Sale, Sale, Sale!

It's my first sale!! Go check it out. EVERYTHING is 20% off, plus use the code BTS13 and get another 8% from TpT. Awesomeness!

My Accountable Talk Posters, Eric Carle Unit, and Jungle Book Binder are my most wishlisted item. Now's the time to get them!

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Music Makes the Classroom Fonder

My desk is covered in labels, pictures, wall stuff, substitute folder stuff, and more! What about you? What's filling your desk space at the moment?

Whew! It's only Wednesday. It seems like we've been in school for weeks, while at the same time it feels like 3 days. Haha! Yep, we started Monday. It's just amazing what they forget between Kindergarten and 1st grade. One of mine couldn't even remember how to open and use a glue stick! :) We've hardly done anything on my lesson plans, but gosh darn it, they WILL have these procedures down perfectly. :)

I've really incorporated music and sounds into my classroom this year. I've used music in the past, but not nearly like I am this year, and I love it! We have a song or sound for everything we do pretty much. At the moment, I've only introduced "come to the carpet", "go to your seat", " "line up", "recess time", "work time", and come get your paper". Oh my goodness. It works like a charm. They've got them down pat, and I can't wait to introduce more next week.

Here's what's funny. We've only been using the music for 3 days. Well, today when I went to use them, something was messed up on my speakers and you could barely hear the sounds. So, I just called them to do what they were supposed to do. Wellll, that didn't work! I only had like 3 people come when I said to! They just couldn't do things without the music. It through off their whole day! I called my husband to come at lunch to fix my speakers! Hahaha! They were perfect after that! :) Music is amazing. They also work so much better with it. This morning when I couldn't use it, they were so chatty and weren't getting finished. This afternoon when I was able to use it, they worked quietly and for extra long. I love music! Now I've got to make a cd for a sub to use or they will never listen. ;)

It's been a good week. I've got some sweet, cute kiddos. First grade is the best! I can't wait until next week when we can do our real schedule and get on track.

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Last Bit of Freedom

This is my last weekend before school is in full swing. Yes, we went last week, but we only had kids for 2 hours, so it doesn't count. :)

My kiddos are sweet. I think it will be a good class. I did have 4 not show up, but I think they will all make it on Monday. I did get a new one yesterday, so I am now up to 19. I did not get to meet her, but Monday will come soon enough. I have several good parents who want to be involved so that will be nice. I can't wait to get started.

I have no plans for next week though, so that is freaking me out a bit. We still haven't really gotten a schedule, so it is hard for me to plan, when I don't really have a plan! I'm going to buckle down and figure out something after this post though. Instead of working on lesson plans like I should have, I worked on stuff for you.

Our school wants to really focus on Accountable Talk and student learning this year. Pretty much what Common Core is all about. We got to tour some of the upper grade classrooms and the buzz was about some Accountable Talk posters they had in their rooms. I liked them, but didn't think they would work quite right in my classroom. Several other teachers mentioned that they would put up the posters for THEM to use to guide student talk. That's all well and good, but I want the kiddos to be able to use them on their own. So, I decided to make my own. I changed the wording a little bit  and added pictures to help the kiddos understand them more so they can actually use them. Plus, I have a mostly ELL class and they would definitely need help. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?! Anyway, I think they turned out great and I have already printed them out to put in my classroom.

I put them on Teachers Pay Teachers for you. Just click the picture below to take you to them. I hope they work in your classrooms, too.

I really think they will help my kiddos use them more easily without me having to feed them the words. Woohoo for growing in-depth thinkers! I can just imagine all the conversations that can happen with these little gems. 

I like this one a lot because they really have to explain why they answered a certain way. They have to really think about it to explain it. Who am I kidding? I really like all of them. :)

Monday begins the start of an awesome year! I hope yours starts off great as well!

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Yippee! Tomorrow I get to meet my new kiddos. I've kept pretty much the same list of kids this whole month. We got the final list today and it is still the same, so I am hoping my class won't change too much. I'm ready to go. I think. :)

This week has been great, but busy. Meeting after meeting after meeting. Then we had our big Back to School picnic last night. It was a great turn out, and everyone loved it. Yea for the Celebration Committee! My team was awesome and we worked well together. It was a great start to the year.

All day it looked like it was going to rain. My principal came to me in the morning and asked what the plan was if it rained. I said, "It is NOT going to rain." He said, "Ok, positive thinking then," and laughed. All day people kept asking him what we were going to do, and he kept telling them, "She said it wasn't going to rain." Well, guess what! It did not rain! It did sprinkle a TINY bit for a minute, but that doesn't count.  The weather was cool and nice. Perfect for a picnic. Thanks for listening, rain! :) You made me look good. Haha!
Now, it's on to our next event in September.

I also heard ALL NIGHT LONG about my awesome brochures. Apparently, one of one of my parents (a 4th grade teacher) took my registration folder and passed it around for all to see. Haha! All I kept hearing was that they couldn't believe I made all that and I must have spent so much money. I had to explain over and over that it was all free on Vistaprint. Then I got made fun of for doing all of that. Then they started talking about how my room was all ready and I had nothing to do. I told everyone they are not allowed in my room any more. It freaks them all out. Haha. I can't help it. I can't stand letting things wait. I am SOOO glad I had most everything done before now. If I didn't I would be so stressed. In fact, just seeing some of the rooms that aren't ready, stress me out. :) I am a planner and I don't know how to procrastinate. Thank goodness!

Tomorrow the kids come for just 2 hours. They fill out all the paperwork and meet me, then go home. Monday will be our first full day. This will be a tough week. Usually, we start in the middle of the week, so it's just a couple of days and then a break. It's good for all of us, but not this year. A whole week the first week of school will be HARD. Oh well, they'll really have things down by the end of the week. :)

So, I should probably go to bed sometime soon. I probably won't sleep much tonight. I will probably think of a million things I didn't do, but that's ok. School's back!

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Starting the New Year Off Right

So, this morning we got to start off our first teacher work day by watching this cutie pie. Watcha think? I agree. :)

Awesome!

It's Time!

Tomorrow is back to school for me! No kiddos until Thursday, but my alarm is going to go off mighty early in the morning. It's going to be lots and lots of meetings, but I know I will be drained by the end of this week. Excited to meet my new kiddos though!

Here are the special treats I made for them for Registration Day.

Woohoo for the Dollar Tree. They had the perfect monkey bags, jungle erasers, jungle pencils, etc. Then I did Ready Confetti that they will open on Sunday before their first full day of school.

Not much to post about. It really needs to be bedtime. I have to finish my teacher binder first though. Why did I wait until now to get this done? Kids come first, I guess. :)

Night night! Hope all of you that go back this week have an awesome first week!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Classroom Reveal

I'm linking up with Mrs. Sanderson at Flying High in First Grade to do our classroom tours. Fun, fun! I am as finished as I can be right now, except for my center areas. I go back on Monday, so I better be. No kids until Thursday though, but I'm sure I'll think of lots of last minute stuff between now and then. I feel good about where I am right now though. I really love my classroom. It is so cute and calm. It makes me happy and I hope it makes my little kiddos happy, too. Come join up on the linky with pictures of your room! Just grab this button and check out other classrooms as well.

Classroom revealed. :)

Are you ready?

View from the doorway

Carpet area

More carpet

Cute wish list items

Question of the day. I love this and will use it so much in Morning meeting/ speaking and listening.

What to do when finished board

Classroom

Deasks with everything ready to go. Parent registration folders and their Jungle Books.

Writing Area

Reading Center

Math Center

Front Board

There you have it. I guess I didn't really take a picture of my area, but I did in this previous post. It is mostly the same. :)

Go link up! I'd love to see your classroom! When do you go back?

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney