Inside September

About a month ago, I introduced you to my storage solution for my classroom.  (You can see that post [here] if you missed it.)  The underbed storage bins.  Guys, they are great!  If you pack them just right, they hold everything!

Since then, I've added a few things to my August bin, but it's all Conscious Discipline stuff, and it's all going into a separate bin labeled "Safe Place" when I pack up my room at the end of the upcoming school year.  I'll post about that stuff later.  I need to actually figure out what I'm doing with it first.

Did you know that Scholastic Reading Club flyers have these nifty little boxed sets that focus on sight words and specific phonics skills?  Of course you did.  You're a teacher!  You look at the flyers before you even pass them out.  Silly me.  (In the off chance that you're a new teacher - or a seasoned teacher that has just never used it - and you want to use Scholastic Reading Club flyers with your students, hit me up for some bonus points!  I will have 1,000 bonus points to give away next month, but only if you're a first-timer at the whole book clubs idea.  Sorry, veterans.)

Anyway.  Scholastic.  Boxed sets.  Definitely worth it!  It makes the phonics and sight word practice more meaningful to the students than those silly blackline master decodable books that come with our reading series.  (Yes, I use those, too.)

As for the other things in my September bin...

Pardon my dog.  She likes to get in the way and does not like when she isn't the one getting the attention.

Three ways to read a book goes up on the wall once we talk about it.  I used to write an anchor chart, but a giant three is better... Well, it was last year.  I don't know how I feel about it now.  I'll decide later if I want to use it or something else. 

"What to do when I'm through" is for writing.  There are three things my students may do when they 'finish' their writing.  They may add details to the picture, add details to the words, or start a new piece.  I ordered No More "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson, and I should get it this week.  We'll see what she says about those tiny friends that say they are finished.

"I can write a sentence that" has always been something that goes up in pieces.  The first one says "uses spaces between the words."  Then it goes on to include capital letters, end marks, spelling, etc.  Each piece goes up as we talk about it.  This takes time to get everything up.

The pink cards are high-frequency words from my basal series.  I also have a different color for Fry's sight words and Dolch words.  Math words, student choice words (interesting words found in reading), science words, etc. all have different colors.  They will go on the word wall as we learn them.

The rest of it is games and books.  Classroom library books as well as read alouds.  (My brilliant idea of the summer:  Skip-Bo at the start of the school year as math buddy games!  They have to put the numbers in sequential order... That's number recognition and rote counting to 12.  Review = check!)

The theme for the books in September's bin is "Books about School."  There are other books in the library already when the kids walk in the door, but these are books that I put out specifically in September and take them back out of the library at the end of the month.  They include:

The Librarian from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler

Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Millie! by Judy Cox

Flat Stanley:  Show-and-Tell Flat Stanley! by Lori Haskins Houran

Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper

Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen

There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro

What I Saw in the Teacher's Lounge by Jerry Pallotta

My New Teacher and Me by Al Yankovic

Clifford:  Time for School by Gail Herman

Our Cool School by Judy Katschke

Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Annabelle Swift, Kindergartener by Amy Schwartz

If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School by Herman Parish

Skippyjon Jones Class Action by Judy Schachner

Mittens at School Lola M. Schafer

David Goes to School. by David Shannon

Splat and the Cool School Trip by Rob Scotton


And because September begins moose season here in Alaska and we need to talk about moose safety...

Moose! by Robert Munsch

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff


And because we are beginning to talk about nouns and verbs as critical parts of sentences...

A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink:  What is a Noun? by Brian P. Cleary

To Root, to Toot, to Parachute:  What is a Verb? by Brain P. Cleary (sorry, no link)

Slide and Slurp, Scratch and Burp:  More about Verbs by Brian P. Cleary


When I put these books out at the end of August, I try to talk them up.  Give some incomplete summaries of a few of the books; tell them which books are my favorite.  It helps with the book selection.  I'll even choose read alouds from this stack if I need a time-filler.

Well, that's my collection of random things that happen in September.  Part of me feels like there is a lot that I didn't pack up... like things are missing from this box...  It was probably the dogs! ;)

Always wanting to be in the middle of everything... ;)

I'm looking forward to hearing about your ideas for rolling out the new year!

Inside August

Do you remember my bin?

Well, I said earlier that I'd show you what I keep in there.  Here goes...

The stuff in the August bin is mostly the stuff that goes up on the walls before school begins and the stuff that gets used within the first three days of school. The rest of my "start the school year" stuff is in the September bin. 

There are some notes from professional developments that I wanted to remember.  The pieces to the tree that my students use to check in when they come into the classroom each morning... In looking at those birds, I am reminded that I need to pick up some acetone next time I go to Lowe's.  A folder containing the extra copies from all of the "First Day" work... Random folders containing random things - file folder games that I never made, reading challenge prize certificates that I need to make copies of before school begins, straws for my birthday bouquet, pencils that say "First Graders are #1," postcards to send home before school begins, and random posters that probably won't get put up, word wall word cards, CAFE bulletin board set, VOICES bulletin board set, and GNOMe bulletin board set.  I'll post links to things of interest.  I will also eventually upload my CAFE, VOICES, and GNOMe stuff to my TPT store.  (Disclaimer:  My TPT store isn't nearly as amazing as most others.  I only post things as I create them, and I really only create things when I can't find exactly what I'm looking for... which honestly isn't often.)  Oh, and let's not forget the books!  There are books in this bin!!

This is a set of books that my school purchased for my classroom before I got there.  It's the "Learn to Write" series by Creative Teaching Press.  There are various sets based on grade bands, it looks like.  I have the Grades K-1 set and an incomplete Grades 1-2 set.  You can find the whole series on the Creative Teaching Press website [here].  I will probably go through these books a little more in depth before school begins because obviously I won't use them all on the first day.  Honestly, I probably won't use more than three or four in September even.  They are designed to be a sort of mentor text for writing in various forms.  I'll have to see how they might fit into my writer's workshop.

The First Grade Words of Wisdom pages were written by my students on the last day of school last year.  They came from the Lucky Little Learners TpT store.  When I go back to set up my classroom, I'll make copies and bind a class book for the new Firsties.  Maybe I'll find some serious motivation and bind a copy for each of them to take home.  We'll see. 

These are some titles that I like to read aloud in the first few days of school.  We may or may not get to all of them, but they will all eventually end up in the classroom library in a special "First Days of School" book bin.  (I put them in a specific bin in the library because that helps me to know where they are when it's time to replace them with Fall themed books.)  The kids love to borrow books that I've read to the class previously for Read-to-Self or Read-to-Someone.  The books in this collection include:

Five Little Sharks Swimming in the Sea by Steve Metzger
A cute take on the monkeys jumping on the bed.  Speaking of which...

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow is also here.

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
I use this book to help emphasize the importance of rules and expectations.  In fact, I use a couple of books for this purpose...
No, David by David Shannon
David Goes to School by David Shannon
How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner is also included in this set of books because I start a mini-author study with Officer Buckle and Gloria.  The kids enjoy the book, but they find humor in the fact that Peggy Rathman drew Bootsie to look like herself because she didn't want anyone to think she was calling them mean!  We also read a few of Peggy Rathman's other books, but I have to borrow them from the library.

First Grade Stinks! by Mary Ann Rodman is one of my favorites.  It's all about how Kindergarten is better than First Grade because the teacher is better, the recesses are better, the art is better, the stories are better... There's a nice twist at the end.  It's definitely worth having!

Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper is one that I will read in the first couple of days and then put in the October bin.  We have to practice fire and earthquake drills, lock down drills, and stay put drills all in the first day or two of school.  This read-aloud helps introduce the importance of the fire drill.  Pull it out again in October during Fire Safety Week!  (By the way, I just learned that Miss Mingo has a first day of school book.  Maybe worth checking out..?)

And just for fun, I will read There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro and Charlie Goes to School by Ree Drummond.

We begin reading chapter books right away in my classroom.  I like to start with something fun, something that I can get really animated with because there aren't a whole lot of pictures in chapter books.  I start with Junie B., First Grader (at last!) by Barbara Park.  Chances are good that their Kindgergarten teachers have read them a Junie B. book or two, so I find this to be a good starting place.  We usually take anywhere from five to ten days to read this chapter book.  I'll choose the next one based on what I've learned about my students' interests and attention spans.  (We may need another one with as much opportunity for animation, or we might be able to read Tale of Despereaux at this point.  I've had classes on both ends of that spectrum.)

You can see the books that I read on the first day of school (not included in this post) by [clicking here].

Oh!!! And then there is this gem:

Have you heard of CHAMPS?  There are so many things going around on Pinterest, Google search, TPT, etc.  Well, my school (maybe my district.. I don't know) adopted CHAMPS as a school-wide approach to classroom management.  We're CHAMPSing it up all over the place in my building!  Well, in an effort to make one of the positive behavior strategies work for us, my friend across the hall and I thought long and hard about how to make the 100s board happen.  Well, what do you know?  We are some CHAMPS Champions!! We each took two regular hundreds boards, cut up one, put velcro on both, and now we've got the positive behavior board on lock down!  Well, sort of.  We both need to be better about actually using it.  But we took the first step... We put those suckers up in our classroom! Haha!  (If you're curious, I can explain it later.  It's a strategy from Randy Sprick's book.)

Well, there you have it.  Aside from the birthday crowns and star student crowns, the stickers, and calendar pieces, I think that covers what's inside the box.  Thanks for stopping by!

Get Ready, Get Set... What I Read on the First Day of School

Let's talk about read-alouds on the first day of school!!

I know, I know...

"Why are you talking about the beginning of the school year?  Summer just started!!"

Well, for a lot of the country, summer did just start.  Technically, my summer vacation just started, too.  Except that we got out of school a month ago.  I just managed to finish a good chunk of my homework for the summer semester yesterday.  (I'm working on a graduate certificate in teaching ESL.)  So, until my books come in for my next assignment, I have some down time.  Down time in the teacher brain means... next school year! 

First, the best idea I ever had was under-bed storage bins!  Genius, if I do say so myself.  *toots own horn* 

I have one for every month of school, and I put everything that I need for the month in there.  Read-alouds, craftivities, lesson ideas, templates for random things I've done, holiday-themed stuff, calendar (that would be the month that goes on my bulletin board... doubled as the bin label.  Just full of random good ideas, I tell ya!)...  Everything for the month.  It's a mess in there!  (We can take a look inside a little later.)  EDIT:  "Later" happened... Check out what I have in the bin [here].

I will say that I often outsmart myself with this system.  What did I find upon initially opening the box?  My to-do list from the beginning of last school year, that's what!!  (And yes, I definitely channeled my inner Junie B. there.)

Now I don't need to start over in trying to remember what I do at the beginning of every year.  Brilliant.  Way to go, Carrie!! 

Because I have a separate bin for each month of the school year and I only spend maybe the last three days of August with students in my classroom, the August bin is just the things I need to set up my room and the "first days of school" stuff.  The other things that I use for the rest of the beginning of the year are in the September bin.

Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to talk to you about first day of school read-alouds.  What are your favorites?  I took this bin out so I could share some of mine.  I don't like to force read-alouds in, so I have a few that I make sure to do on Day 1, then the rest are just when we have time in the first few days.

I usually try to read several books on the first day.  This will give my reading and writing mini lessons the kickstart they need later.  (I'll explain what I mean by that some other time.)

You're Finally Here! by Mélanie Watt reminds me of the Pigeon books by Mo Willems.  The character in the story, the bunny, is just so demanding in wanting to know why you didn't show up sooner!  I just bought the book, and I plan to read it to my students during morning meeting right after breakfast on the first day.

The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing is a great book to read aloud now and use later for rhyming words.  (Remember when I said I use what I read now for later mini lessons?)  I used to read this book first, but this year I'll read it after we've had some time to settle in and unpack our school supplies.

Later in the morning, I'll read First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.  I'm sure that you're all familiar with Sarah Jane Hartwell and her lack of desire to go to her new school on the first day.  I have a couple of writing activities that I usually do with this text, but I might revamp those to use this book as a close reading text.  I'll think more about that later.

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn is a favorite among many teachers.  A lot of you do a fun craftivity in which the kids make tiny hearts and glue them to a painted handprint.  Yeah.  I'm jealous of you!  I have so many things to do in this first week of school that I never can get to the handprint.  It's probably okay, though.  I usually have a community building craft that I have the kids do on the first day.

First Grade, Here I Come! by Nancy Carlson is another book that I only recently bought.  I plan to read it during our closing circle.  It describes the main character's, Henry's, first day in First Grade.  I'm hoping to guide the students in having ideas about which they can talk to their parents when they go home.  "How was your day?" "What did you learn?" and "Did you make new friends?" are questions that are prompted in the text.  By addressing this at the end of the day, it would be fresh in the students' minds when they see their parents.

Those are the books that I will make sure to read to my students on the first day of school.  What books do you like to use?  I'm always looking for fun, engaging new titles!