The Countdown Has Started!

It's official.  I'm have been back into the classroom, moved shelves and boxes and then stayed up way too late working on prepping and revising papers for the beginning of the school year.  Those first few days are almost here! I suppose I'll admit to having had a few school dreams although no nightmares yet.

I went back into the classroom, not quite sure what my game plan was going to be for the day.  Since our room was completely packed up (every. last. thing.) the room was an empty slate, except for the mound of boxes.  But I managed to get all the shelves, desks and tables in their spots.  I shuffled boxes around and did a LOT of staring.  

Don't get me wrong...the staring was productive!  I envisioned my room full of 1st and 2nd graders, thinking about traffic flow, new materials, favorite activities of years passed and then the excitement of the first few days and weeks that were closely upon us.  I am getting excited!   The first day of school is nearly 3 weeks away but it will be here before we know it!  I'm ready to get the room set up and fully prepared for it to be bustling with kiddos for the new year.

I can't wait to get the first day, first week and first month started!!

Class Mission Statement

This is what we are all about....

Early in the school year we sat down as a classroom and talked about WHO we were, WHAT we are doing here, and WHY we are doing those things. From that....I give you......(drum roll)...

Our Class Mission Statement:

Things We Find Important

We have been talking in writer's workshop about ways authors come up with ideas for writing.  One technique that author Donald Crews uses is to sketch pics or take photographs of interesting or important things in his environment.   
We decided to do it too!!  This week the students had the chance to take pictures of things in our room that they felt were important to what we do in the classroom.   Here are their pictures they took with our class camera as well as the sentence (or 2) they wrote about it. 
Enjoy!

We think these things are important... 

 I like the corpet beaucuse we wot have to sit on teh flool evy day. 

This is awre chanc chart poster it is inporetit becase it helps us with reding 

This is are class mission statement it is speshal to all of us 

This is important because we lrn alot and this is fun 

This is mprtat. It says win we ged now books 

Because so we can be smot to lrnu r goals!!! 

I took a pichr of the postr because we are wrcen on being awesome 

I tuc a pisho uv the kube bekus peple dot want bakpac on the graud 

This is are clas speashle chart for speshol thags like birthdays. we yous this for speshol thags onlie. We like this becauese it is for all of us. 

This is important because for we can be batr retrs and lrn to rede on tasck 

I took a pisher of the vocabuluerry words. We lern the vocabuluerry words because they help us rite and reed. 

I tok a pishur of the word wol. It is a potit because the word is a potit so we no mor words 

Daly 5 is awr riding and reding and lising time 

B ks its a maf tub at it is a nis maf tub

I took a pichr of the postr we nee to gat smot

Bey cus it hups us raeed

We pot stof ni the kobe

First Post of the Year

Wow.  I truly had full intentions of posting to our classroom blog at least once weekly. I'll have to get better at this, hopefully once it gets less crazy it'll be easier.  Not that it's a teeny tiny bit crazy this time of the year, nope not at all!

I hope you've been following our classroom newsletters.  I've recently switched to sending them home weekly instead of monthly. It's proving easier on my end so hopefully you're enjoying the updates and spelling words all in one place.  Please continue to read over them each week as any new info you need to be aware of will be in there.

Yesterday was our Grandparent's Day event.  We had several Special People in our classroom and it was great to see the students showing their grandparents the areas of our classroom they found to be important.  Last night was also our Open House!  Out of 18 kiddos, we had 10 families represented.  Again, the kiddos really took charge of demonstrating to families what we learn in the classroom, the special places in our room, and things in our room they find to be important.  It was also a time for parents to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences....so if you were unable to make it, please watch your child's backpack for a notice that will let you know when your conference is scheduled.

I believe that is it for today! My game plan is to have student input on what goodies we'll share on the blog and eventually posting up a virtual tour of our classroom.  I'll do my best to keep this updated but as this is a new adventure and addition to our classroom, it may take some time to get it into our routine.....bare with us :)


Thanks for all you do for your kiddo....
Mrs. Cantrell 

It's Almost the First Day!

I can't believe that school starts NEXT WEEK!!  I've actually been in the classroom quite a bit these past few weeks, trying to get the room all ready for it to be our home away from home.  I'd like to think that it's almost ready.   I have been working to make sure each kiddo has their own spot, that our supplies can be organized, restocking our classroom library with new books, rearranging some shelves, and a few new touches to the room to surprise those that will be returning to our classroom this year.

That's right.  Some kiddos from last year will be back in my room because we will be a 1st & 2nd grade classroom! I am soooo excited for this opportunity!  This upcoming year will be amazing, I have no doubt.  We will have a mix of 1st and 2nd graders in our classroom this year, working together to build stronger learners while creating an environment where each child can be successful.  Building a strong classroom community will be essential and hopefully we'll have your support at home as well.

Again, I'm super excited for this school year and can't wait to see all the faces that will be in our classroom!  Hope to see everyone at Meet the Teacher next week!