I'm baaaack!

This is me over 4th of July week 2014 relaxing by the pool at DisneyWorld's Caribbean Beach Resort. I LOVE this pic because it takes me back to a time when I didn't even look at my watch! We are planning another trip to Florida next week by the beach! I probably shouldn't watch Shark Week before we go! LOL!

  Sorry for the loooooong absence in the blogging world. Last year was Cra-Cra! to say the least. Our school moved into a newly remodeled building which is GOR-GEOUS, but which required a LOT of work for everyone. We had to pack, tape, and label everything in our classrooms. It was quite a deal. Then we had to wait until a few weeks before school before we could start setting up again. Let me tell ya, that was REALLY hard for me. I always set up my room in July so it's ready to go when I have to return mid-August. Then all I have to do is put away my new supplies and get paperwork ready.
  Last year had a lot of challenges with new building, new technology, new routines/schedules, new committees, new procedures, NEW, NEW, NEW! This year should be a lot smoother. I am looking forward to rearranging my classroom for the new school year and streamlining a little more. I am trying to remove excess clutter at home and at school. I think it will make me feel calmer and less stressed. I have SO much stuff and really don't use or need it all. I am planning to go through everything that is stuffed in my closet and get rid of anything I don't absolutely need. No more storing things for "some time in the future". I am notorious for the old "I may need this someday" routine. LOL! No more! I am going to be ruthless. 
Well....normally I post pics of my new room arrangement, but just didn't get to it last year so I figured I could do it now. Better late than never! So, here goes:

Here is the view from my doorway. These rooms are so BIG and full of charm. We have wood accents and HUGE windows. Unfortunately they don't open, but they let in a ton of light.

Here is my Listening Station with the green tablecloth. There are 2 CD players so 2 students at a time can listen to a book on CD and then fill out the corresponding Listening Station sheet that asks specific questions about the book they just read. I have bought Deedee Wills' entire 1st Grade set from last year as I ordered the books from Scholastic. I LOVE them. You can find her on TpT and look for Listening Station printables. They are FAB-U-LOUS! It takes all of the work out of setting this station up. I just put out the books, copy the recording sheets and DONE for the week. My students are then accountable for reading/listening/following along to/with the stories each week. They also get a homework punch for filling out the sheet and turning it in! Bonus!

Next to the Listening Station is my AWESOME Writing Station filled with printables from my Writing Station unit on TpT and also from here: 

Writing Station for Young Learners Bundle

(Teaching With Love and Laughter)

I also purchased Mel D's writing station: The Ultimate Writing Station

Here's the gist of my Station: I used a Cubeicals unit from Target (12 cube unit) and filled it with the 8 1/2" x 11" white plastic 3-drawer Sterilite units from WalMart. Each drawer has a different station printable. Each set of drawers is color coded to a menu that shows what is in each drawer so students know exactly where to find their papers. I also copied the menu into a packet for each student so they could mark off when they had completed each writing station paper. They were to finish everything before they could repeat the papers.

This is the view from right inside my door. It isn't set up in this pic, but the white framed cart holds all of my leveled books in colored bins that is right behind my kidney-shaped small group table.

This is my Reading Cubby unit. It is AWESOME. The school purchased these for 1st Grade in 2009 and I LOVE it! Each student has a slot to put their reading folder, plus books that are too large to fit in their reading bins, and a reading bin to keep their books. Each day after students complete morning work they get their book bin and read independently around the room. On Fridays they can read with a partner. On top you see my treasure chest that students can choose from when they've filled up a homework card, our Star Jar reward jar, our class list, and the Tattle Monster.

This is right inside my door to the left. The pink baskets are (L) notes/money and (R) homework.

Classroom Library

The pink, blue, and green book bins are for students to take around the room with a partner to read from. There are assorted levels and types of books in each bin. These are books I got from Goodwill and from my daughter after she outgrew them. They have not been labeled for my themed book baskets.

Our AWESOME cubbies and cabinets! I have snacks in one cabinet, and manipulatives, tissues, Clorox wipes, game pieces, etc. stored in these. The cabinet doors have become my Word Wall. I post the new words each week on Friday after we have learned them and taken our weekly spelling test.

The pink 3-drawer unit houses my craft supplies. The purple/white chevron thing is my napkin dispenser for snack time. The file cabinets house my math curriculum materials and my themed units for the year.

Another view of the awesome storage cabinets and cubbies.

Here is a view from the side of the room where the Interactive White Board is. It shows our HUGE bulletin boards that my husband covered with plastic tablecloths from WalMart. I LOVE the neon colors. It took FOR-E-VER, but I LOVE how they turned out! The little white shelves on the sides of my Listening Station hold large 12"x12" 3-drawer white Sterilite units for math and reading games. The large laundry hamper holds my Big Books for our science/social studies/reading units.

The student desk groupings are in 6 and each group has a green plastic trashcan and a storage caddy that includes glue sticks, scissors, pencils, and tissues.

Classroom Library with bean bags. Each day of the week a different group gets to use these for independent reading and iPad time.

I'll have more pics coming soon after I set up my room for next year.

1st Week of School

We all survived our first week of school. It's probably good that it was only 4 days. It's always hard getting back into the routine of getting up early every day. (For the kiddos too!) I got to meet all of my new little faces on Monday at Open House. I am so excited to do things with this group. They are very sweet kids with AWESOME parents!
This coming week should be more normal and we can get into our regular routine. Last week was a little wacky. The 1st day is never routine. The 2nd day was an early out schedule so that we could have SW-PBS Boot Camp. We took our kiddos around to different areas in the school where there were paras, aids, and other teachers there to review our expectations for behavior. I think it was a great idea and it ensured that every kiddo heard what was expected of them in each area of the school and they got to practice before heading on to the next station. Thursday (3rd day) was a fairly normal day. We at least had our normal schedule and then on Fridays we have early release so teachers can meet for our Osage Learning Community. (PLC time).
I am excited to introduce "Beary" to the class on Monday. He is this year's mascot and each weekend our Terrific Kid will get to take Beary home (with parents' signed permission) and have some adventures with him. They will write about their fun together in Beary's Weekend Journal and then bring everything back on Monday to share with the class. I've had one little darling asking about Beary and I kept forgetting to bring him. (Silly teacher!) He is ready and waiting on the table to go with us to school on Monday.
The first 3 weeks of this school year are only basically 4 day weeks. We have 4 1/2 days this week. Our district lets out at 12:00 on the Friday before Labor Day to allow buses to get students home before the tourist traffic gets too bad. Since we live in a recreation area, we have many visitors come to our area for the Labor Day holiday. Teachers get to leave at 1:00! Whoo hoo! This is my favorite early out day because we get to leave early too. All of the other days we have early outs are for PD meetings and Parent/Teacher Conferences.
A few of my sweeties from last year have been walking by with their new class when I've been in the hall, so I've been able to sneak a few hugs. I miss my previous class, but I'm really starting to bond (no pun intended) with my new sweeties.
We already got to have a birthday celebration. One little guy's sweet mama brought in cupcakes for us to have after lunch on Friday. We will have 2 more celebrations this week to celebrate 2 other little guys who had their birthdays earlier this month.
I need to get back into the lesson planning and newsletter writing routine. The newsletter sneaked up on me this week and I had to madly type to get it done in time to send home on Friday. I could've sent it on Monday, but I like my families to be able to see what's coming up the following week so they can plan if necessary. (For example - the kiddos need tennis shoes on P.E. days)
Well, I think that's enough babbling for now. Until next time.....

Jennifer :)

Ready for Open House!

Today was all about the room! Finally! I know we have a lot of "housekeeping" type things and training stuff to do at the beginning of school, but I get sooo antsy about not being able to be in my room to put the final touches on it. I am a little bit OCD about getting my room in shape. I ALWAYS go in during the summer for several days to put the room back in order so I can not be SO stressed when we all come back.

I got all of the little things done today and can honestly say I am ready for kiddos to walk in now! I will finally get to meet my new darlin's and their families on Monday.

So. Excited!

 

Here is picture evidence of my claim to being ready.

 

 

View from my desk area to the doorway

 

 

View of the back of the room

 

 

I may add a few more apples.

Parents can take these and

bring back something for our

classroom.

 

 

My sweet teacher friend and I partner up

for many things through the year. These are

our "Beary" Terrific Kid All About Me

posters. We made it fancy-schmancy this year

with background paper and a border.

Ooooh. Aaaaah. Are ya feelin' it?

 

 I thought it would be fun for

each of us teachers to fill out

an All About Me poster and

post it the first week of school!

 

 

Here's a broader view with our little

signs that I made on PrintShop. They

say Mrs. Bond's "Beary" Terrific
Kid and also for my friend.

 

 

My "Beary" excited bulletin board.

 

 

Here are some close-ups so you can see the

cute little bear paws with the kiddos names.

I can't wait to meet my little bear cubs on Monday!!!

 

 

 

My Writing Menus

 

Each menu has 12 different writing activities

to choose from. Each numbered activity

corresponds to a pocket in the chart.

 

 

Here are the majority of them.

I have one more on the other side.

 

 

These are:

Top left - class jobs

Bottom left - Literacy Stations and Words of the Week

Top right - part of Deanna Jump's Common Core for

1st Grade.

 

 

The other side of the board.

You can see the rest of the CC posters

and under those is my Number of the Day

Pocket chart.

The purple chart on the far right is the

last piece of our Writing Station

Activities. This chart will have only

books for students to write and illustrate.

I think they will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

this one especially!

 

 

Here's my schedule pocket chart.

I change the specials each day and also

if we have a special assembly, activity,

or celebration. This is our first day

of first grade schedule!

 

 

My classroom from the doorway.

The desks have all of our Open House goodies on top.

These include:

A folder with TONS of parent info.

Magic Confetti for the kiddos to sprinkle

under their pillows the night before 1st grade

to help them with their jitters, a note

from one of my darlin's from last year

telling them why they will love first grade, a

"Thanks for popping in!" bag of microwave

popcorn for the families, a red plate with

instructions, and a paper that shows

them in pictures where to put their school

supplies.

(P.S. When the families first arrive they

sign in right outside the door and grab

a classroom scavenger hunt page that

asks them to look for things in the room

and tells them where our community

supplies need to go.)

 

 

Another wide view of classroom from front to back.

 

 

A shot from the doorway looking in.

 

Did ya notice my hanging lanterns? I just got these this

year. I've never hung anything before and when I saw these

I just had to have them. They have polka dots and they

are in my fav. colors (bright)! They go great with

my curtains. My sweet friend helped me hang them

and was there in case I fell off the ladder. I needed

someone who could call 911 in case I fell to

my doom! LOL! (I'm not the most

graceful person around.)

 

Well, that was my final classroom tour. If you have any questions,

please email me here:

 

JenCtlyn@aol.com

 

I will be happy to answer!

 

In my next post I will let ya know how Open House and the first day/week of

school went! I'm sooo looking forward to getting started.

 

Oh - if you missed the other classroom tour pics, here are the links:

2013-14 Classroom Tour part 1

2013-14 Classroom Tour part 2

2013-14 Classroom Tour part 3



TTFN

Jennifer



2013-14 Classroom Tour Part 3

Since my daughter and I had to go to her school to register her for, (GULP) 7th GRADE!!!! I thought I would bring a few things I had finished at home and work in my room with her for a few hours and then head home. Well....it was more like 4 hours, but I got a LOT done. With her help. Here are some updated and new pics of my classroom. The only thing I forgot to take a picture of was the door with the Bear incentive charts that I made. I was going to share them until I realized that I don't have a license from Scrappindoodles for sharing free stuff. Sorry. Here are my new pics:

 

My awesome birthday board.

My daughter took all of the pieces I made

and arranged them all for me. She

has a very artistic eye. I'm going to

add pics of the kids under their

birthday month. I was inspired

by Erica Bohrer's birthday board.

Erica's birthday board

 

 

To the left of the doorway.

The red pocket chart is our daily schedule.

It is a jumbled mess right now.

I'll take a closer pic next time I'm at school.

 

 

These charts are part of my Writing Station that

I posted before, but now they are organized!

Each chart has a different colored menu above it.

As you can see in the first chart, the pockets will

be color-coded to match the menu choices. The

students can come over here and choose

what activity they want to do for writing.

Each chart will have 12 different activities,

including making lists, writing stories,

writing around the room, writing a letter,

writing a postcard, making a book,

writing a recipe or how to do something,

and many different types of writing papers.

Here's a link to my Writing Station Printables :

Mrs. Bond's Writing Station Printables

 





 

This should be called "The Pocket Chart Wall".

The very left chart is my Class Jobs. You can

read about it here: My Classroom Tour 2012

(Just scroll down a little until you get

to the classroom jobs explanation.)

To the right of the class jobs is Deanna Jump's

awesome Common Core Standards set

(without the standards right now).

You can find it here: Deanna's TpT Store

The remaining charts will be for:

left - stations rotations

middle - words of the week

right - Number of the Day chart

You can find my Number of the Day activity here:

Number of the Day Pocket Chart Activities

 

 

 

This is the last Writing Station pocket chart.

It will be filled exclusively with different

books. Students will choose which book

topic they want to write about, pick

out the book and then start their story.

 

 

The above and following pics are different angles

of the classroom as a whole. You can see part of the

doorway to the right looking into the hall a bit.

See the box? That's the hallway by the stairwell.

 

 

This is the far end of my classroom, opposite

end of the room from the above pic.

 

 

This is taken standing in front of the Listening and

Writing Station area in the middle of the room.

 

 

Here's another shot from the doorway looking in.

 

 

From the doorway at an angle to the right.

 

Shot from in front of the sink area just inside

the doorway. You can see most of the

Classroom Library from here and the

Word Wall.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at:

JenCtlyn@aol.com

 

TTFN

Jennifer

Name Puzzles and a FREEBIE

Hi bloggy friends. School is just around the corner and I'm a little later than usual in sending out my welcome letters to my new first graders and their families. I am doing something a little different this year. I wanted to send the kiddos something fun that they could do so they could get excited for 1st grade. Inside their welcome letters I have a snack sized Ziploc bag with name puzzles and a class list. They will open the bag, take out the puzzle pieces and the class list and try to arrange the letters to make a classmate's name. I thought that would be a fun activity for them to do with Mom and Dad. Also, they can see everyone they'll be in class with this year. Here's a pic:

 

Here's the little note I put inside:

 

Name Puzzle Note

 

I hope the families enjoy this little activity!

 

TTFN

Jennifer

Classroom Tour 2013-14 Part 2

I'm sure you've all been waiting for the next installment of my classroom photos, haven't ya? (crickets..) I went in to school today and got a lot of little stuff done. Yea me! I also got to meet the new faces in our district at a luncheon in their honor. Very cool.

Here are some new pics of my classroom progress. Some areas have been updated.

 

Part of the Classroom Library. This is my Read Aloud,

DVD, Author Study, and Science/SS shelf. I

don't know if you can tell, but all of the baskets

have been re-labeled with awesome polka

dots from Erica Bohrer's awesome classroom

library set. You can find it here:

 

 

Erica Bohrer's TpT Store

 Go to page 2.

 

I didn't want to have to re-label each

book this year, so I just put my previous

graphics into the files to use this year.

Next year, I may decide to completely

re-do since we are moving buildings! :)

 

 

 

Word Wall with polka dot headers and a wide

view of the majority of the classroom library.

 

 

Close up of the classroom library. I still need to

clean off the shelves. Somebody spilled something

on a few of the bottom shelves, so they all are

going to get washed. I also want to go through

all of the books and make sure they

are in the right baskets. See the broken shelf (3rd one)?

A couple of my rambunctious boys last year managed

to break not one, but two of my shelves. I am

just hoping to make it through this year and then

I'll probably trash the shelves and do something

different in the new building. Wouldn't it be

great if we got nice wooden shelves in our new

digs? A girl can dream.....

 

 

Our Tooth Tally Chart complete

with all the teeth last year's kiddos lost.

 My kids LOVE putting up a tooth when they've lost

one. Unfortunately, a couple of little

stinkers have fibbed a bit about when a tooth

was lost. (Like last year.) So....I've

started asking when they lost it. It has to be

a recent loss to allow them to put up

a tooth. My kids try really hard

to lose their teeth actually IN our

classroom because I have those

cool tooth necklaces that open

up and you can put the tooth

inside. I've had the same package

of these for 6 YEARS! Most kids lose their

teeth at home or when they're at lunch it seems.

It's a really big deal when they

lose one in class! :)

 

 

My Math Calendar Wall. I put up the yesterday,

today, tomorrow and the season and weather. I also

change the date. We use the Pro-Board for our

calendar routine, but I want the kids to know

how to read a regular wall calendar and

to be able to use classroom resources

to answer questions and such.

 

                                                           

                                        The end of my classroom library. It

looks like I took the pic before I got one

of the baskets labeled. Oops! This shelf holds

magazines, I Spy and other seek and find books,
Mrs. Bond's Love Notes (binder for the

beautiful pics and notes I get from my little sweeties),
school-themed books, Everyone can read books,
colors/shapes, and alphabet/numbers.

  

 

My Lunch/Attendance Chart

I'm trying to decide if I want to go with

the purple cards I've made, or stick

with the green. I think I'd like a

little contrast, but these are already done...

(= lazy).

 

 

Updated pic of the Listening Station complete

with cool new sign and set up for 2 students

to enjoy after I've modeled a LOT how

to use this station.

 



 

Another pic of the Writing Station Area.

I meant to take a pic of the pockets filled

with the awesome writing activities

I got from Lori Rosenberg.

 

 

 

Here's a link

to her store: Lori Rosenberg's TpT Store

She has all kinds of great writing units.

I may get the writing menu and

the writing topic cards too!

 

One word = AWE.SOME. I'm adding that to my own

Writing Bundle here: Writing Station Printables

 

 

 



 

My Word Work Shelf

(Click here to see previous post for details.)

Classroom Tour 2013-14 Part 1

 

 

Ah. The Breakfast Baskets. I think they turned

out super cute. They will go with Michelle

Oakes' Morning Menus (I bought EVERY pack!)

She now has the whole year bundled.

Check it out here: Michelle Oakes' Morning Menu Bundle

 

 

 

 

 

My Bring Back Packs

I use these for Show and Tell. Monday through

Thursday I pick a boy and a girl to take

one of these home. They are sent with instructions

as to what is allowed for show and tell. They

also have to practice what they're going

to say when they talk about what they

brought to share. They are only allowed

1 item and it MUST fit into the pack.

Other rules are: Nothing living, Nothing expensive,

Nothing breakable, and Nothing without

your parent's/parents' permission.

The kiddos are so cute. When it's their

turn to take the pack home, you would

think I'd just given them

a lifetime supply of candy!

 

 

The now infamous M-F Cart. If you

didn't hear about/get involved in

this craze a few years ago, it's amazing!

I posted this on a teacher chat site asking

what our favorite/can't live without item

is in our classrooms. Little did I know

I was going to start a frenzy with this

little dude. People were emailing like

crazy asking where I got it, what is it

called, what is the item number,

bar code, etc. So....if you are interested

here are the specs: I bought this at

Lowe's in 2009. It was marked as a

childrens' clothing organizer in the

closet organization/storage area in the

store. I haven't seen this at Lowe's the last

few years, but I don't frequent that store,

so I may have missed it. It was a seasonal

item, so if they stock it they should

have it in stores now. Good Luck!

I absolutely LOVE mine. I get all of

my copying done on Thursdays (most

of the time) and then fill the drawers

for the next week on Friday before

I leave so I'm set for the next week.

It's great for subs too. They just pull the

materials from whatever day it is.

I like that I can put the math

manips in there and teacher books,

plus other lesson materials.

 

 

The Time Capsule

 

I blogged about this on another post,

but didn't have a pic. Here's the pic.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't put

a year on it! I'll have to cover that

up for this year. My kids last year LOVED

this. They reminded me ALL.YEAR.LONG.

"Mrs. Bond, don't forget about

the time capsule." Me, "Okay. Don't

let me forget on the last day".

They didn't let me forget and we

all had a laugh when we opened this up

on the last day in May and they read (or tried

to read) what they wrote on the

first day waaaaaay back in August.

Some of them couldn't read their own

new firstie writing. So cute!

Their time capsule page

went into their 1st Grade

Memory Books so they could

keep it forever, or until

the book is lost or damaged.

Well....that's it for this installment of my classroom tour. When I have every little nit-picky thing done I will post some more pics. I haven't done my birthday board yet, so that will be in the new post.
Hope you're all having a great week! This is my last week until going back. AAAAAHHHHH!

TTFN

Jennifer