Classroom Move Finished and Curriculum Night Freebies

As promised here are the finished pictures of Virginia's 1st grade bilingual classroom.

 

 

 

This cheveron carpet from Big Lots seems to be a big hit with teachers this year.  I have the same carpet in my classroom.

 

 

 

Curriculum Night Freebies

 

For Curriuculum Night in the past I have passed out apples with this note.  Since our school has put lots of restrictions on food I decided not to give out anything with food either.  It was a sore subject with some parents.  Click on the image below to open in Google Docs.

 

 

So this year I had some extra flashcards and deck of cards from the $1 section at the Target.  So I had a raffle of those items after we talked about the importance of students knowing their basic facts.

 

 

 

Now that we have been in school for a week and half  and Curriculum Night is out of the way.  Virginia and I hope to back more to post about what we are doing in our classrooms.

 

 

The Before Classroom Pictures

Last month I mentioned that my friend from school was going to be joining my blog.  Virginia is our first grade bilingual teacher at our school.  Virginia was one of the lucky or maybe unlucky ones that had to pack up and move classrooms this summer.  (Depending on how you see it. I personally don't mind moving.  It forces me to get rid of some stuff that I have been hanging on too.)

The reason for moving classrooms and our construction theme is that Kindergarten is going all day starting this year.  So this summer two classrooms needed to be built and the now four kindergarten rooms need to be renovated to meet the needs of kindergarten students. 

The construction is yet to be finished (keeping our fingers crossed that is for the first day of school), but most of us are now able to get into our classrooms.

I'm always bad about remembering to take pictures. However Virginia did take some before pictures. 

It also looks like when they cleaned they put some Smartboard boxes in her room.  I'm sure there are some anxious teachers that will want those in their classrooms. 

Looks like Virginia's Smartboard has been installed already.  I have to same I'm a little jealous that she gets her projector mounted to the wall.  Mine has to go on the cart, and I have to worry about students (and me) tripping over cords all the time.

I love the bright colored backgrounds on the bulletin boards. 

A view of the back of the room. Yes, that's a green chalkboard back there.  Our school is slowly turning all of the chalkboards to white boards.

Now for some bulletin boards in the hallway.  Virginia's classroom is the main hallway so all the classes in our school go up and down her hallway for most of our specials.  So the bulletin boards have to be great. No pressure.

Miss Duran' Class Sign is from Vistaprint.

Welcome to First Grade Bulletin Board

So Welcome to my blog Virginia. I'm sure you will have lots of great ideas to share with all of us.

So if you know someone that teaches a bilingual class (Spanish) please tell them about our blog.  It's not just second grade stuff in English.

Here is one of Virginia's documents that she has translated into Spanish.

My Great Ideas to Write About

Virginia also has another item in the blog post below so if you haven't seen it check it out.

Stayed tuned for the makeover pictures and much more.

Don't forget about our sales at TPT and TN.

Click on the image below to visit our shop.

All my items are 20% off on TN.  Click the image below to check out this shop.

Day 2 of classroom set up

 Next week I will be at a math training all week so I have been going in to work on my classroom.  I was getting worried with all the construction at our building that I wouldn't be able to get in my class room before my training.  But I lucked out and today was Day 2 of setting up my classroom. 

I actually got a lot accomplished today during my 3 hour visit.  I was the only one on my floor so I didn't get stopped talking with anybody. 

Our school theme is construction, but I'm going with a black/white theme with bright accent colors.  We had a lot of changes last year and I think a bright room is just what the doctor ordered.

My Guided Reading Bulletin Board. This is an old rolling coat stand which I use for storage on one side and a bulletin board on the othere.  Eventually it will have the daily shedule of groups on this. The background paper looks yellow in this picture, but it is really greenish/yellow that picks up a light green in the border.  It looks much better in person.



Reading  Comprehension Board- very similiar to the CAFE board, but I using the 6 reading strategies.  (I know I left one of the cards at home.) i.e. Ask questions and as I do a mini-lesson I will add that skill under the strategy. i.e. Skill- asking fat questions.

Also in the picture is Gina who was helping me with the bulletin boards today.

6 Traits Board which is set up like the Reading Comprehension board above.  Both signs are going to bigger. I thought I was going to put them on a smaller board, but those were too small.

My Zebra Word Wall- it's my favorite. 

Genres- Need a title for this one still.

For our school construction theme. It's still a work in progress I'm having trouble finding construction theme items for a the welcome board.  However I found yellow and pink construction hats and vests to match at Oriental Trading.  I'm going to take the students picture dressed up as a construction worker on the 1st day. 

Well that's it on the pictures for now.

For those of you who are not members of the 2nd Grade Teachers Club or just didn't see it.  Jessica Winston posted a document that was Currently Inspired.  (You know the Currenty linky.  I know I like reading those to learn more about bloggers.)  Well anyway I needed to add lines and graphics to it so I reposted it on the 2nd Grade Teachers Club and on TPT. 

It has primary and intermediate lines.  I can't wait to see what my students write.

Classroom Pictures Finally!

I am finally getting around to posting some classroom pictures.  I did go into school today to drop off some print shop and took a look at my classroom.  I started moving some of the furniture around.  Half-way through I remembered I wanted to show some before pictures.  So I only took a few, but you are going to have to wait on seeing the before shots.  Because as I was looking at my pictures I found some of my classroom pictures from last year that I never posted. 

The last few years I have had a Hollywood theme in my classroom.  .

My Hollywood Word Wall - I had the Word Wall Words on yellow and white popcorn pieces.

My Author of the Month Spotlight Board.  Some of the author studies I do are: Kevin Henkes, Robert Munsch, Jan Brett, and Gail Gibbons. 

Poppin' Through Our Math Facts. This might look very familiar to many that's because I purchased this item from Teachers Clubhouse.

Sorry that this picture is sideways.  This is my CAFE Board.  I got the Hollywood signs free on Proteacher.

Tomorrow I will be back to blog about my STAR binder.  I have gotten a couple of questions asking about that.