Busy, Busy

I think any teacher would agree with me in saying that August and September are just plain crazy. The first month is all about training. Yep. You have to train the kiddos on how things run in your classroom. Rules, procedures, all that fun stuff. Then before you know it, you are in September and all of a sudden report cards are upon you...which means assessing, assessing, assessing. PHEW! I have been busy lately to say the least, and I apologize for the serious lack in blogging. Teacher fail. I will say that the past two weeks have been exciting. Well, for me anyways. I am FINALLY starting to see the classroom running itself, which I LOVE. It means all that training is paying off and my kiddos are starting to get the hang of things like Daily 5 (man, that requires a TON of practice in order to run successfully...who knew?), Whole Brain Teaching, and all the other things that are new to them as big first graders like "clicker tests" (we get to take our weekly reading tests with a super cool remote control). I am also getting into my groove as a first grade teacher. Having taught kindergarten the last 4 years, I am still finding out what's I like and what's going to work with first graders (and what has failed miserably). It's a learning process. But I finally feel like I am liking the way things are headed.

So after that ramble I will get onto the good stuff. What's going on in room 202 these days? I think the best and most exciting thing would be how well Daily 5 has been going and how proud I am that the students are finally at the point where they have gained enough independence that they can make their own choices. They have now learned 4 of the 5 components, and they have the freedom to choose between read to self and work on writing each day. Next week I am going to add read to someone as a choice. After fall break I am going to go crazy and throw in word work as another choice, and hopefully shortly after that I will be able to introduce listen to reading which will allow students to choose computer reading programs such as Reading Eggs, MyOn Reader, and Accelerated Reader. Daily 5 rocks, and I have a big post all about how I run Daily 5 coming soon. Stay tuned. Here are some fun pictures taken during word work:

The other fantastic thing I see going on in our classroom is the sense of community that is starting to develop. We are all starting to come together as a team, and that is a special thing in any classroom. I mentioned Bucket Fillers in an earlier post, and I have to mention the sweetest thing ever. We started using the Bucket Filler forms during work on writing and the students have been so incredibly sweet and thoughtful and it melts my heart! You would just die if you sat in on community circle on Fridays. I pull out the slips from each bucket and read one aloud. Their faces just light up when someone fills their bucket and I could just cry it's so darn sweet. My favorite is when they notice that someone's bucket is empty and they make an effort to fill ALL buckets by Friday so no one is left out. It doesn't always happen, but we get close, and everyone has had at least one bucket filler. Next week I hope to get some pictures of some of the darling things they write to one another. And wow does it build self esteem. I just love it. It's my favorite part of the week.

We also had our first student reach level 2 on the Super Improver wall. Congratulations student #3!!!

Oh, and our cafeteria is doing this neat program where they deliver an "unsual" healthy snack once a month for everyone to try. This month we tried a "seckle pear". All but two students loved it, and they DEVOURED it.

 Hopefully next week I will be able to finish my new math tubs so we can enjoy some fun math games on Fridays. I did teach them how to play "Bump" last week, and we played a fun Halloween version called "Boo Bump". I know it's early, but I love Halloween. We are also playing the scoreboard to earn a Halloween party. That should be fun:)