The Week That Was

Hope all of you teachers out there had a good first week back!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs again this week to show you what we were up to in Room 102.

{ONE}

We started our character unit study in Reader's Workshop this week.  We created this anchor chart:

{of course all my little darlings had to worry about why the girl on the side doesn't have a face}

I added to it each day as we learned the ways we can learn more about characters: actions, likes/dislikes, dialogue.

I used several mentor texts as well.  We used a Froggy book (Froggy Goes To Hawaii) for actions because there are so many actions!!  We used Chrysanthemum for likes/dislikes - one of my absolute favorite books!  Dialogue was an easy choice - Junie B. Jones!  I have all of the Junie B books and she's easily my favorite book character.

{TWO}

We began our 3rd unit in Writer's Workshop as well.  SO excited for my kiddos to start persuasive writing.  I made this anchor chart yesterday; this was inspired by Spotted in First Grade.  

I cropped my kiddos names out but it says "Writing Goals" & after each goal are post-it flags with their names.  My firsties met with me one-on-one & we discussed which goal would be the best fit for them.  I  put their name by their choice for what to work on.

{THREE}

One of my newest students gave me this as a present yesterday:

It was so nice I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm a KU fan.  One of my little sweeties saw the whole thing & is a diehard Mizzou fan (and knows I hate them!) and I was SO PROUD of him for not spilling that I like KU to her.  Not sure what to do with this now - ha!

{FOUR}

We started Class Dojo!  One of my good teacher friends at school uses it with her kindergarteners & loves it.  I really wanted to try something new with behavior management and this was perfect!  I felt really inspired to do it after reading this post from Erica Bohrer.  If you're thinking about using Class Dojo then this is a MUST READ for all the ins & outs.

{FIVE}

This one is just about me - I did some shopping today and am super excited!  It's been awhile since I've shopped for myself and I love finding new things for my teacher wardrobe.  Here's some of the great things I got while I was out this morning.  Click the links to find them online :)

Green Sleeveless Portofino, Polka Dot Portofino, Black Scarf

Sorry the picture quality isn't the best but I DID take it with my NEW iPHONE 5.  YAY!  I'm so happy to have upgraded to a faster phone!  I already love it, especially the fingerprint login.  So cool!

Also - I do realize all of these clothes are from Express.  I used to work there.  I have a problem.

Hope you have a great weekend,

Shelby

First Time Five For Friday

I'm so excited to link up with Doodle Bugs for the first time.  It's my first Five for Friday!  Click the graphic above so you can link up, too :)

We made these adorable gingerbread houses from Kelley Dolling at Teacher Idea Factory.  I think they turned out great!  I let the kiddos have some free reign with decorating and they really let their personalities shine.  This activity went along perfectly to review fact families from our lesson last Friday.  Anyone else doing EnVision math?!  Fact families are in Topic 6!

On Tuesday, we had our Staff Holiday Breakfast.  It was also Ugly Sweater Day at school.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore a good ugly sweater.  After searching my entire house to find mine from college to no avail, I set off on a hunt for one.  I ended up settling on these holiday pajamas:

If you can't tell - these are covered with different breeds of dogs that are wrapped in Christmas lights.  Ha!  I'm going to another Ugly Sweater party this weekend and wearing this beauty from Target:

What's not to love about a funny ugly holiday sweater?!

I LOVE MY CLOUD PEOPLE.  These cuties were inspired by Abby at the Inspired Apple.  Link leads to her post with her cloud people :)  We are continuing our unit on weather until winter break.  My firsties are loving it.

If you've read this blog more than once, you probably know that I have an obsession with books.  My room is FULL of them and yet…I can't stop myself from buying more.  I can't say NO to a good deal.  For example, this is my back counter:

Not to mention the bookshelf with baskets that are literally overflowing with books.  I bought these gorgeous library labels from Danielle Mastandrea & hoped it would encourage me to get my life together & update/reorganize my library.  Which seems completely and utterly unnecessary when I am a FIRST YEAR TEACHER.  But, I have too many books.  I digress.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  I wanted to get the gorgeous neon book baskets from Really Good Stuff to match my book bins, but heard that don't hold up that well?  Does anyone know?  Help me, I'm poor (in my best Kristen Wiig voice).

FINALLY.  The best part of my week, easily, was this note from my principal that I got this morning.

Sad how excited a week of jeans makes me!!  What were you up to this week?  I can't wait to read all about it :)

-Shelby