First Weeks {EXHAUSTED!} and a FREEBIE

Well, with Day 9 down, I am still EXHAUSTED!!!  Talk about no time for blogging!

On September 4th I welcomed 20 fresh-faced firsties into my classroom.  Since then, it has been a whirlwind!  We are working diligently on routines and procedures.  I'm proud to say that they are really progressing quickly, wahoo!  Here's what we have been up to so far...


We began Math Workshop on the very first day of school!  After I introduced the mini-lesson to the students, I began introducing the other components of our workshop.  Here we are practicing Math with a Buddy:

I LOVE this Color Squares game for the introduction of Math with a Buddy.  It's so easy and really allows the kids to practice working with partners.  This game is from Oceans of First Grade Fun.

{Click HERE to Download for FREE} 

Here are my kiddos practicing Math by Myself.  In the beginning of the year, these activities include review skills from kindergarten, like practicing number writing.

Working so hard!!!

Math by Myself is also our time to eat our snack... extra incentive to work quietly, haha!

We are deep into Daily 5 at this point.  We quickly built our Read to Self stamina to 15 minutes.  Then we moved on to Listen to Reading.  This year we have the iPads to use.  EVERYONE wants to get their hands on those babies!

Here are my first six kiddos practicing on Tumblebooks.

All last week we worked on our School ROCKS pack from Ashley Sanderson at Flying High in First Grade.  I was lucky enough to snag this as a Fan Freebie in the summer.  It's now on Teachers Pay Teachers and it's definitely worth putting on your wishlist!

{Click HERE to Purchase from Flying High in First Grade}

Throughout the week we read books that helped facilitate discussion about Respect, being On-Task, Cooperation, and Kindness.  At the end of the week, we completed this anchor chart.  It now hangs right above our behavior chart to remind us about Rockstar behavior!

Last week we also had Curriculum Night.  Yup!  On Day 5 of school we gave our presentations to parents in two evening sessions.  Talk about exhausting!  My parents are fantastic and I can see where their kids get their spunky personalities from.  Yay for parent support!!!

The first of many sign-in's and sign-up's for parents!

I have a packet of information for parents, as well as some other notes and the September Scholastic Book order.  I put all the paperwork into a file folder and label it with the child's name.  That way I know who attended and can easily send the folder home to those that didn't attend.

Every other Friday I host a Mystery Reader in my classroom.  It's so much fun!  I'll be sure to blog about it in detail after my first Mystery Reader next week!

This year I set out apples with my "wishlist" items.  I also set out a bowl of apples for the parents.  The bummer?  Though the wishlist items were snatched up, not ONE apple was taken to eat!  Sadsville.  Guess I'll be making an apple pie or two!

We worked so hard on our All About Me posters!  Too bad I didn't snap any pictures.  D'oh!  It's my FREEBIE for you tonight.  I have them enlarged and copied on 11x17 paper.  I put the kids first day of school picture in the "This is Me" section.  (The fabulous fonts are KG fonts of course!)  Enjoy!

{Click HERE to Download for FREE}

Oh, and just one more pic I couldn't resist... found this top at the Ann Taylor factory outlet.  LOVE me some chevron!