before this week, I had never allowed students to do this. Well, I decided to give it a go and my first grade babies LOVED writing on the table at their seats. It wasn't messy at all AND it saved several sheets of paper!!

As I wrote number words on the board, my students copied the words, wrote the digits, and built the numbers using linking blocks. I will definitely allow them to write on the tables again! 

Did you notice my blog button pic on the bottom of every photo? I watched the Meg's New Box Of Crayons periscope when she said every one should watermark all photos when posting on social sites.  I hopped on the app store and found a few apps to chose from. If you want to do this too, you can find free watermark apps that are easy to use! Here's the one I chose. This app cost $0.99. It's very user friendly! 

I hope all of you are having a relaxing weekend! 

I Survived Day 1, Day 2, & Day 3!!

Well, 3 days down, 177 to go!  Just kidding!! So far (knock on wood) my new school year has been fabulous! Since I'm an inclusion classroom teacher, my class number is low. My role began with 17 students...Insert clapping...THEN, two students moved away and another one is being home schooled. That's right friends, I have 14 students in my room. Yep, you read that correctly...F.O.U.R.T.E.E.N... I am celebrating that small number as long as I can because I know I will get the next couple of students who register for first grade.  

My boys were so excited to begin school. My oldest is in fourth grade and my youngest is in third grade. 

I have a new assistant this year. She recently graduated college so she still has a ton of energy and lots of great ideas! I am sooooo blessed to have her!!

 

We began our day reading this book. Isn't it great??? I have never had a student who didn't love it!

 

Before we read the book, I asked my students what "Jitters" were. I loved their responses!

 

After reading the book, we drank jitter juice. Since some liked it and others didn't, we had to make a graph. I totally forgot to take a pic of it!!

 Later on that day, we discussed all the rules. I made sure to include rules for the classroom, cafeteria, playground, and bus. Afterwards, they watched "No David" on youtube. When David would break a rule I had previously talked about, they told on him. It was too cute!!

We read one of my favorites, Chrysanthemum. It's one of the best books I've used to teach feelings to my students. If you have any favorites, please comment below. I will be sure to check them out! :)

  

The students put a linking cube on each vowel. It was a great way to observe whether or not the students knew what vowels were. I'd seen pics of this in the past but never planned it until this year. It was a great activity!
Of course, you have to do the big heart when you read Chrysanthemem!

We ended the week with reading Pete the Cat. Pete is so much fun! I did not give tracers for this activity. I wanted to see how well the students followed directions. I tell ya, they did the best job! I was soooo proud!!

They had just enough time to end the day with a graph.

This has been one of the easiest Back To School weeks I've ever had. I hope that your first week back goes/went just as well!

August Currently...My Last Day Of Summer Break

At 5:00 am I will be singing, "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off To WORK I go!"
I can't complain! My summer has been FANTASTIC! We've gone to the beach, had many lazy rainy days, AND I watched 4 series on Netflix! All good things shouldn't must come to an end.

Although I'm a little late, I am linking up with Farley for her August Currently. Don't ya just love Currently?? I do!  This month she had a link up on Instagram. That was a fabulous idea!

 

*Listening-I am listening to my little boy play mine craft. That boy is really good at it! He builds things FAST!

*Loving-I have finished cleaning the house for tonight. I love relaxing on the computer after my chores are done!

 *Thinking- It has ALWAYS been my fear that I will wake up late the first day of school. But my mind is racing and I can't sleep. I feel like a kid the night before Christmas!

*Wanting-I am wanting a little more free time. The biggest thing I will miss is looking down at my phone through out the day and seeing a favorite blogger on Periscope.

 *Needing- I NEED a new teacher bag! The struggle is real! The first day of school, the local bank feeds the teachers breakfast and gives us a gift. The gift is usually a lunch box or teacher bag. Since I'm cheap frugal, I am waiting to see if they give us a bag. If not, I've got to find one...Quick!!

*B2SRAK- Seusstastical gives her coworkers a cute notebook. I thought about doing that as a gift.

If you haven't linked up, you can find her blog here. 

By the way, here's a quick reminder of the rules.