January News

      It's been hard for me to write anything on here lately.  I think that is due to being new to blogging and my skills are limited.  Also, I'm having a hard year in a new grade and being scrutinized by my principal.  Friday was the end of the first half of the school year.  I can do it!  I will try to update what's been happening and write on here more often.  Another problem is that I forget to take pictures at school.  I finally have some to show!


     We began January learning about new year's resolutions.  The kids set goals for themselves.  We used some papers that many bloggers offered for free and I also had one that I bought.  I don't remember who made them.


     In our district, Winter term in first grade, is when we teach nonfiction literature and nonfiction writing.  We began this unit learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was exciting teaching to first graders who have never heard about him before.  They got upset at what happened.  I read several books to the kids.  One of my favorite books is Martin's Big Words.

After reading this book and a couple of other ones, we began to use charts to show our learning.  We used two organizers that I got from Erica Eberhart's Martin Luther King unit.  In the first one, we drew a picture and then wrote 3 facts that we learned.  Sorry!  My drawing skills are limited, but it helps when the kids get hung up on their drawing.  

The second one we charted Martin Luther King was - had - wanted.  This is our second time of doing this type of chart.  It is a wonderful way for the kids to show what they know.  The students wrote their own chart on paper to be used when they began their writing about Martin Luther King.  Here are a couple samples of student work:

The students began to write sentences about Martin Luther King using their graphic organizers or the ones on the wall.  This was a big step to get the students to write more than one sentence.  They are learning about the writing process and writing a draft, re-reading for meaning, proofreading, editing with the teacher, and publishing.  We are in the middle of that process.  I should have some samples to show on my next post.


     I have been wanting a better place for the students to write their drafts.  Right now I give the kids either notebook paper or handwriting-type paper.  They put it in a folder, which I have found they have a hard time managing this because other papers end up in there.  They have a binder that the published work goes in or completed ones that we don't publish.  I observed a teacher last week and she used primary composition books.  I asked my principal about it and she said she could order them.  I'm so excited about that!  Now, I'll have a place to compare how they are doing and it will be great to show at conference time.

Here are two students working on their writing.


     In my district, Winter Term in first grade, is teaching nonfiction literature and writing.  Right when I needed to begin Amana Nickerson from One Extra Degree posted her Arctic Animal Nonfiction unit.  I bought it right away to teach the kids the nonfiction features.  I am introducing one or two each day.  We began the unit by comparing fiction and nonfiction books.  We recorded what we found in a Venn Diagram so that they could see their similarities and differences.  I also am using Deanna Jump's Arctic Animal unit.  I read her book All About Walruses.  The kids loved learning about them.  If they finished their Martin Luther King writing, they were to begin writing about what they know about walruses.  Next week we will continue and label the parts of a walrus.  This will be our first time in labeling.  Something I've been wanting to teach the students.  The kids are looking forward to learning about these animals.  We will learn about the walrus, polar bear, and finish with the penguin.  We use the GLAD method of teaching and I'll incorporate a penguin GLAD unit.  This will be our first GLAD unit for the year.



     Exciting things are happening in our classroom.  The kids are learning and love coming to school each day.  I just need to get them to not talk so much.  Does anyone have ideas that would help me on the management of 31 students who like to talk during work times and while I teach?  I'm up for ideas.


     Well, this is a little long.  Hopefully, in the future I'll share more often.


     

What's Happening in Our Classroom

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything.  It has been a busy Fall getting settled into a new school, learning new procedures, and getting to know the students, as well as, learning first grade.  I haven't taken any pictures lately, so I'll just update what's been happening.


We have been learning about fire safety.  I have read lots of books to the kiddos and we have made some charts.  We made a chart with a fire hydrant on the background and put post-it notes on it with what the students know about fire safety.  I saw this on another blog.  I think it was on First Grade Garden.  This was a great activity.  The kiddos were full of knowledge about fire safety.  I introduced the word schema to them and talked about how they are adding to their schema everyday.  They have loved learning about this and hearing about my brother, the fire chief.  On Thursday, after our lesson, the kids looked out the window and the fire department was at the school.  How exciting!  We later found out that the lady who works in the cafeteria had chest pains, so they came to help her and take her to the hospital.  We also made our first tree map about firemen.  This was a great tool to use as they were learning.  I'm sure we will use more of them.


Since Halloween is coming and we don't do much with Halloween, I decided I could read a book or two.  Friday I read Where's My Mummy to the kids.  They sure enjoyed this.  We made a chart about Baby Mummy at the beginning of the story. Tomorrow we will add the end of the story.  This was something I found from Deanna Jump's lesson.  We will continue other activities on Monday.


You can tell I've been getting so many ideas from other teachers.  I'm reading the blogs as much as possible.  It is helpful to me since I'm new to first grade after teaching upper grades for the past 10 years.  I still feel I prefer to teach third and fourth grades, but I am adjusting.  I do admire all of you that love first grade.  I don't know how you do it.  I prefer to teach kids that have some background, know how to read some, and have some school behavior skills.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll change.


We are entering grading time.  Grades are due on Friday.  I will be spending today and the rest of the week working hard on them.  Unfortunately, I have been sick this weekend with a terrible sore throat.  I'm sure I'll be home for at least two days.  I don't want to infect any of the kids plus with the throat hurting I won't be able to use a loud voice over my 31 kiddos.  I'll be at home working on the grades.


We are still working on procedures and how to work quietly and walk in the hall quietly.  It sure is hard with 31 kiddos in the classroom.  They are sweet kids, but there are just a lot of them.  Budget cuts have made it so that class sizes are so large.


I will be missing Halloween at school.  We don't celebrate Halloween, but the school is having Crazy Hair and Hat Day.  I will be sitting and making plans for the substitute for tomorrow.  Hopefully, the kids won't be too excited and hard to keep focused.


We are participating in the Postcard Exchange.  It has been fun to receive the cards and find where they are on the United States map.  We've received 6 so far.


I will try to get pictures of what we do for my next post.

Good News and Pete the Cat

     I have good news!  I received my teaching license renewal this week and I did get the ESOL endorsement.  This was the reason I was told that I was transferred.  I won't be transferred again for this reason.  My district wants everyone to have this.  I took the classes several years ago, but didn't take the test.  They don't require the test, now, if you took it when I did.  I am so happy!


     Well, I made made it through 3-1/2 weeks of teaching first grade.  It has been so different from any grade that I have taught.  I feel like I am learning as I go.  I have a nice group of 30 kiddos, who love to talk.  I'm just not used to kids who talk while I talk.  I guess we have lots to work on.


     I saw lots of things on the blogs about Pete the Cat, so I decided that would be a good way to start.  I bought the first book and the stuffed animal, as well as, the many Pete the Cat units I found on TpT beginning with Deanna Jump's unit.  I appreciate everything that teachers have made.  It helps teachers like me who are new to first grade and need ideas without having to spend too much.  I like all of the free items.  I did have to buy the second book about a week ago.  We will continue reading that one.


     We made the Pete the Cat craft in Deanna Jump's unit.  They turned out very nice but were a lot of work with 30 kiddos.  It's hard when they don't follow or pay attention to the directions.  With 30 kiddos, it is hard to keep them focused.  It does help so much, though, that I have a document camera and they can see exactly what to do.  Here are some pictures of our Pete the Cats.

The kids worked on a writing that will go below their pictures.  We had these up for Open House and the parents were impressed.  I'm going to have a V.I.P. in our class and use Erica Bohrer's Class Mascot forms.  Pete the Cat will go home.  I will demonstrate this week how to do this and then the kids will begin.  With 30 kids, we might have to have two V.I.P.'s on some weeks.  I may need to purchase one more cat.


     I don't have much option for making my own centers for Math.  We use Bridges for Math and there are six Work Places that the students do.  I may throw in another one when possible.  It has been overwhelming learning all of this.  This weekend I'm hoping to find some containers for the centers.  I had to wait until payday.  September is a hard month to buy things after I bought supplies during the summer.  Managing the centers is what I want to work on now.


     Our first math unit is all about bugs.  I will be incorporating Deanna Jump's insect unit, as well as, the one that Made For First Grade has.  I love how I can incorporate literacy along with the math throughout the day on insects.  We also use GLAD in our district.  There is an insect unit, so I will be investigating that and trying to get it ready.  Those units take a lot of time to prepare, but they are so good in teaching ELL kids.

The School Year Has Begun

     The past three weeks have been very stressful.  I worked for 2-1/2 weeks to move into a new building and organize my classroom.  The last few days I was working until 8:00 p.m.  The day before school began I was there until 10:00 p.m.  I was very frustrated!  It is so hard to change grades.  I have so much in teaching materials for third and fourth grades that I feel I should save in case I teach those grades again.  I still have boxes to go through, but they are leaning against walls and kind of out of the way for now.  I'll post pictures when it all looks nice.
   
     I made it through the first week of teaching first graders.  Luckily, there were only three teaching days.  This is harder than I even imagined!  There are 30 students in the classroom.  They want to talk all of the time.  I'm not used to kids who talk while I talk to the class.  I see they need a lot of work on their behaviors.  This will sure take a lot of time.  They are cute kids and very sweet.  It is so hard, too, when they don't know how to read much.  They seem to be afraid to write.  They tell me that they can't write, but the kindergarten teacher said they did a lot of writing last year.  We'll have to work on building that confidence in writing.


     I'm so glad that it is the weekend.  I really needed a break.  Next week will be even harder since I'll have to teach five days.  I'll make it!  I read the blogs of all of these first grade teachers who love first grade.  I hope I will be there someday.  Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to teach them and get them to follow the rules.  


     It's Saturday, but I've been working on typing things on my computer that I need for school.  I just wasn't able to get all of it ready before school began.  I'm hoping I can have things ready this week.  My H.O.R.S.E. Book is almost ready.  Tonight I worked on my lesson plan form and trying to figure out my schedule.  That is hard work!  It's hard to figure out a schedule for a grade I'm not sure how to teach.


     Tomorrow I'll work a little at school.  I need to get papers ready for this week and go through some boxes to organize a little.  I will feel better when things look better.


Diane
     

Day 2 - Moving In

     Today was the second day to work in my new classroom at my new school.  I walked in the door and was still overwhelmed.  There were boxes everywhere!  I finally decided to start moving some boxes and clear a table.  That helped.


     I had a friend coming to help and she brought a friend of hers to help.  They were a wonderful help to have.  It took us awhile to figure out what to do, but we finally decided to move all of the boxes to one corner of the room so that we could figure out where the furniture would go.  The room looks so much better now.  We figured out where most of the furniture would go.  Thank you Christie and Christie for all of your help!


     Now, the fun begins of unpacking and figuring out where things should go.  Hopefully, I'll get to the point that I can work on the bulletin boards.  I have ideas of things I've seen on other teachers' blogs or things I have bought on TpT, but I wonder if I'll have time to make these things.  Some things may come after school begins.


     Here are some pictures from today.  Look at yesterday's post to see the difference.

I'm not as far as a lot of you out there in the Blog World because actually teachers don't report to work until next Tuesday.  I am here a week early since I have a huge job ahead of me.  The kids begin school on Wednesday, September 7th.


I did find out that I have a document camera, but I don't have a Smartboard, as I was told.  I am excited about the document camera since I've never had anything but an overhead.  My friends set it up for me.


    I know everyone is putting up pictures of their classrooms today.  This is what mine looks like so far, but it's nothing to brag about.


     I will keep posting each day so that you can see my progress, although, I only have 3 followers so far.


Diane

Moving In

     I've spent the past two days moving into my new classroom in my new school.  I am so thankful for all of the help I received from teacher friends from my old school and their families.  It's amazing how many boxes I have!  At the end of the year, some things were packed that I probably would have thrown out, but because they were doing construction in my old school I had to get out quickly.  Hopefully, I'll have time to go through things.


     There are boxes everywhere!  I had some time today to work on the room alone.  I was so overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.  First, I need to figure out where to put the furniture, but everything is covered with boxes.  I started moving some of the boxes to create space.  Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out where the student tables will go, my desk, and the classroom book corner.


     Tomorrow, a friend who is also a teacher, is coming to help me and she's bringing a friend of hers. They are going to help me arrange my room.  I'm looking forward to their help.  They helped me two years ago when I moved from a portable to a classroom in the building.  It will be good to have some help.  Another teacher friend has offered to help on Friday.  I need all the help I can get.  My official first day of work is next Tuesday.  I'm hoping getting an extra week will help me to be ready on time.


     Here are some pictures I took after everything was moved in.  It shows how much work I have ahead of me.

Finally . . . The Inside of the School

On Friday, I called my new school to see if I can see the inside of my classroom.  The lady that I talked to was very friendly and told me to come over.  I went and just looked around.  It gave me an idea of what I was moving in to.


The classroom is an odd shape.  It is in a Pod - seven classrooms are around a circle.  The classroom has some short walls.  It's hard to describe the shape.  There aren't many bulletin boards.  One large one and two small ones on both sides of the white board.  I hope I can do everything I want on those boards.  I may be using the walls.  There are two bathrooms in the room.  A friend showed me that these are shared with the room next door.  I wonder how that works out?  The teacher's desk is large with room for a computer.  There are different things for the students to sit at:  rectangle tables, two tables that make a hexagon when put together, and a few desks.  Hmm.  That will be interesting to figure out.


I went back today with a friend.  We loaded our cars up with things to drop off.  It seemed like a lot of things, but there are so many more sitting in a friend's garage.  I'm so glad that over the years I have bought my own bookshelves.  There was only one bookshelf in the room.  I think I have 4 bookshelves with 3 shelves and two with 2 shelves.  I probably will use the smaller ones for my things.  This will help me to create my library.  I have so much to do at home right now that I won't be able to do anymore this week.  I'm hoping to move everything else in next week.  Then I will begin to really work and put the room together.


I feel better now that I have seen the room and moved over a few of my things.  I didn't take any pictures, but I will eventually.  It's more work moving into a new classroom, coming up with a good design or layout. I will get some friends to help me come up with ideas on how to arrange things.


Diane