Back to School

Anyone else get those back to school dreams the week before school starts? In my dreams I am always late by an entire week.  My room is not ready and there are kids heading in.  My latest dream there was a new teacher moving my stuff out and her stuff in! My boxes, books, papers... everything were laying on the ground outside the door. It was not a pretty encounter. Monday was our back to school for teachers so fortunately the dreams have subsided. I walked in my room and had absolutely no idea where to start!

 I think I wondered around the room a half dozen times opening cabinets and just being a ditz. Luckily I was allowed to leave the fabric and border on the wall over the summer so  that eliminated the need to rehang everything...which all I have to say is hallelujah! 

  So at least I had that done.  I wanted to quickly write a to do list and write hang fabric and borders just so I could check them off.  I didn't do it...not because it was silly sounding but because I couldn't remember what drawer I put my pens in! That is absolutely no joke.

Can anyone tell that I really like blue?  One year I did "Cat and the Hat" theme and thought I was going to go batty from all the bright colors. By Christmas I was pulling some of it down. At the end of the year, I took everything down, packed it up and passed it on to the next teacher. I know there are studies that say bright colors allow students to learn more, but I couldn't do it. So blues are it for me. Plus it's easy to match things...as long as it's blue.





Ok, back to the first day. I started by opening boxes from the orders I made before the end of last school year. It was kind of like Christmas. I had no idea what I ordered so everything was a surprise!

 I started putting together my "pencil war" pencil boxes. The idea from "The Wise Owl" is you give them an allotted amount of pencils, eraser etc at the beginning of the week. If they have all their pencils and eraser at the end of the week they get prize. I'm hoping this eliminates the missing erasers and corn on the cob chewed pencils. Please let this work!

 I put together my classwork folders together. Everyone gets a folder to put their complete and incomplete work in so it doesn't get lost. Last year was hilarious because I made the classwork folder and the homework folder blue so we were always confused on which folder to use.  So I got smarter this year and made one folder black and one blue. See I did learn something!

 I finished my door...I made it dual purpose. I never leave things on the inside of my door for very long. Years ago I had a cute getup on my door and the janitors hosed down the outside of the building. Well water leaked through the top and ran down the inside of  the door and ruined everything. So I don't leave things up since I never know when they are going to wash down the outside walls. The little cards are the kids' names. I made them a little tinier this year so I could reuse them for the cookie sheet magnet boards I have. I want the kids to learn how to spell each others names so we will use magnetic letters to practice. We can even use their names for alphabetical order, how many vowels, whose name is longer...the uses are endless. I also laminated their names so they don't get all yucky. Have you seen a first graders hands?? Gross!

 

 

 

 

 I finished my room up. Just so you know...this is the cleanest it will be all year. Somehow I always get a pile on the counter that never seems to go away. There have been a few times, I have just swept the pile into the trash can. One year I think that is where the missing writing samples went...hee hee. I know the walls look a little naked...is naked a word I can use on a teacher blog???...but I like to put the kids' work up and what we are working on at the time on the wall. I always see the classrooms that have posters and anchor charts on the walls that they either aren't currently using or have already used and it just makes the room so busy. How can you work without blocking all the busyness out? If the kids are blocking it out then we don't need it on the wall. That's my motto....at least for today. Tomorrow may be different...I'll let you know.

Don't lie...you know you count down. Don't be ashamed. I'm not. It does not make me a bad teacher...I just love summer vacation :) The kids start tomorrow so wish me luck!