Quickie Update w/ a 1st day idea

Shew whee!!  Have I had a busy, exhausting, but exciting week!  We had our Teacher Week full of meetings and staff development, then I stayed late pretty much every night preparing my classroom for all my 22 little sweeties.  This year, we have had TOO MANY roster changes, but I am hoping that things will settle down now that school is starting Tuesday.

I was SO busy trying to get everything organized and ready that I forgot to take pictures.  I will TRY to remember to take some Tuesday before our first day of school.

Since I don't have any pictures to share right now, I will share a quick idea I got from one of my teammates that I like to do the first day of school.  I created a Word Search about myself so that the kids can learn more about me in a fun way.  I use words like, "wife, mother, WVU, cakepops, Kindle" words that describe me. Then, we discuss each of the words and what they mean in relation to me.  This is their "Morning Work" when they come in the first day of school.

This year, I put an interest survey on the back so that I can learn more about my sweeties from their perspectives.  It asks questions like, "I am good at _____." "I need help with _____."  "I want to learn ______."  All those basic questions that I want to know how THEY think.  We often ask their parents, so I thought this would be a different way to hear from them.  AND an informal assessment for ME to see how they write, spell, etc.

I'll try to post some pics next week of my classroom and some beginning of the year activities! :)