Ok let's try this blogging thing again

I started this blog with the best of intentions last year.  I wanted to have a place where the parents of my students could come and see what was going on in the classroom.  I wanted to have one of those fabulous teacher blogs that I get so much information from.

Well it's almost a new school year, so I'm going to try it all again...

A few weeks ago I packed up my classroom from a year where I had a wonderful class of 13 little sweeties.  Why is it that it's only after they graduate that you really understand how much you enjoyed a class?  I think whenever I see anything relating to the Frozen movie, I will think of this group.  Anyway, I hate the end of the year - you're saying goodbye to a special class and you have to clean everything.

All the toys need to be washed and the tables and the chairs. It's all so dirty and dingy. How did it get that way? I wipe everything down and yet it still is filthy.  Anyway, I have a wonderful assistant who helps clean all the toys.  Including every little Lego...cleaning those Lego pieces may be the worst. 

Finally when it is all cleaned, I get to stack it all on the shelf to help when they wax the floors.  Anything that I can fit on the shelf gets piled on.  Then once the floor is done, I get to put it all back! Woohoo, fun!

I only had 13 kids last year and it was so quiet in the room even when we were noisy.  Next year that will all change for me as I have 25 students in my class!  The biggest class I have ever had.  I'm excited for this challenge and I know I can make it work, but I also know I have a lot of work ahead of me starting with a new classroom layout.  I couldn't seat 25 kids the way I had my classroom this year.  After a few moves and some frustration, I figured it out.  

 


I had to move my area to the front of the room and angle the tables so no one will have their back to my interactive whiteboard.  I have to change where my bulletin board displays go, but that's for another day.

Back to my preparations for this upcoming year. I've been busy cutting out materials for math since I will now be using Guiding Kinders Math by Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills instead of our outdated series.  This should be great especially with a larger class.  I can't wait!  Also, the spare room in the house is full of paint, construction paper, and supplies that I have picked up so far.  I can't believe the back to school sales are starting already.

And I promise it won't take 6 months for me to write a new post again...