Here We Go {Again}!!!

Tomorrow’s the day.  The first day of school.  The first day of Kindergarten for my 18 little babies.  I’m bound and determined to make it a memorable one…and you can guarantee it’ll be full of FUN! 

I’m putting my boys to bed tonight and waking them up tomorrow as a preschooler and a kindergartener.  Sniff, sniff.  I’m pretty sure there will be A LOT of tears in the morning…and they’ll ALL be from me!!!! 

I CAN’T WAIT!!!!

In the meantime, I’m linking up with Deedee and sharing my first day visual plans with y’all.  I’d share them all, but I’m experiencing a little technical difficulty on my end and I’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of the week’s plans.  The first two days are VERY different from the rest of the year, so they get their own little template. I have a lot planned and I’m hoping to get to most of it, but y’all know how the first day goes, so we’ll see! 

As you can see, I’ll be doing A LOT with establishing rules and procedures.  If I get to NOTHING else, I’m okay with that.  Rules and procedures are the absolute most important…especially at the beginning of the year.  If you start strong and make your expectations clear…and practice, practice, practice…the rest of the year will go *smoothly*.  And most importantly, your kids will be able to learn!!!  And I’m really working on building relationships these first few weeks, too!  We ALL know how important that is!!!

 

And here’s where it all goes down.  A little classroom tour.  I didn’t change too much this year.  I did rearrange the furniture and I like it SO much more.  My room isn’t huge by any stretch of the means, so defining lots of work spaces was really important. When I first set up my room last year, I couldn’t have anticipated how it would work.  I mean, I had a good idea, but it wasn’t until I “lived it” that I got a feel for it.  And I needed it to change!  Now I’m LOVING it and I think it’s a lot better for the kids.

  

I kept my pocket chart on these two little hooks last year, but this year I’m saving this space for reading anchor charts.  I’m keeping them on little binder rings and then hanging them from the hooks.  Then the kids will be able to have easy access to the anchor charts all year long :)

The little reading posters are a freebie from A Year of Many Firsts.

I used this as my calendar/whole group area last year, but this year it’ll be used for student work and focus materials this year.  WAY better. 

This is my little community supply/dessert tub shelf that divides my teacher table from the student desks.  I still need to add labels to my dessert tubs.

I got all of my little chalkboard labels from my Chalk One Up for Being Organized packet.

 

I changed up my teacher table this year, too.  It’s still in the same space, but I moved around the wall displays.  Now I’ve got the word wall to the left of the table and my little sound posters {no longer available} to the right.  Inside the sound frame are my little vowel glue bottles {from Lindsey at The Teacher Wife} and I’ll be adding hooks there as well to hang my reading strategies, guiding questions, etc.  I keep all of my guided reading books and other guided reading materials in the bins and shelves behind my desk.

I moved my calendar/whole group meeting area up to the front of the classroom this year.  I really wanted to make better use of the white board and it’s the perfect space for my calendar.  I just couldn’t “see” that last year! Plus, I wanted a space I could display my number line that was closer to the ground so that the kids could actually use it this year.  They did fine with it up above my bulletin board last year, but I really want them to interact with it more this year and down low just makes more sense!

Here’s a closer look at my calendar components and number of the day board.  I used washi tape to divide my spaces :)  I use the number board to go along with Kathleen Pedersen’s Calendar Notebook…AMAZING!

 

I made all of my calendar chalkboard printables and you can download them for free HERE!

I adhered magnetic tape to the back of my unifix cubes and I’m using those for my base 10 blocks this year.  I got these cute little chevron pails from Michael’s {99 cents a piece!!!!} to hold all of my calendar pieces & expo markers.

  

When the kids are sitting on the carpet, here’s what they’ll see. 

Here’s my new writing center.  And I LOVE it.  It’s bigger and more purposeful.  The writing center display materials are from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Perfect for this station!  I’m using the pocket chart to display our writing center topic cards {from the fabulous Deedee Wills}. 

I have a little *tiny* kitchen area in the room for Friday centers and indoor recess.  I’m saving all the wall space above it for anchor charts, student work, and focus materials/objectives.

 

Right behind the writing area is the math center{ish}.  I wanted to devote a much bigger space for math this year…especially with the math focus wall.  The focus wall looks a bit empty, but in no time at all it’ll be full of fabulous info!  I’ll be adding my Number Posters as the numbers are introduced as well as anchor charts and other math related items. 

 

This is my math tub/math manipulative/math dessert shelf.  MUCH easier to access than last year’s set up!

I have another little writing area to the left of the math wall.  Still finishing that up.

On the opposite side of the writing desk is my little classroom library.  I don’t get the luxury of having a HUGE space I can fill with beautiful carpets, bean bags, and other fabulous things, but this works just perfect in our small little space.  My husband proposed to me when I was sitting on this bench in my Kindergarten classroom 11 years ago, so I can’t get rid of it!

I adhered cork rolls to the wall and then put the butcher paper on top and bordered it with burlap.  I love the coziness.  And I’m SO excited that it’ll be easier to hang student work this year!!!!  Woot!!

I placed my bookshelf on top of these little seats because it’s too small of a space for my kids to sit.  Plus, it gives me room for more storage {underneath}.  On top of my bookshelf, I keep my student’s writing portfolios.  These will go home with them at the end of the year as parting gifts, so they need to be kept up and out of reach!  I tried to utilize my space as best I could, so I hung my file separator on the side of my bookshelf so I could have quick, easy access to important papers…nurse slips, lunch count, etc.

  

Here’s my little desk/student computer area.  We only have one student computer in the classroom, but it actually works out quite well.  I keep my monthly station activity drawers here and well, it’s nothing really fancy!  I don’t ever sit down when the kids are in the room, so I’m not in this space very much at all…if ever!  It’s functional and it works and that’s all that matters!

 

I made these little cork boards this summer {thank you, Michael’s!} and am using them to keep myself and my thoughts organized…that’s the plan, anyway ;)

Instead of having the kids keep all of their supplies in their pencil boxes like they did last year, I moved to table caddies {inspired by my lovely friend, Erica Bohrer}.  I got them at Mardel….LOVE that place.  Their pencil boxes will hold all their “special” supplies and anything I want them to keep safe :)

 

Here’s my little media table.  This is right next to our whole group meeting/calendar area.  It holds my projector, laptop, and document camera and it needed to be in a space close to the white board for projection purposes :)  I had to cover it with fabric because there’s some scary cord action goin’ on underneath!!!! 

 

Last but not least, our dear class mascot.  I’ll let the kids name him tomorrow. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour!  Stay tuned for more visual plans!!!  I’m bound and determined to figure out this technical glitch!

And for those of y’all starting tomorrow, have a HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY first day!!!!!!  Let’s DO this!!!!