First Week of School

Wow!  It has been a crazy 1^st week of school. We started our kindergarten classes on Tuesday. As expected, I got my 20^th student on the 1^st day and so did several other teachers.  We enrolled 12 students between Monday and noon on Tuesday.  This gave all but 3 of our 14 teachers 20 students. At 2:00 the District Superintendent and Principal were discussing whether to hire a new teacher or wait until after Labor Day when they were informed another kindergartener had enrolled.  After school we were called to a meeting and informed that another teacher was hired and would start the next day. The empty K class was being used by the resource teachers, so everyone went into action. Within a few hours, we moved the resource teacher to another room and help the new teacher completely set up class to receive 18 students the next day. Some of us lost the last student enrolled and a couple of teachers lost 2 students. This left 8 of us with 19 students and 7 with 18. We have had several more enroll so as of today 11 teachers are back up to 19. The ironic part of this is that in May we were told because of the low numbers the last 2 years, the District was lowering the Kindergarten staff down to 12 and 2 teachers would be moved to another grade or school.  At the end of the school year, we had one teacher move to 2^nd grade and the rest of us not knowing if we would be moved. The middle of July enrollment for Kindergarten was 50 students above the year before, so a teacher was hired at the end of July and now they have had to hire another giving up 15 teachers. The way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up with 20 students again. It has defiantly been a long, exhausting, and exciting week. I have 19 wonderful students and can’t wait to get to know them.

 uRose

Must Have Monday

Sorry, I know I'm breaking the rule for posting twice in one day but I wanted to link up with Blog Hoppin Teacher's Week.

 

 

Morning Coffee

One of the things I "must have" is my morning cup of coffee.

Personal Laminator

I bought this little thing this summer. I don't know what I have ever done without it.
I was able to get so much done this summer and didn't have to wait in line to get everything laminated.

Basket for Organizing 

 

I just love these baskets for my books. I have been wanting them the last 2 years and finally decided to buy them. My library center looks great.

School start tomorrow!

Well tomorrow is the big day! School starts for kindergarten. I still have 19 students, but we had 6 enroll today. That puts 6 teachers at 20. So today I went ahead and set up the 20^th desk just in case we have more show up enroll tomorrow. I’ll have a helper in the morning to help out with getting everyone settles  and help out if there are criers. I’m really excited to get the year started even thought this will be the largest group I have ever had. What has been the largest kindergarten class you have ever had? My state limits the number of kindergarten to 20.

Back to School Pictures

Open House was a great success!  I have 19 little sweeties that I am going to get to share the next 9 months with. I have 10 girls and 9 boys. This is going to be a big change. The last few years we’ve only been having about 16 students. Kindergarten starts this Tuesday and I can’t wait to get started.

As promised, I took picture of my classroom to share. I know this is a long post.

This picture is the wall outside in the hallway. I have clothespins on the wall and hot air balloons hot glue over the clothespin. I will hang up student work on the clothespins.

Here is a picture coming from the door.

This shows the left of the room, my word wall, writing center and the open door is the bathroom.

I love my Welcome bunting and 1^st Day of School picture frame. These are my last week’s Monday Made It (sorry I didn’t have time to post it)

A closer look and my jungle word wall. I had these as a freebie in an earlier post.

 Small group meeting area

Looking from the back of the room, my Promethean Board and gathering area.

Calendar Wall

Library Center: I love my new baskets (still working on getting them labeled)

Center Chart: I love this chart. I put Literacy Centers on the front and then flip it over for Math Station on the back. I don’t have stations labeled yet, I will put up center icon as I introduce them.

My behavior clip chart

This is my small group area. I made the toolbox from Pinterest and the tubs. I have one drawer for each group and 2 extra for addition supplies. 

Word Work Center

Math Station Tubs and Book shelf

This is the front of the room by the door. I love the Good Listening Posters (sorry I can’t remember who I got these from—let me know if they are yours) and the Common Core Poster from Deanna Jump.

I hope everyone has a great beginning of the year and I’ll post more about what is happening in my class as soon as I can.

Blessings

Rose

S.A.F.A.R.I. Folder and MIA

This has been a very busy last two weeks for me. We started our before school professional development last week, Open House was on Wednesday, and school starts on Monday. I’ll post my classroom pictures  and my last Monday Made It this weekend.

I’ve had a few people ask about my communication folder covers. I am re-posting them, so you should be able to down load them to get a copy. 

Rose

Currently- August

Today I am linking up with O Boy in Fourth Grade’s Currently Linky Party

 

,pRose

Name Badges and Freebie Friday

Today I am joining Freebie Friday

 I am sharing these cute little jungle name tags that I made for my class. This idea came from a post from Fran at Kindergarten Crayons. You can view her post  here

These name tags fit into the badge holders you can find at Wal Mart. You can get your freebie by Clicking on the picture

Don't forget to link up with Friday Freebies!

QRose

Finally in First 2000 Mega Giveaway and Student Notebook labels

 Jenn at Finally in First  is having a 2000 Follower giveaway. You can check it out by clicking on the picture here.

 She will be giving away her "Student Notebook and Folders labels to a lucky winner. If you have not seen these check them out    here;

uRose

*Teaching Maddeness*: New {School} Year Resolutions...Link Up!

Today I am linking up with Amanda Mann at

 

 

Resolution #1:  Be more organized. I want to keep those piles of things that stack up my desk (and some time in a basket) put away each day. My resolution is to put everything back in its place at the end of the day instead of letting it stack up for a week or two.

Resolution #2: Go home at a reasonable time. I tend to get busy working on little things, talking with co-workers and then end up staying at school until 5:00 or 5:30 each day. I am going to work on using my time more wisely and getting things done on time.

Resolution #3: Take more pictures in the classroom. I tend to get busy and then at the end of the day it hits me “I should have taken pictures”. My goal is to at least take a few pictures each week to document student progress and what is happening in the class and of course share them with you.

Resolution #4: Do a better job of blogging and sharing what I am doing in the class with you. I started this blog last summer, but as school started, I only took a few times to stop and share what was happening in the classroom.

Those are my resolutions for this coming year. Be sure and stop by Teaching Madness and join Amanda’s linky party.
 uRose