Happy Days in First Grade

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August 20, 2016 · Leave a Comment

My New Classroom Reveal

Classroom Decoration· classroom organization· Classroom Reveal

This summer was definitely one of  the busiest summers of my life! With ending out the school year to selling our house to moving into a new one to planning and throwing our babies’ birthday parties to job-hunting to packing my classroom of seven years and to moving into and decorating my classroom! It has been such an adventure, but I am so glad everything has settled down and after 30+ hours working on my classroom, it is ready to be revealed!!!

In ten years of teaching, this is my first year ever have round tables!  Can you believe it?!  I have had individual desks in the past, so I am very excited to try this new arrangement!  With limited storage space in the classroom, a lot of the supplies this year will be community property and will be refilled as needed.  No more cleaning out students’ desks and finding work and old pencils and crayons from way back when! 🙂

My goal for classroom decoration has always been engaging and welcoming without being distracting. With that in mind, I spruced up our big white board with some fun border and sectioned it out for our weekly student-generated anchor charts.  One of my sweet teammates was kind enough to let me borrow her light blue masking tape when I ran out of border.  Who knew masking tape came in different colors?!!! And of course, I had to bring out my Boho Chic Birdies from my previous classroom along with an inspirational quote for my sweet students!  Please don’t excuse the note on the board, it was meant for Meet-the-Teacher Night. 🙂

Right behind my reading table is a HUGE white wall that was calling out to be decorated.  I brainstormed all summer what to do with it, until I found my Pinspiration (inspiration from Pinterest)!  Using scrapbooking paper and self-adhesive burlap letters, I created a vocabulary word wall for my students.  Each time we learn new content words, I will ask my students to write them on big sticky notes that we will be stick them onto our wall!  I’m so excited to see how our wall will be filled up by the end of the year! 

The previous teacher in my classroom left a lot of these book boxes that just so happened fit perfectly in my cubbies! In addition, I was lucky enough to snag up lots and lots of new books for my library from teachers on my campus! That right there is called TEACHER JACKPOT, ladies and gentlemen! 🙂 I then organized the books for genres along with match colors of the book boxes and VOILA! 

Right by my reading table/teacher worker is a little bulletin board I made to personalize my classroom and help my students get to know a little about my family and me.  As a child, I’ve always loved hearing stories and seeing pictures of my teachers’ families.  It always made them so much more relatable and helped me to see them not as teachers, but also people who have likes and interests and a family like me! 
Here is another big board that I have sectioned out into my Interactive Word Wall, I Can Board, and Student Work Display Board.  A teammate of mine suggested for me to tape a pad of sticky notes to the bottom of the board so that students can copy down a word and then big it back to their desk!  What a great idea?! 
Since I am teaching STEM, I thought I would dedicate a small board to it!  This will definitely come in handy as reminders and review as we go through the design process over and over again this year!

And here are some ways I am organizing manipulatives and students work this year! Each child is assigned to a number according to the roster which he or she will keep all year.  After writing their name on each assignment, students will also be asked to write their number.  When I am done checking their work, I can simply place it in their cubby to take home afterwards.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I’m so excited to share my new adventure with you as I know it will be such a great year of learning and growth for BOTH my students and me!

Related posts:

BTS Blog Hop
My Industrial Chic Classroom Reveal & FREEBIE
My Classroom Reveal 2018-2019
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Hello There!

My name is Ha. I am a Primary STEM teacher from Texas, a passionate educator of little ones, a teacher-author of interactive educational resources, a lover of Makerspace and STEM, a mother to two, a wife to my high school sweetheart and a forever learner. Welcome to my site!

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Ha ~ Happy Days in First Grade
Where are all of my Rainbow Bright teachers at?!!! Where are all of my Rainbow Bright teachers at?!!! 🌈🎉

Grab this Meet the Teacher slideshow now on Google Slides including the printable on SALE now for 24 hours! 🥰 Link in bio! https://bit.ly/3OMdCfx
🚨FLASH SALE for 24 hours!!! 🚨 Get a head st 🚨FLASH SALE for 24 hours!!! 🚨

Get a head start by snagging up this EDITABLE Farmhouse Slideshow for your Meet-the-Teacher Night and Back to School!!! 🥳

It has all the slides you need to introduce yourself to your students and it’s EDITABLE!!!! Buy now, edit later!🪴 

Snag it up now while it’s on SALE!!!Link in bio! https://bit.ly/3uqvW5T
Are you planning on doing a photo op for your stud Are you planning on doing a photo op for your students on Meet-the-Teacher Night?! 🌟

📣If so, here’s a fun and easy hack! 📣

Turn your anchor chart rack to a cute and easy photo op for your students using a glue stick and streamers! 🍎🎉

Pair with these FREE Speech Bubble Props for PreK-5th Grade! Link in bio! https://bit.ly/3jNdpMl
May we always carry the ideals of what make Americ May we always carry the ideals of what make America loving, kind, generous, and inclusive with us wherever we go and pass it onto our future generations. 🇺🇸

For a more perfect union, we will continue to put in the work, stay informed, and vote for the future that ALL of our children deserve. ❤️🤍💙
I believe in a loving and generous America- the Am I believe in a loving and generous America- the America that opened her arms and provided refuge to my family and allowed us to start anew and build our own American dreams.

I believe in the freedom that is the cornerstone of our democracy and the belief that we are all born FREE to make our own choices, walk our own path, and choose our own destiny wherever it may lead us.

I believe we are better when we are together, UNITED, and accepting of all Americans. 

I believe in these ideals that built our great country and the belief that ALL are welcome.

May all of our students always feel this way in our classroom and and in our schools. 

These activities can be found in the link in bio as part of the Back to School Activities currently on SALE. https://bit.ly/2TfR0w5
This activity right here is one of my favorite act This activity right here is one of my favorite activities for the beginning of the year! 🌟

I make a BIG speech bubble out of black butcher paper and cut out yellow circles for Emojis. ☺️😀😍🥳🤩😟😫

As one of the things on our class Scavenger Hunt during Meet-the-Teacher Night, the kids are asked to take one of the yellow circles and draw the face of an emoji that best describes how they feel about being a first grader. 

This activity is so simple and fun but gives me such information on how the kids are all feeling even before the first day of school!

Using this simple tool, I am able to address any anxiety or stress that they may have during our FIRST Morning Meeting! It’s so powerful to know even before school begins what I need to do to help ease them into first grade! 💕 

We also use the data collected for a graphing activity and then discuss what we can do to help make everyone feel happy and better. 

I love this activity and will definitely be doing this again this year! Swipe to see the before picture.

For the more Back-to-School activities, you can click to the link in bio to grab them on SALE for a limited time! https://bit.ly/2TfR0w5
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HAPPY DAYS IN FIRST GRADE