Happy Birthday!

We had two birthday celebrations today, so that reminded me that I wanted to post about what we do for special days in the classroom.

I give each kiddo a special birthday card and pencil to start off the day. They announce birthdays on our announcements, and students get to go to the front office to get their birthday pencil from the principals.

We also make a birthday book for our friends. While students are writing birthday notes, I have the birthday boy or girl decorate his or her book cover. Our kids are so sweet, making sure that they give their friends exactly what they would want for their birthdays. They account for their friends' interests and favorite things. It's a hoot seeing what they would give their friends.

During calendar time, we sing Happy Birthday (with or without cha-cha-cha's) to the birthday girl or boy.

We don't make a huge deal out of birthdays because some of our classmates don't celebrate them. However, I do want to make the day special because I remember how exciting birthdays are when you're young. They're not so great now that I'm older! :) So we like to give a little celebration to show our friends that we're happy for them and excited for their special day. I hope your kiddos come home excited after their birthday. (If they have a summer birthday, we celebrate a half-birthday for them, too so don't worry!)

Also, there has been some confusion and a few questions regarding birthday treats. This year, our school is allowing cupcakes or cookies, but you must send your treats to school in a pre-packaged, store-bought container. The label must be on the package, and it cannot be opened prior to dropping it off in the front office. We have to comply with national nutrition laws, so I must be able to read the nutritional facts before passing out snacks. We also have a few students with peanut allergies so make sure that you are only sending peanut-free products. I apologize for any inconveniences that this has caused in the past, but I just wanted to make an additional note here in case some of you were still wondering.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email me or call.

Welcome!

It's about time that I finally get to blogging! :) The beginning of the year is such a whirlwind, and I (unfortunately) completely pushed this blog to the side. I am going to try really hard to stay on a weekly schedule so that I can keep up with this thing!

Please forgive the poor(ish) quality of all these photos. I've been using my phone to take pictures...

I think the best place to start is with a few pictures of our classroom. Now, things have changed a teensy bit since I took these pictures before school started, but it looks more or less the same.

Here is a picture of the room from the door. Pardon the mess on the floor. I hadn't finished unpacking everything yet!

Next we have a picture of our class library, computers, and student work display. Our Daily 5 anchor charts will go above the library. I am absolutely obsessed with my chevron rug, thanks to The Bubbly Blonde!

Here we have a different view to the library. 

This is our main whiteboard. I love the new Daily 5 and Daily 5 Math workboards that I made over the summer. Thank you, Teacher Center! They're very cute, and I am hoping they'll be user-friendly, too! 

Here is my math wall. This looks pretty different now. I've added all the Every Day Counts materials. We were going to do it all online, but we've decided to wait until after Winter Break. I love our Pinterest-inspired "Today's Number" anchor chart. I think that it originally came from this blog. So far it is really helping with number sense!

Here is our Word Wall with Kindergarten words already posted. My objectives go to the right of the Word Wall. I can't wait to start using our Raz-Kids incentive board, too! I've turned those cube-shelf-thingies into storage for math stations. They were looking pretty sad in this picture!

Here is where we're keeping the materials for Daily 5 (things for Word Work and Work on Writing). I love our new transportation, inspired by Beg, Borrow, and Steal. I simply changed the different modes of transportation specifically for our school. 

That's our quick tour of the classroom! I keep reminding myself that it's a work in progress. :) We have to adjust every now and then to keep up with our new needs, but all in all I'm very happy with how everything is coming together!