Back to School Blog Hunt...and my First Week of School

Hi, friends...I just completed my first week with an amazing group of first grade kiddos. To add icing to my happy cake, our new Principal surprised us with root beer floats at lunch time! Not only that, but I got a wonderfully complimentary card from my Assistant Principal and homemade tamales from one of my student's mom...how could my week have ended any better?

If you have been anywhere near blogland in the last month, you have probably run across the daily Back to School Blog Hunt that Mary from Sharing Kindergarten organized. This amazing group of teachers shared their ideas for starting back to school and some great freebies along the way.

Since I am fresh off my first week, I am going to share what I did to be prepared for my students for this first week...I will not be sharing my still-unorganized filing cabinet or the tote full of chaos that lingers in my closet...

Classroom Arrangement

If you are like me, then you absolutely HAD to have your classroom furniture organized first before you could even think about putting up border or digging out your math calendar pieces. And if you're also like me, then your classroom is full of tables, chairs, and bookshelves that you did not want to move around and around and around...insert an idea I got from a workshop I attended...

You make a map of your classroom and draw your stationary items (that cannot be moved) first, then you can use stickies for your tables or other small group areas that you can move around on paper until you get it like you want it...so it might save you a little time and some back pain...

Birthday Treats

I'm sure you have seen the birthday balloons/ pixie sticks all over Pinterest. I knew I wanted to make these for my kiddos this year so that I wasn't scrambling to put something together the day of one of my student's birthday...it would all.be.done before school started! But, mine also had to have a Pirate flair to match my new classroom theme...

You may notice that I put two smaller pixies sticks together because I was unable to find the larger ones, and I opted to use a combination of pixie sticks and crazy straws...I'll let my kiddos choose which one they want. I just love the birthday bag I found in the Target dollar spot! This is going to be a time-saver and come in handy for the three, yes I said three, birthdays that are next week!

Taking Attendance / Lunch Choice

I use a system in which my students make their lunch choice, and it also is a quick way of taking attendance. I have their clips (which helps develop their fine motor skills) labeled with their names and sorted by gender. I got some Pirate-themed plates and bowls (other dollar spot finds) to make it fun. This is not in its completed stage...as I plan on taking pictures of the food, labeling the pictures, and adding velcro to the plates and the pictures...but the stickies work for now. It's just the first week, people...lol...

I wanted something that would be easy for my students to do, and easy for my subs to understand. My kiddo that brings her lunch everyday just puts her clip on the What's for Lunch? sign. My student helpers remove the clips at the end of the day and put them in their designated bowls.

I'd like to share with you a couple of freebies that I have in my TpT store:

get yours here

get your packet here

I hope you got a few ideas to help you out in your classroom as you begin the new school year!

Be sure to check out my blog post partner at Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives for a cute Compliment Chart idea using Mr. Potato Head.

Happy Teaching!