Goin' on a 1st Grade Adventure {Classroom Pics}

Today was our 1st day of school & I was definitely ready for a few minutes on the couch when I got home! Wow-what an adventure it was! I was surrounded by 18 lil sweeties that were super excited to be BIG 1st graders! And let me say, they were WONDERFUL! Don't ya just love seeing those new school shoes & spark of excitement in the kiddos eyes?!?

I did manage to snap a few pictures right before our Open House....Oh, everything looked so nice & neat {I know, I know....that won't last too long once my new firsties start that "learning adventure"!) So here are a few pics of my classroom...

Our theme this year is "Safari" and... I just LOVE LOVE "Pete the Cat" so....Wah-Lah! my hall bulletin board is a safari-version of Pete. {Did you notice his hightop zebra-print Converse sneekers? Pete is definitely ROCKIN' in his new school shoes!}


This is the view from my door.

My room has lots of zebra print & this year I have added some bright polka dots to the mix {blue, green & pink} & I also wanted to redo all of my bulletin boards so that they all coordinated. {The people at the teacher store looked at me crazy when I bought 5 packages of the same polka dot border!}

This is the front of my classroom. I really love how my new Bright Dots ABC posters & banner turned out. The pennant banner hanging above my alphabet says "1st Grade Rocks!"

This is our calendar/group meeting area and...

...this is my small group area. I'm really excited about my new crate seats! They fit perfectly around my reading table. I had a rectangle table here last year, but it always seemed to crowd the space. I really like the cozy feel of the smaller table!

That is my desk hiding behind the bookshelf. {It will be hiding under a pile of papers in about a week!} I don't think I sat down there even once today!!! Whew-those first few days are literally an adventure!

And the area that I have been working on for quite a while-my reading nook! I was inspired by my super-bloggin' bud Katie {aka-Queen of the First Grade Jungle} I just loved her puff balls & made mine from some tulle that I found on sale at Hobby Lobby. {I will post more details of my reading center/classroom library in a few days.}

I know this pic looks kinda plain, but it won't be for long. The black background on my word wall will be soon filled with bright green word cards. I also hot glued clothes pins to a ribbon & then hung it across the wall {with Command Hooks} to hold my word family posters.

This is the kiddos mailboxes & also where they make their lunch choice each morning.

And that's the quick tour of my lil classroom!

Wild About Winter!

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends! It seems that this holiday break just flew by & I have just 2 more days until my lil firsties return to the classroom. I promised myself that I would try really hard to stay away from my computer during our holiday break {ha ha-You know how hard that is!?!}...well I almost made it! I'll admit, winter is not my favorite season-I love a hot summer day...{and not just because I'm a teacher!! lol}but I am really anxious to get started on some super-fun winter activities with the kiddos! I absolutely LOVE snowmen & Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies has the cutest snowmen ever in her "Lets Make a Snowman" packet-sooo loved her polka dotted arms & legs! I needed to figure out a way to make a snowman & snowlady that would go along with our jungle theme....so bring on that "zebra-print bling"!!! I used some of my leftover bulletin board border to make the zebra & leopard-print arms & legs. I just love how they turned out! Thanks for the inspiration Jennifer!

{I'll be posting some of my winter freebies before I head back to the classroom on Tuesday!}

Happy Winter!!!!

This is Where the Wild Things Are!

Oh WoWSie these first graders are having some monsterous fun! Not sure what it is about these silly monsters but this unit is always a student favorite! There are so many cute books to go along with this theme. Of course, "Where The Wild Things Are" is a classic and it goes along great with our Wild About Learning school theme. Check out the new bulletin board!

Our monster glyphs turned out soooo stinkin' cute. The kiddos did a great job-LUV em! I'm amazed how different each one of them is! (In addition to the glyph below, I added spots on the nose that stand for the number of pets the student has.)

After we read "Where the Wild Things Are", we brainstormed things from the story that were real (or could be real) & things that are pretend. Click on the pic below if you would like a copy of this FREEBIE!

Check out more of my Super Silly Monster Fun unit at Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook for more literacy & math activities!

Got a quick question...Does anyone else get emails requesting copies of files that are already accessible on Google Docs????  Can't the files just be downloaded directly from there? I feel really bad not emailing everyone the requested file but there are so many requests that I can't keep up! :(  Any suggestions?