Team meeting, my first student, and more of my classroom!

I had my first team meeting to talk about dismissal, duties, meet the teacher, planning, and our play. They were all very nice and welcoming. I happy to be a part of a sharing team. I am so excited to be doing a 1st grade play this November. In the past the first grade team has done a Thanksgiving play and a Patriotic play around Veteran's Day. I think my vote will be for Thanksgiving this year...there is just something SO adorable about little kiddos dressed in pilgrim and Indian outfits! I loved my pilgrim outfit when I was 5 so much I not only wore it do our class feast but I wore it our real Thanksgiving feast!

After the meeting was official over, I stayed and chatting with my team leader. This is when I got introduced to my first new student-which happens to be her son! I couldn't believe it! (Usually teachers get to pick there child's teacher so either a. She wanted to be un-partial  in picking his teacher since I'm new or b. She really liked me during the interview( there was a panel of 8 people) and thinks I'll be a good teacher for him.) Either way I'm flattered to have a staff members child in my class and hope that she is fully satisfied with his learning this year. He was very polite and friendly as well as happy to meet me-his new teacher! I am extremely happy to have met one of my little firsties! Now I just need to hunt down our office staff to find my class list.

Now for my classroom:
It might now look like a lot of improvement but I actually got a lot of organizing done and placed everything where I think I want it to go. Suggestions on room arrangement, etc. are welcomed! :)

This is what my room looks like when you first walk in. The adorable carpet that was in previous pictures got taken out :( it was a Kindergarten teachers rug that somehow got moved into my room. I still need to put up my Reading Takes Us Places letters but I did get two boards done today! The one that is leaning on the cubbies is my finish Homeworkoply board and the one to the right is my math centers and vocabulary board.

This is what you see if you look to the right of my doorway. So excited my library is finished and CAFE board is up! I do need to put "The Face of a Reader" up though-blogging kind of makes me think of all the things I still need to do...See the blue standing pocket chart? I just snagged it from the work room today it was in a pile of free stuff. I controlled myself and only took this because I still was throwing away piles of stuff today. Oh teachers! 

This is really not that great of a shot but it does show our goodbye rhymes, how we get home paper, schedule chart, and today's password. (which will be sight words) I'm excited to do this starting this year. It reminds me of the Harry Potter books where you have to know the password to get into each dorm. (Dorky, nerdy, I know..don't care) 

This is the view from the other side of the room. As you can see I added my pirate banner-top right and my word wall! A special shot out goes to Frogs in First for providing me with this adorable pirate word wall.  There are velcro strips so I can add the sight words as we go along and then take them off when the class knows them. 

My classroom library is organized by genre, level A-Z, and AR. See Ladybug Teacher Files to get started on leveling your classroom library. Starting from the right are my leveled reader books and book boxes, then my non-fiction books and books that need to organized (top shelf), then to the left are my fiction books and reading buddies on top. The basket on the bottom under the Just Read sign is going to be used to put back books and it will be our class librarians job to put them back each afternoon correctly. Oh and I love my pirate rug! :) X marks the spot to good reading! (ooh that could be an idea to put in the library...) 

This is my writing table..kind of a mess right now but on the back wall is going to be content vocabulary and on the back of the bookcase there are writing strategies. On the table there is an organizer for paper and clipboards. No worries it will get jazzed up and ready for the kids! 

Yes I know it's an awkward picture. I don't know what the Iphone was thinking. This is my math wall unfinished but at least up and my math games are in the rainbow drawers. 

Ta da! Finally this board is complete! I cannot even tell you how long I sat and tried to configure this board because the pieces do not fit around a regular bulletin board. It is done though! :) 

This is my desk area and my Pirate of the Week board. I still need to put up my favorite things to show off to my kids. 

This is my birthday month board where I will put up all the kids pictures under their birthday month. Thanks Erica Bohrer for the idea! Also featured is the tooth chart and behavior chart. 

Finally if you are still with me after all my ramblings you are awesome! These are some very colorful crates/buckets I don't know what to do with and a white board that doesn't a home. Suggestions are welcomed. 

Thanks for taking the classroom tour and reading my ramblings! Back to school is in full gear!