Back to School! (Scissors, Glue, and Assessment, Too!)

There is nothing like the feeling of back-to-school. Teachers, students and parents are all anxious to meet each other, and full of wonder and excitement for the new year!  I have nine siblings in my group this year! I held some of these little ones when they were newborns!  What an honor and a privilege it is to welcome them into my class as first graders.

We sure have had a busy couple of weeks!  I have two main goals during the first weeks of school:

1) Establish classroom routines and expectations.
2) Get to know my students' personalities and assess their strengths and needs.

To accomplish these goals, I use some key classroom resources.

Scissors, Glue, and All About You!

I love this new cut and glue, interactive, "All About Me" Book.  My students have been busy cutting, gluing and following directions to create their own books to share with each other and then with their families. What a great way to get to know each other!

First, the children cut out letter cards and glued them onto foldable flaps to to create a name page...

(student name blurred)

Then, they made an adorable "This is Me" page with a cut-out paper doll. They designed their own clothing, added hair, and drew a face. They followed directions to make a pocket envelope.

They made height and birthday pages...

...and address and phone number pages!

And a page with all of their favorite things!

Finally, they introduced their "family tree".

Of course, the whole time the students were working on their pages, I was informally assessing their ability to follow directions, cut, color, use glue, and write.  The kids loved it, and I got so much great information about them!  

If you think this would be a valuable resource in your classroom, hop on over to my TpT store. Scissors, Glue and All About You is available for $4.  Photographic directions are provided so you know exactly how to make each page.

Assessment Journal

Once I got my kiddos started on each page, I pulled them back one at a time to assess their academic skills.  I used pages out of my 1st Grade Assessment Journal to gather data on each student's math, letter and sound knowledge, sight word identification, and writing skills.  The assessments are aligned with common core standards, and give me a really good idea of baseline skills.

I will continue to assess students throughout the year, creating an informative binder of data to share with students' families during conferences.

Here are a few sample pages and some pages showing how I use them with students.

1st Grade Assessment Journal is available on TpT for $10.

I'd love to hear your strategies for getting through the first few weeks of school!  Share some of your ideas below!

Classroom Overhaul: The Big Reveal!

I am so excited to share photos of how my classroom turned out after a summer of pinning, planning, purging, painting, and "project-ing." OK...so maybe "project-ing" is a made-up word, but I liked the alliteration. All my projects turned out GREAT, and I met most of my classroom overhaul goals!

Here's the big reveal...drumroll, please!

I think my favorite part of the room is my new reading corner!

The baskets came from Baskets of Africa.  This is my husband's fair trade company. He works directly with weavers across Africa, paying them a sustainable, fair wage for their amazing, hand-woven baskets. These baskets came from Ghana, and are available on his online store. I've had them for about 10 years, and they still look AMAZING! I love using them for books, puppets, musical instruments, journals, etc. 

I made the apple tree out of crushed butcher paper. I especially love the crushed red balls of paper for the apples.  I've actually had this apple tree for years, but it was in a different part of the room. I moved it and added the apples....love it!

I bought the carpet and pillow cubes from Target. The carpet was about $60, and the cubes were 80% off. I think I paid about $20 for them.  The plastic Adirondack chairs came from Lowe's for about $13 each.  The long pillows (basket in the corner) came from Big Lots. There were on clearance, also.  I paid $5 each with a coupon. I bought the READ letters from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them. I stuck them to the wall with tacky stick.

Next up...this is my teacher's chair and student notebooks. My husband made the pillows for me. I bought the chair from Lowe's for $18. The 3 crates came for Walmart for $4 each. The basket (love!) came from Baskets of Africa. I bought the cubes from Target years ago for my son's room.

The journals are my students' Daily Digit calendar math journals. I wanted them to be in a central place in the classroom because we use them so much. This has turned out to be a great solution!

This is my Daily Digit calendar math display. I love how bright it turned out! The student clipboard are in a bucket I got from Bed, Bath and Beyond over the summer for a barbecue.

I love how these apple lanterns turned out for my classroom signs!  I got this idea from School Girl Style's Apple Theme Room.  I ordered the lanterns from Oriental Trading for about $30.  I cut out the leaves (at the top of the lantern) from construction paper and laminated them. I bought the chevron apple clip art set from Ashley Hughes for $2.50.

Storage Area - Before

Storage Area - After

Finally, I cleaned up my messy storage tubs (see the "before" photo) by investing in new tubs from Walmart. They were not cheap, at $11 each, and I needed a lot of them, but it was worth it! I made the labels out of a clip art set I bought from Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs.

In case you missed some of my other classroom overhaul projects, here are some of the photos with links to my articles on how I made them. 

Painted File Cabinet

Table Skirts

Milk Crate Seats

Thanks for taking a few minutes to look at my new classroom design!

You Oughta Know About Differentiating Homework

Welcome to July's "You Oughta Know" blog hop! I'm joining a group of super talented teacher bloggers who have linked up to share tips and ideas for educators. We're all hosted by Buzzing with Mrs. McClain.  Once you've read my post, be sure to hop to another blog that I've linked to!  Have fun!

Over the years I've had many conversations with parents and colleagues about homework in first grade. Boy, it's a hot topic!  My personal belief is that young children need to have time to be kids and have some social, emotional and physical needs met before spending time on homework.

Before Homework....

1. Our kids need time with family and friends to develop key social and language skills.
2. Our kids need time to exercise and play outdoors.
3. Our kids need to develop a love of learning that exists outside of school.

We all know that my list is "in a perfect world."  Our world isn't perfect. Some families are stretched for time, and homework creates additional stress for them. Other parents want their children to have homework because they want their children to get ahead. Finally, there are those families that don't want the homework, but their children really need it because they are so far behind.

To reconcile the gap between my beliefs, what parents want, and what children need, I've come up with differentiated homework options for my students. They're not necessarily differentiated in terms of student ability, but more in terms of what families need, want, and can manage.  At the beginning of the year, I review these options with parents and let them tell me what works best for them.

Homework Options

Option 1: Reading Log

It goes without saying that children need to read and be read to every night.  Many of us have students use reading logs to track their reading. As a parent, I didn't do too well with reading logs when my boys were young. We read a lot, but we couldn't seem to maintain the reading logs that sat by their beds. As a result, we'd have a mad scramble to fill them out the morning they were due. 

Even though they didn't work for us, reading logs are great option for many families.  Over the years, I've encountered families who use the reading log as a tool.  For those families, the reading log is invaluable because it helps them keep on track with fulfilling recommended reading times.

For those families, I provide a reading log. Here's a free copy for you!

Option 2: Monthly Homework Calendars

Another homework option is monthly homework calendars.  I like homework calendars because busy families can choose what works for them.  I ask families to select 3-4 activities a week, but they can chose which activities to do. They don't have to do an activity on the corresponding day.  In other words, if it's April 6, but they'd rather do the April 7 activity, that's fine with me.  

At the beginning of each month, I send home a packet with the month's homework calendar and lined paper so my students have appropriate paper at home to do the writing activities.  As students do a writing activity, they simply date the journal page, and do the writing activity under the date. They do the next activity under the previous one. They return the completed packet to me at the end of the month. 

My Monthly Homework Calendar is now editable, and available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store for $5.

Option 3: Take-Home Thematic Bags

These are by far my favorite homework option! I can't take credit for them. Several of my parent volunteers have worked over the years to make these amazing kits.  Each bag is filled with a variety of thematic educational activities, related props (such as toys), books, student and parent journals, and additional supplies such as crayons and glue.  Parents and kids LOVE them!

I gathered the majority of the contents from my own resources, but the ideas and print-outs came from Literacy Bags by Kathy Howell.

Option 4: Individualized Homework

As the school year progresses, and I get to know my students' needs, I individualize homework, as needed. I make recommendations about what families can do at home with their kids to build specific skills, and provide resources accordingly.  For example, I might send home practice activities for building sight word knowledge. Invariably, everyone gets extra practice sheets for word problems at some point.

Overall, I'm pretty flexible with families about homework as the year progresses.  I find that most of my families appreciate the freedom and flexibility and are committed to working on homework with their children. The result is happy kids, happy parents, and a happy me!

I'd love to hear what you do for homework with your students!

An InLinkz Link-up

Vegas Conference Sale!

I'm having an awesome time in Vegas at two awesome teacher conferences!  First I''m attending the I Teach 1st Conference. The Teachers Pay Teachers Conference starts on Friday!

Here's a picture of the binder I put together - 

and my super cute t-shirt my husband made for me!  

(The Honey Bunch Blog Design did my logo for me. I love it!)

I am meeting so many inspiring teachers that I want to celebrate with a SALE!

I've got so much to share with you when I get back.  In the mean time, check out my store and others that are also on sale!  Head over to Surfing to Success for the Vegas Sale Linky!

Classroom Overhaul -- Step 4: Make Milk Crate Seats

One of the challenges of having worked in education for 20+ years is that I have a LOT of stuff.  I have tubs of materials stored above my cabinets (which are also stuffed full). The result is that my classroom looks cluttered (even though I know exactly where everything is).  

A big goal for the summer is to sort through those tubs and purge! I'm planning on reducing the amount of tubs and storing my most essential materials in seat crates.  My students will use them as seats during reading groups.

You've seen the images of seat crates on Pinterest! So cute!  Mine turned out great!  

Step 1: Go shopping!  

• Fabric:  The fabric was 50% off at Joanne Fabrics, and I bought a yard of each (which was too much). I spent about $10 on fabric and ribbon.

• Foam: We selected a 2" high density foam that was also 50% off at Joanne. We chose the high density foam because we thought it would last longer and be more comfortable for my students than lower density foam.  I bought an entire sheet because I have some other projects for which I'll be using the leftover foam. I spent about $15 on the entire sheet of foam. (My dogs really liked the foam!)

• Plastic Crates: I bought 5 turquoise plastic crates from Target. They were $3.99 each, so I spent about $20 (with tax).
• Plywood: We had 5/8" scrap plywood so that was free.
• Tools: We used a staple gun, scissors, circular saw, measuring tape and other measuring tools -- all of which we already had.
• Total Cost: about $45 for 5 seat crates.

Step 2: Measure and cut the wood to fit on the interior rim of the crate.

Step 3: Measure and cut the foam so it is the same size as the wood. I traced the outline of the wood onto the foam.

Step 4: Measure and cut the fabric.  We used 2" foam, so we measured the fabric to be 4" wider (all the way around) than the foam/wood seat.  On the first one, we actually measured and cut the fabric pretty precisely. On the others, we just put the seat in the middle of the fabric and cut it so there was a 4" border of material.

Step 5: Staple the fabric onto the foam/wood seat.  

• First, we folded the fabric so it would be extra strong.

• For the corners, we folded them into triangular shapes (like we were wrapping a gift).

 Step 6: Staple on the ribbon. I wanted to have a handle to make it easier to pull the seats up. This was optional because I can easily stick my fingers though the crate to pop the seat up.

All Done! The entire project took about an hour and a half!