Our First Week in First: the adventures of an ex-second grade teacher
That’s a long blog title. That’s probably against all the blogging rules. But today I do not care.
I’m officially a first grade teacher.
It was the most successful first week I’ve ever had. Not because I over planned and had 1,000 things ready to do and only did 3 of them. Not because we sang so many songs, danced so many dances, and GoNoOdled our hearts out. Not because I gave so many praise compliments that I no longer have a voice. No. Although I consider all of those things as successes. But here’s the real success:
NO ONE PEED IN THEIR PANTS OR CRIED THE ENTIRE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!
now that is success
Can I get an amen!?
{yes I had one student who decided to shout out every 5-minutes the last part of Friday, “IS IT TIME TO GO HOME YET? LIKE WHEN DO I WALK TO SEE MY MOM?? I HAVE TO PICK UP MY SISTER FROM KINDER!”–okay mister, calm yourself down, just because you’re in first grade doesn’t mean you are responsible for another life.}
Okay now that I’ve broken way too many blog rules and bored you with too much text, let’s break this up with some pictures shall we?
Well, I sure was jittery to be at a brand new school, in a brand new district, in a brand new grade. This read was SO perfect! If you don’t have this, get it now!
We did a little mapping of our feelings for the first day of school. It looks like some of us were pretty scared… {NOT me…}
We also had a nice discussion about recess rules from The Recess Queen {along with our modified Whole Brain Teaching Rules for the classroom}. The red is what Mean Jean did before she met Katie Sue, the green is how Mean Jean changed after she met Katie Sue.
We took some first day pictures. This was actually my first year doing the frame! Yes, I’m WAY behind the times. I know, I know, people have come up with bigger and better.
Just a little first day outfit action 😉
{& I promise I’ll be posting my classroom reveal next week after Back to School Night! Check out my classroom reveal! I think it’s my best classroom yet!}
I took this awesome idea from A Brown Bag Teacher. RACE TO 120! {She has some great posts on working with the 120’s chart: HERE, HERE, & HERE} One of our CCSS is to be able to count to 120. So we started right away! I used this little sheet to test my kiddos and see how far they could get. I spy this little guy writing a pattern first 😉 We’ve been practicing this almost daily since & they actually like it!
{We also did a RACE TO Z, not picture, same deal but with the alphabet}
Or click the pictures.
I took this snazzy idea from Reagan Tunstall over at Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits. We went over what our morning routine looks like and we practice each morning, with this flow map reminding us. {Since then, I promise I have fixed the fact that there is no arrow from 3 to 4 & there is no #4….}.
Oh & our morning work is an amazing daily powerpoint from Teacher’s Clubhouse. I had it in 2nd and I knew I had to have it in 1st!
We started right off the bat with our “Eye” Spy Jar for whole-class incentives, inspired by Katie Knight from Teacher to the Core. You can check out her post on that here or my post on it here {same idea, different ways}.
Love love love these Listen Up Activities from the ladies at Fluttering through First. I could tell right away who my good listeners were and also who were my ELs. It was a fun way to start the students listening correctly the first time.
We had an…interesting time….putting together our All About Me Flip Books. First time cutting and pasting a booklet together and it was in the first week of school? I think I’m crazy. But some survived, like this one picture 🙂 I hung them all up on our writing wall as our first writing assignment! The Melonheadz clipart really does the trick doesn’t it? *swoon*
I’ve been dying to do this for a year now. I first saw it from Amy Lemons from Step into Second Grade. The student-made alphabet! We had such a fun time drawing pictures and coming up with words for each letter. Now they are hung all around my room and the kids are so happy to see their work. If you like my Striped Alphabet Template you can grab it here {I also have a matching smaller set for word walls}.
{Note to self: have students write the words in marker}
Once we settled into class a little more, we were assigned our numbers. I loved this idea that I saw on instagram & cannot remember what brilliant teacher thought of it! I cut out little jerseys and had the kids decorate their number to help them remember it!
I got a sweet little present over the first week! {Thank goodness too because the heat MELTED almost all of my student crayons…yes it’s been hot}. Read more about how you can get some free goodies to start your year off right HERE.
Holy moly we had a birthday on the first day of school! All I do is give them this supply bin of birthday fun they can use throughout the day. At the end of the day, they can keep the sparkly pencils & new box of crayons. Then we take a few minutes at the end of the day to read the birthday boy/girl’s favorite picture book! Visit my inspiration for my birthday procedures from A Brown Bag Teacher. I love it, so simple, easy, and sweet!
At the end of this crazy long day, I prepped my “Welcome to First Grade” post cards and sent those off to my new babies. You can snag these cute post cards here.
Anytime’s a good time for a little note 🙂
And I just wanted to #keepitreal here with this picture. Not every day is perfect. Sometimes we cut our hair off…
Happy Sunday!