Classroom Library

I feel like this is really my first BIG post. It has been a few days since I have been blogging (on my own site anyway) so here it is.....

I have been trying to rejuvenate my classroom library and make it just perfect for my little firsties! Of course I do the 5 finger rule and just right books lessons at the beginning of the year but as we all know the majority of the time kids just aren't that great at choosing books that are right for them. 

In my classroom I have a section of my library that is organized by genre/theme and another smaller section that is organized by level. When choosing books I tell kids that they may have 3 books from the general classroom library but that they must also choose 3 books from the basket that I assign them to. This way they always have books that are at their level while still in control of making their own reading choices!

This week I worked on creating new basket labels and new sticky labels for my books! I hope that you find them useful. I am going to post the PDF and the word document. This way if you need to revise them in anyway to make them usable for your classroom you can! Happy blogging!

https://docs.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0&pli=1#folders/0B_24NnvDRkqcYjI2MGIzZTYtMzNjMS00ZjFjLThlYjQtNjA3ZDI3NGZhMWZj

Ahhh weekends

I feel like I only look forward to the weekend so that I can get some work done in my classroom! :) Is that sad?? I just love being all alone in the school for those few hours early Saturday morning. Being able to complete more in those few short hours that I have all week long feels nothing short of wonderful. 


Today I finished up my bulletin board. (Well I still need to add the little froggies to each clothes pen with their names). I also hung up my classroom sign that I made. I need to get their silly face class picture in it but it is oh so cute. It feels great to do some fun stuff-- really making the classroom my own!

Let me know what you think! 

New to the world of blogging...

Well all of you teachers out there have inspired me to start my own! Where I will find the time I don't quite know but your blogs have been so inspiring. As I have begun my first year teaching first grade (with a last minute move two weeks into the school year, I might add) the teaching blogs that I have stumbled across have really kept me going! Thank you!


To get me started here are just a couple of things I am loving right now!


I completed this art project with my sweet little firsties today! They turned out beautiful and I will post pics soon! They started by painting a white circle of center on the page and then dipped their brush in blue, mixed it with white well and painted a circle around the white. They then dipped their brush again, mixed and painted another circle around. The process continued until their whole paper was covered. Today after their work had dried we cut out the pieces for the trees, ground and house out of black construction  paper and then glued it all on. Can't wait to show off their hard work. 

I saw this on another blog but I can't remember who to give credit to for this one. I feel like the poetry and sight word pages are like two shots in one. I am going to set aside time each Wednesday to do one of these. The kids will paste one into their poetry journal, we will read it together and then they will fill in the appropriate site word! It is great practice and then eventually they will be able to read them with a buddy during Daily 5- Read to Someone!