It's Friday!!  Wow was this a long week.  With the first month of school over, I have a few things to reflect upon.  This is the first year for trying the multi-colored behavior chart.  This is an idea I stumbled upon on Pinterest.  I changed the labels, but the idea is basically the same.  Everyone starts on green (ready to learn) and the children clip up or down based on behavior.  So far, I 'm impressed.  I can tell a difference from days when I am faithfully clipping up and down as compared to days when I forget to watch for positive behavior to clip up. I actuallly caught two students talking about they only needed one or two more "purple" days to earn a prize.  They're acutally noticing and planning. 
I also purchased Charity Preston's ELA/Math Common Core Pack fom TpT.  I printed out the "I Can" and the individual standards posters.  The idea is that instead of writing the standards out on the white board, I have the posters with each standard in a binder. I simply pull out the ones I need based on my lesson plans and clip it to my white board!  So far I'm loving it. 

I made it through the first week!  30 1st graders, I'm totally exhausted.  I forget that when they leave me in May, they're second graders.  But when they come to me in August, they're kindergartners.  Still, I absolutely love first graders.  Not a day goes by that I'm not smiling or laughing or crying about something they've done or said.  I asked my husband today how his day was and he said, "Pretty boring."  THAT is something I would never say. 

 One hour until Meet the Teacher night.

 Materials set out for parents and students to preview.

 Welcome packet...

"I am o-fish-ally a first grader"  I put one on each desk for them to take home.

 Common Core ELA tracking.  From the Organized Classroom Blog

 Science readers and Non-Fiction text

 Mailboxes

 Rules and behavior chart. 

 Guided Reading table and Writing/Speaking/Listening Standards posters.

Probably the cleanest my desk will ever be!!

Meet the Teacher Night 2012

I had a wonderful turn out!  I love this night because it makes me excited for back to school!!

No new pictures to post.  My mission to be more organized is well on the way!  Just two short weeks left before school starts.  I will be posting more pictures soon.  I'm on the hunt for new ideas for collecting homework folders?  Currently I have the children place them on their desks and I walk through the class collecting/checking/picking up notes.  I like this method because it gives me a few seconds to connect with each child.  I'm trying to keep desk-top-clutter at a minimum... 

Two hours later... I should have taken a picture of the trash can!!  Lots more work to do.