Beginning of the Year Blues!

It's been a while since I have posted a blog! Being a first year (well, first year beginning the year) teacher, I am having quite the time nailed down a schedule. If you have been on my blog before, you know that I am a looping teacher, 2nd to 3rd and then back again. This is my first time teaching the 3rd grade part of the loop. Major differences between 2nd and 3rd grade: SOL's and teaching all subkjects, every day. So instead of teaching a whole unit of science (3-4 weeks) giving the end of unit test and then moving on to a Social Studies unit. So, of course, the day didn't get any longer going from 2nd to 3rd grade, just more to teach!

Our Schedule:

8:45-9am- Students arrive, start working on Morning Work (Evan Moor Daily Oral Language and Morning Math that our Math Resource teacher makes, she is amazing!)
9-9:10am- School-wide announcements and Fitness 5 (a five minute exercise video that is played for the students to follow featuring teachers or students leading the exercise)
9:10-9:30am- Students line up to make their lunch choice using the Promethean Board, all other morning business like attendance, notes to office, checking of agendas
9:30-10:15am- Social Studies
10:15-11am- Specials
11-11:15am- Walking back from specials (always a traffic jam in hallways) and eating snack
11:15am-12:20pm- Language Arts, including minilesson and however many Daily 5 rounds we get to
12:20-12:40pm- Recess
12:40-1:10pm- Lunch
1:10-1:20pm- Walk About (a 5-10 minute walk around outside for extra exercise)
1:20-1:50pm- Science
1:50-3:00pm- Math
3:00-3:20pm- Core Extension which is used for intervention, pull out time for math and reading specialists
3:20pm- Afternoon announcements
3:35pm- Usually all kids are out the door

Looks like it is a schedule that flows...but it doesn't. Because of the extra exercise things put in the day, snack, and the hallway traffic, bathroom breaks, etc... I just don't get through it.

I have all these great plans, great ideas, FUN ideas and projects...but in all honesty, I am barely getting through the content that I need to cover. How do you do it? What is your schedule like?

Also, what do you have your students do when they first come in in the morning? Our morning work is expected to be gone over everyday as a class. It winds up taking around 20 minutes to go over the both of them (math and language).

Back to School!

Phew! Made it through our week of teacher work days. Lost of professional development, meetings, planning, and my favorite (!): decorating and setting up my room.

This is what my room looked like after my first day back...didn't get much done. But I had an excuse! The desks legs still had to be raised since my kiddos are 3rd graders, not 2nd graders anymore (if this is the first time you've been on my blog, I'll let you know that I loop with students 2nd to 3rd grade). The only things I got done were hanging my new calendar, moving my book shelves and putting the baskets in, and hanging up my WBT rules and schedule chart with my Polka Dot Schedule Cards.

On Friday, I was making some progress! Decided to make tissue paper poms, instead of buying chinese paper lanterns. I had to make like 100 of these one time for a wedding, so making six was a breeze. I sorted my library books and was able to label most of the chapter books with their DRA levels, which I have to do for a class I am taking. I cannot even imagine how long it will take to get them all leveled! Check out Stickers and Staples DRA Label Stickers...they were a time saver since I hadn't made my own. It you purchase these, make sure to change your printer settings to actual size and not shrink to fit. She got back to me right away after I printed them and they were not aligning with my labels. 

 Here are my BUILD math baskets! I am super excited about these. The idea has been floating around on Pinterest for a while and I decided to go with it. Here are some amazing math centers that I purchased on TpT: Easy as 1-2-3 Math Centers by Amy Lemons, Money Activities for any Money Unit by Jamie Rector, Telling Time to The Five Minute Activity Pack by Fourth and Ten, Math Place Value Go Fish Center by CTG, and Place Value Mystery Pictures by Cara Carroll. I also bought a bunch of flash cards, wipe off math bookets and flash cards from Target's $ Spot. I plan to find games to go with base ten blocks and connecting cubes for the Using Manipulatives basket.

 

These are the student cubbies. In each are their book baskets, which I bought from the Dollar Tree. Inside each book basket their is a reader's notebook that our county sells that includes a book log, want to read list, mini lesson notes, response pages, etc. Also on the cubbies are my Classroom Jobs- Polka Dots! My classroom polka dot jobs are my #1 selling TpT item. There are jobs for every student and after each week, I will rotate them. I have them on the cubbies with velcro.

And finally, my teaching cove. I tried to make this area as small as possible. I moved my mini fridge to a counter and decided to house some more of my classroom library by my desk. Not sure what I will use the bulletin board for yet. It is in the back of the room so I feel like it is a wasted feature of my room. I will probably put our Daily 5 anchor charts up on here since I cannot figure out how to adhere anything to my walls (tried masking tape, packing tape, tacky AND hot glue! but it is just so humid in there). I covered my teacher chair with pink polka dot fabric, which I love! And next to my desk will be my guided reading desk. I asked for a horse-shoe shaped table on my wish list at the end of last year and I got an email this past week saying it was ordered! I am super excited about it. I just realized I didn't take any pictures of my crate seats! I'll have to do that.

On Friday we had our school's Say Hello! New and old students come in to meet their teacher and tour the building. I have 5 new to our school students this year, 8-9 returning students from my 2nd grade class, and 6-7 students that were moved into my room from another class. I will be the LD/ED teacher for our 3rd grade team and I am excited to have support in my room. Looks like I am holding steady at 22 students, which is pretty low for our school (1st grade has 29-30!).

Well I hope you enjoy my classroom pictures and head over to my TpT store to check out my materials. One last and VERY important shout out to Ms. Durning from K-2 is Splendid, as I will be using her Daily 5/Cafe Launch schedule. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!