Classroom Reveal!

I'm cheating. I'MSORRYI'MSORRYI'MSORRY.

I didn't post yesterday so I am sneaking it in here too :)

Thanks to Amy Lemons for making this cute little background. Here's a little bit about ME (Shelby) - the author behind First Time Firstie.

Here's my lovely home away from home. My theme is bright colors :)

View from the door :) There's LOTS of good stuff in this picture. I have 6 tables (all color-coded). The back counter is full of toolkits for Writer's Workshop that students will use at their tables. There's also paper baskets which will hold special papers for our Daily 5 writing. We will be using Cara Carroll's Work on Writing packet so each basket will hold a different type of writing: letters, lists, stories and prompts. There's also the ultra important word wall and my GORGEOUS book cover banner. Wish I had a better picture of this! My mom is a craft goddess. Also, shoutout to Maria Manore for the AMAZING tutorial (or so my mom says - ha!).

This is on the direct left of the door. This is the library where students will pick their dessert books. We wrote our own classroom rules so I won't be having the cute WBT rules up anymore :( I still need to cute-ify our rules we wrote down.

Front of the room! Obsessed with my easel.

Yes, a close up was necessary.

My desk, organizers, and Leader in Me clipchart.

Don't mind how blank everything is. This would be the first day of school - there's more up now but still lots of anchor charts to make! Also, obsessed with my Big Lots containers.

Leveled library! Can't wait to put this to good use. The baskets above are for Writer's Workshop and hold rough draft paper, writing booklets, extra booklet pages and final copy special pages (covers, about the author, etc).

What do you think? Comment with questions about where I got anything. A lot of it is new and may still be available :)

Linking up with the Blog Hoppin' girls.

Happy Back to School,

August Currently.

Hey friends! I'm here linking up with Farley for August Currently.

Listening: Love me some Queen B. Anyone else become obsessed with certain songs and listen to them repeatedly until they have them memorized?!?!?! Yeah…me neither.

Loving: I'm dog sitting for one of my sweet teammates and loving it! She's such a lovey dovey dog (and I can actually pick her up unlike my dog who weighs 90 lbs). I'm loving the quiet, quality time with myself. Oh okay, and Netflix.

Thinking: Sooo I totally forgot my hairdryer at my house. Which means my hair is air drying (scary town). My hair is also really thick so it's going to be awhile. Guess I won't be going anywhere haha.

Wanting: I JUST WANT TO DECORATE MY CLASSROOM. We are completely renovating our entire school this summer. Notice I am using present tense because it's not finished yet. I truly mean everything in the school: ceilings, carpet, bathrooms, library (including furniture), gym floor, cafeteria floor. All the classrooms got new little shelving too! I can't wait to get in there and get to work!! I have my fingers crossed that we can get in Monday.

Needing: I have been meaning to read Harry Wong's The First Days of School all summer. AND I just found a book one of my teammates loves at a garage sale for $2. Anyone ever read The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton & Roxann Kriete? My teammate swears by it. I really need to get these read especially since the first week is right around the corner!

First Day: I go back the 6th. However, most teachers are going back the 7th. I'm on our school's Lighthouse Team for Leader In Me (any other LIM schools out there?!). We are implementing it this year so we are starting a day early to do some prep work and additional training. I'm really excited! We had our 3 day training from FranklinCovey at the beginning of this week and it was great :) Kiddos come the 13th so that's right around the corner!!

Happy Back to School Season!

Book Talk: My All-Time Favorite

Hey friends!

I couldn't be more excited for this fun link up with Deanna Jump!

I love books. I mean I really, really love books. I have a confession. I have 600 books in my classroom.  I've taught for one year. So when I say I really, really love books…I'm really saying I have an addiction to books. I'm talking go garage sale-ing every weekend, stalking thrift stores, binge shopping at Scholastic (warehouse AND reading clubs) full-out addiction. The first step is admitting, right?

Here's a prime example. This is me. Two days ago. At Target. Leveled books were $2. WHY did I feel compelled to buy these when I had just spent $67 on garage sale books?! Because I have a disease.

No matter how many books I acquire or how many classics I have from when I was a kid, I still always come back to this one book.

This book is a game changer. If you don't have it, go buy it now. I already have 2 copies (Judge me). I used this book for no less than SEVEN different lessons this year. My kids know and love Moose. Even the 7th time I pulled out the book to read it to them, they perked right up. Moose is baaaack, what is Miss Culver going to teach us about him now?!?! I used this book for fluency, expression, character feelings and as an intro to our reader's theatre unit.

Here's the scoop on Moose:

Once upon a time there was a Zebra who was putting on a play about all the letters in the alphabet. They all had their part: the apple, the glove, everyone knew when it was their turn. Except Moose. Our overeager friend comes on during D's turn. He is very sad when Zebra tells him it's not his turn and he runs right into the elephant on the next page. 

He spends the next 6 letters asking if it's his turn, awaiting with excitement for the M. Sadly, they "decide to go with the mouse instead". 

Moose is LIVID. He storms through several pages, smashing the pie, terrorizing the queen and using a red crayon to draw moose antlers on everyone. He is later found crying behind the xylophone. Zebra relents and lets him be in the play as Z: Zebra's Friend Moose. It's an adorable story full of lots of emotions and opportunities to use mad/sad/happy/etc voices.

There you have it! My all-time favorite book. Click the cute icon below to see other posts about great books!! Can't wait to read about yours :)

Summer Bucket List

Looove Deanna's idea for a link-up all about SUMMER.

We have just 3 and a half days left in school so I can practically touch summer. My list is half bucket list/half plans I already have.

1. Ace my first 2 graduate school classes! I started my Master's program 2 weeks ago & want to graduate with a 4.0!

2. Spend quality time with my friends! I'm still very close with a group of girls from my sorority pledge class. Even though we group text all the time sometimes, I want to see them in PERSON. We did so well at the beginning of the year with birthdays, holidays & engagement parties. Luckily one of them is getting married in three weeks so we will all reunion soon for the bridal shower, bachelorette party & wedding day!

3. READ. I love reading. Apparently I'm not the only teacher who does, because this has been on just about every list I've read. Check out my Pinterest board of books that are on my wish list! Also, wanting to finish the Divergent series; I'm on the last book!

4. Speaking of my Pinterest, I need to organize my hot mess of teacher boards. I have 3 teacher boards: one for teaching ideas, one for anchor charts & one of classroom inspirations. Lately, it's been hard to figure out WHERE things are. I didn't want to be "that girl" with 100 boards of different teaching things, but I'm not in college anymore so teaching pins are 99% of my pins anyway. That and animals. I have a problem with animal pins.

5. Get off the couch and work out. I've been wanting to make this a priority for a long time, but it never happens. Maybe this is the summer I'll do it!

6. Binge-watch Netflix. Orange Is The New Black, Private Practice, Scandal. Oh and old episodes of Grey's Anatomy for no reason except that it's my favorite.

7. Go to California! I haven't been on a vacation in awhile and I am so excited! Can you believe that every family vacation we've been on has been on the East Coast?! We've never gone all 5 of us to the West Coast. I can't waaaaait!

8. Of course, thinking about teaching. I can't turn my brain off for the summer completely! I'll be reading professional development books, spending unnecessary amounts of money on things from Really Good Stuff, Lakeshore & Scholastic. I have a problem. I have tons of little projects I've been holding off on until summer. I want to make a banner of covers from hardback books. Like this one from Maria. I am also creating a leveled library in addition to my already themed library. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?! Oh, and buying some sort of math manipulative organizer. I'M THE WORST.

9. Looking into becoming a Stella & Dot stylist. I love the jewels and know someone who already sells it. I miss working at Express and styling people, but I'm not sure if I really need another job?!

10. Spending time working at the preschool! I love working with kids with autism and have been a teacher's assistant in the summer before. I'm so excited to spend time with some little ones.

What are you planning for summer?

I just love love.

It's February, friends!  I am super excited for this month because I have so many exciting things coming up.  I am visiting good ol' Maryville (where I went to college) to visit some of my friends that still live there. I am also seeing with some of my close friends to plan a bachelorette party and bridal shower.  I can't wait to work out all the details so we can start planning for the bride :)

In honor of a new month, I'm linking up with Farley for February's Currently.

Listening: I'm always listening to Pandora.  At home, at school - my students even listen to classical piano while we have Writer's Workshop!  Pop Fitness Radio is one of my favorites!

Loving:  I am obsessed with Target.  I GOT SO MUCH STUFF TODAY.  I got some cute stickers and things for my kiddos to decorate their valentine bags with.  I got a few boxes of valentines for any of my friends that forget or don't buy valentines.  For my firsties from me, I found JUNIE B. JONES VALENTINES.  Yes, I am actually shouting.  I read aloud Junie B. almost everyday and she's become a class favorite (most likely because she's my favorite).  Look at these beauties:

I also found some gummy BRACELETS to give to the kids with their Junie B. valentines from me.  I mean what's a valentine without some candy to go with it?  Not to mention they are gluten-free (a must in my room)! 

I also got little bouncy balls.  I'm planning on getting some cheap Valentine plastic cups to put the valentine, bracelet and bouncy ball in.  For those of you who know how obsessed I am with Scholastic, our class order was enough this month to get coupons for all the kids to get a free book with $10 purchase.  Talk about spreading a LOVE for learning.  Okay, I'm done.

Thinking: I've gotten into the (bad) habit of not doing a lot after school during the week and figuring I'll get it done during the weekend.  Then I have mounds of things to do at home on the weekend.  Argh!  I need to come up with a better system.

Wanting: I am lusting after some Stella & Dot jewelry.  I need to decide what I want to get this paycheck and order it.  I'm wanting to up my accessory game this year ;)

Needing: THIS IS THE YEAR.  The year I'm going to watch all the Oscar nominated movies.  I think it will make it 100 times easier to predict the winners.  So far I've seen 12 Years A Slave, August: Osage County, Captain Phillips and American Hustle.

2 Truths & a Fib: I rarely drink pop is a FIB.  I get a large Sonic Dr. Pepper every morning before school.  I've become friends with the people that work there.  No shame.  I am fantastic at trivia and own an obscene amount of shoes.

Hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me :)

Shelby

Schedule Linky Party!

YES!  I am so excited that Amelia from Where the Wild Things Learn is hosting a linky about schedules.  You can bet that I will be cyber stalking everyone participating.  I LOVE SCHEDULES.  I don't know why but they make me happy!  Click the button below and link up too.

Here's our daily lives in Room 102:

Morning Work: MWF will complete a math spiral review, Tuesday/Thursday we take a timed test of basic addition/subtraction facts.  We grade both the review and the timed tests as a class.  This is also when my students work on their morning jobs (sharpening pencils, preparing math games for math, logging into the class laptops, taking lunch count and attendance).

Reader's Workshop: We open with a morning message that the students help correct.  Then we have a mini lesson, the students read in their book boxes, I work with students one-on-one and then we share.  We are beginning spelling this week so this fits into the second half of our Reader's Workshop block.  Our spelling words are based on a certain patterns (this week is silent e) and each day we do something different: introducing the words Monday, doing activities/games Tuesday-Thursday and testing on Friday.

Math: My favorite part of the day!  We do EnVision math so we begin with students working with manipulatives.  Then we watch the learning video.  I have my students split up into math groups.  My 2 higher groups complete their math work without me.  Half is done with a partner and the other half is done independently and checked with a partner.  Then they go to either math computer programs or math games.  These alternate everyday.  While this happens, I meet with my 3rd group and we work through the math assignment together.  After completing the guided practice, independent practice and problem solving, they go to computers.  When I am done with them, the other 2 groups come to the carpet and I lead them through the problem solving part of the assignment.  Then I look at all of their papers.  I HIGHLY recommend math groups - I love it!

Recess & Lunch: This is my lunch break!  Noms :)

Daily 5: This is when some of my students work with our reading specialist or ELL teacher.  My students that stay with me are engaged in Daily 5 rotations.  I will have to do a separate post later to explain how I lay out my rotations because I don't fully follow Daily 5.  This is when I pull my small reading groups.

Writer's Workshop: This is our writing time.  It's my firsties favorite part of the day!  We do a typical workshop model with a mini-lesson, students working while I confer with students and sharing at the end.  We have a letter specials schedule and on C days we have computer lab at this time.  On those days we don't have writing, but my students work on it during their Daily 5 rotations.

Specials: As I mentioned above, we have a letter specials schedule and rotate between art, music, library and PE.  This is my plan time.  We have 1st grade collaboration on Tuesdays but my team is so tight, we usually meet twice a week.

Recess: More planning for me - yay!

Social Studies/Science: We alternate if we are doing science or social studies.  This is the toughest part of the day because my kiddos are still wound up from recess and tired from a long day of learning!  To try and resolve this, I have been reading a chapter from our class book to let them settle down before we start :)

After that, we pack & stack, gather our belongings and we're off to buses!

I can't wait to see what your schedule is like! :)

Please leave a comment with what you think of my schedule or questions you have.

Shelby

Memories & Resolutions.

Hi there bloggy friends.  While I am excited for 2014, it is slowly but surely reminding me how few days are left of winter break :(

This post is slightly delayed (which may or may not have something to do with the fact that I've been reading the Divergent series nonstop since the 31st) but I'm finally sitting down to write it.  2013 was an incredible year.  I am a little sad to let it go, honestly.

I'm linking this loooong puppy up with the girls at Blog Hoppin'.  I'm a day late, but this post is about my family & friends.  I might be cheating (SORRY!) but I wanted to first focus on the wonderful memories with my friends and family in 2013.

JANUARY began with student teaching in 2nd grade and my best friend's 21st birthday.  My other best friend & I made this beauty for her to celebrate some of our favorite memories in our decade long friendship.  Perhaps you've seen it on Pinterest ;)

FEBRUARY was my first experience with a holiday party in school (terrifying) & my other best friend's 21st celebrated with an out of town trip.  Here's the 3 of us celebrating:

MARCH was leaving 2nd grade & moving to 1st grade to finish student teaching, spending QT with my mom & my best friends' moms at sorority Mom's Day & celebrating my pup's 8th birthday.  Look at this angel face:

APRIL was celebrating autism awareness, becoming an alum of my sorority and spray tans galore (my guiltiest pleasure).  Can you even recognize this bronzed beaut?

(several seniors at our last Sigma Kappa meeting)

MAY was hard.  It was a lot of goodbyes: my first graders, my incredible cooperating teacher, my roommates, my house in Maryville, my sorority sisters, my best friends, my college.  It was my graduation, my brother's high school graduation, moving back to Kansas City, getting TWO jobs (Express! and a REAL LIFE TEACHING JOB) and subbing everyday.

JUNE was working two jobs, working retail at Express, working as a TA with some incredibly special kiddos and finding out I was teaching FIRST. GRADE.  Getting the dream.

(just some of the obscene amount of clothes from Express I now own)

JULY was working with NEW special kiddos, buying a whooooole lotta stuff for my classroom, crafting a whoooole lotta stuff for my classroom and setting everything up for the first day of the real world:

AUGUST was adulthood, the first day of school, saying goodbye to my baby bro as he left for Wyoming and countless nights working late at school.

SEPTEMBER was my birthday, BUYING A CAR, and still trying to figure out what it meant to be an adult.

OCTOBER was visiting Wyoming (it snowed), finally checking off my dream of seeing Wicked, celebrating Halloween first grade style & visiting Northwest for Homecoming with my best friends.

NOVEMBER was simple.  Not letting myself get overly stressed, enjoying quality time with friends & family and a whoooole lotta food:

DECEMBER was watching my kiddos perform at their holiday show, Christmas with my family and lots of ugly sweaters.

(I really have the most incredible teammates in 1st grade!)

(I actually do have other family besides my dog)

A great year that ended with a great night.  I spent it with some of my favorite people:

As far as resolutions go, I'm not sure I have one.  Maybe just to keep on keepin' on.  I want to keep staying close with my friends from college.  It may not be the same as when we all lived in the same small town (or even the same building!), but I think we can do it.  I want to keep staying less stressed; keep remembering that no matter what things will get done.  I want to keep trying harder everyday to be the best teacher I can be.  I want to have a great year.  Instead of a resolution, I guess I can leave you with this.  My reminder for 2014.

Happy New Year, friends.

Shelby

Help Wanted

I'm linking up with Simply Kinder for her teaching blog round-up!  As a newbie teacher blogger, I'm loving this link up: a great way to meet other blogs and to get input from other teachers!

I've taken a short break from this little blog.  I had a wonderful Christmas & am gearing up for NYE and heading back to school.  My to-do list for break is still unfinished - including my BIG goal to figure out a way to reorganize my library.

To say I have too many books is an understatement.  You might remember from my last post that I have stacks of books on my back counter (nowhere near my library).

Here's my library now:

Pretty sad, right?  While I am a first year teacher..I think I can do better than this.  My original thought was to get some of the cubic organizers from Target & neon book baskets from Really Good Stuff (to match my students' book bins).

A friend told me that her Really Good Stuff baskets didn't hold up that well.  Has anyone else had this problem?

What ideas do YOU have that I could use to help rebuild my library to fit all of my books?