Oh Classity, Class!

The cutest idea for getting students attention....not sure I could do it with my third graders though!  

Whole Brain Teaching 1st Grade

Makes me smile watching it, but I couldn't help thinking that they were just repeating the teacher.  What do you guys think?

10 new things in my classroom!

1. Chicken Soup for the Soul in the Classroom, I can't wait to use it!

2. My 3 Point Club (AR) and Great Behavior Club!

3. The new social studies boxes from Lakeshore.  Love them!

4. My new book display from Lakeshore!

5. Our new behavior chart!

6. The clock faces to tell us when we have MTSS, Specials, Lunch, and Recess!

7. My new supply bin, didn't it turn out cute?

8. My curtains! They make a huge difference and the kids love them.

9.  The gift our PTO left in our mailboxes for the first day of school!

10. My student teacher survival kit.

Some of these are ideas from other teachers on pinterest.com.  Click on my pinterest button and check out the originals from some amazing teachers!!

Back to School!

Wow! We are off and running in a new school year. "Aargh you ready for 3rd grade?" my new pirate unit was a great success. The kids loved it. We took pictures on the first day of school of each student in a pirate hat, an ear ring, an eye patch and a hook for a hand. Our librarian was so excited about my pirate theme that she asked to have her picture taken dressed up too! Our principal came by and we have a great picture of him dressed as a pirate (could be good blackmail material for later...insert evil laugh here!). Our librarian told me that September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I had a great idea of what we could do with our pictures! We printed them out and sent one home to parents on the first day of school. We kept a second and after reading several "Pirate Pete" books including "Pirate Pete's Talk Like a Pirate" we brainstormed some pirate phrases. Then my students chose one phrase and wrote it in a speech bubble and we posted them on the bulletin board with their picture. We wrote our first stories for the year and posted them on the red paper. I found all kinds of pirate math money worksheets in my files that we used the first couple of days in addition to our Saxon math series. I even found an old abc order pirate worksheet for us to do the first day of school. The only thing I couldn't get in time was the movie "Muppet Treasure Island". I tried our local video store, but they had just "gotten rid of it" and the town library had sold their copy at their yearly sale. So I got online and ordered it from good old Walmart for $5. I will definitely use it next year. I found several ideas on pinterest.com for pirates. That site is awesome!

If I Were A Pirate...writing lesson

We are going to read the story "How I Became a Pirate". Then I'm planning on having my class write a story about "If I Were A Pirate I Would..." and stapling it to the red paper. Here is the book and the form for the story.

Pirate Teacher

Here is a picture of my pirate teacher, I thought she turned out cute. What do you think?

Argh you ready for 3rd grade?

New Blog!

With the beginning of a new school year, I've decided to try my hand at blogging. So here goes!

I have been working on getting my classroom ready for school to start next week and I was inspired by the ideas on pinterest.com. I decided to use the theme of pirates for my classroom and I created this bulletin board. Let me know if you like it!