A Sunday Well-Spent!

What'd you do today?  Let me guess.

You went to church. You ate a family lunch. You probably laid back and took a lil snooze (even though you got an extra hour of sleep last night!).  You probably then woke up to the sound of football on the tv, and now you're probably a little sad that it is already dark out at 5:00!!! Did I guess right?

Well, my day looked COMPLETELY different! :)

I woke up at 6:15 this morning, wide awake and full of energy!  Got up, made myself a nice breakfast, and then decided it was time to get to work!  Usually I commute to Cedar Falls to go to church on Sunday mornings, but since I was in Cedar Falls yesterday, I didn't want to make the commute two times in one weekend.  Anyways!

I went into my classroom around 9:00 this morning, with a LONG LIST of to-do's.

1st:  

REARRANGE my classroom. (all by myself!)

Since we started school, I just really haven't enjoyed my set up in my classroom.  It didn't seem organized to me, and it didn't seem very kid-friendly.  So, I dedicated my day today to rearranging and hoping that the kiddos will LOVE it tomorrow! :)  Rearranging took me until about 10:30 or so, and then I had to move everything on the walls, which took another hour.

 Standing in the middle of my classroom, this is the back right corner (where my desk used to be). 

It NOW has the computer area and the newly improved Word Work area! :)

My amazing new library! 

I am so in love with my library now! It's colorful, vibrant, but yet it all matches :)! 

I just ordered the foam floor tiles (the orange and purple floor) with my PTO money from the school!  

So happy with this purchase!!! :) :) AHHH!

This is the front left area of the classroom, where the teacher table USED to be.  

It is now the writing area for Daily 5! :)

This is the front right corner of my classroom, where the library USED to be.  

It is now occupied with all of my wonderful teacher stuff. 

I was very tempted to get rid of my desk...but I'll keep it for awhile longer I suppose!

Right when you walk in the door, this is the back left corner of the classroom.  It used to be the writing and computer area, but now the teacher table is there where I can clearly see across the room to each different Daily 5 center, but not have it be loud around me!  This was a change that I was definitely looking for :)!

Hope you enjoyed the new tour of my classroom! Let's move on! :)

2nd: 

Word Work center "kid-friendly" but organized!

Because my mom is AMAZING, she got me this awesome ten-drawer (black cart) on wheels that works perfect for organization.  I took some labels, typed up the different activities I wanted, and laminated them onto some construction paper.  From there, I labeled the drawers and each drawer now has an activity in it.  Word Work is part of Daily 5 (which fosters independent learning).

The new word work area including a shelf of activities, the kids' pencil boxes right in the center, and the AMAZING ten-drawer cart! :) Perfect for organization!

The ten-drawer cart, now labeled with activities for the kids to do during Daily 5 time.

Letter Beads!!! I just purchased these with PTO money...it will help with spelling and sight word spelling!  They will use the beads and string them onto pipe cleaners, and then write the words they spelll! :)  

I KNOW these are going to be a hit! :)

Scrabble Spelling!  Make the word, write the word, then add it up!  

Consonants worth 1, vowels worth 2!  :)

Word Sorts!  Sort the words by vowel sound, and then record.  

I always have them record because it keeps them accountable for their work since 

I am not right next to them during Daily 5 time!

My hardwork last week finally is done...file folder games!  These file folder games are amazing, but they take alot of work to put together...cutting, laminating, cutting again, and then putting the final product together.  I made these file folder games for Short and Long vowel sounds.  This is an example of one! :)

I LOVE that it has SPECIFIC directions!

I was using Word Work before, but I could tell my kids were getting bored with the same activities over and over again...so I pray (really hoping) that this works out better for them and gives them more choices during Daily 5 time! :)  I stayed at school until about 1:00 when my tummy was telling me it was time to go home and feed it! :)

3rd: 

Prepare for this week! :)

No, don't call me a procrastinator because I definitely am not!  Well, maybe sometimes, but that wasn't the case this week/weekend.  I returned to my classroom today around 2:30 and stayed until about 4:45...this time was basically used to complete things for this week as well as write my November newsletter.  I had my lesson plan complete...but I had to make copies, copies, and MORE copies.  I feel like I use SO MUCH paper...but I guess that's just part of education.

Some things we will be learning about this week are:

Reading:

Main Ideas and Supporting Details: I'm going to introduce this topic by relating it to a table.  A table can't stand up with out legs, and a paragraph can't be a paragraph without a main idea and its supporting details!  I found this SUPER cute graphic organizer that I just know the kiddos are going to LOVE!

Math:

Most likely will be our chant for the week! :)

We will be learning about even and odd numbers, making adorable Even Owls (they all look the same) and Odd Owls (the will all look COMPLETELY different) and then we will be hanging them up!  Stay tuned to see the Even & Odd owls!  They are going to be SO CUTE :)! Ahh, I'm really excited about this activity if you can't tell....because I LOVE OWLS! :)

Social Studies:

We will be learning about Earth's natural resources and why we need them.

Science:

We will continue studying our Ocean Habitat, researching ocean animals as well as make scuba diver writings! :)

We will be very busy this week...as you can probably tell...but no worries, we will have fun and I just know my kids will come tomorrow feeling energized because of that extra hour of sleep ;)!

Well, that's all for now!  Thank you all for listening...and until next time, stay safe. <3