Welcome Back!

I know it is that time again because I have been relaxing on the couch all day. This is unheard of in my house on a Saturday! Usually I spend this day running, cooking, cleaning, and doing anything I can think of not to sit still. The best part is the students haven't even started yet! This year we wanted to revamp a few areas in the classroom and make it even more colorful and bright and I am pretty happy with how everything turned out. Most of my pictures are pretty blurry, but in my defense I took them on Friday after cutting, cleaning, and crafting all week. Plus my phone is a cracked piece of junk and only had 12% charge. If I am a good girl I am hoping Santa will bring me a new camera for Christmas (Hint Hint Brent!) I will try to take some better pictures on Monday after the kiddos leave for their half day. 

Let's begin our classroom tour where the children begin their day. Nothing much changed with our classroom door this year because we love our cute little owl theme and 

4K really is a Hoot!

We added some cute blue border around our Star Of The Week door to add a little pop of color. I can't wait to start displaying our kiddo's posters each week. 

One of the biggest changes we made to our decor was revamping this wall to the right of the classroom door. 

We redid our classroom schedule to include some of our new classroom activities like morning journals and word work/sight word time. I found this free printable which helped make things so much easier in this weary time crunched teacher. It didn't include exactly every single thing I needed so I am still working on a few pieces for our morning work time and our word work time. 

Right next to our schedule is a little dry erase board I painted a pretty blue color. This will be for us teachers to use to write reminders before the students leave each day. 

Another big change was to our sign in chart. This is a wonderful visual for is to see who is and isn't at school and it also helps when we have students pulled from the classroom for different activities like playing and working in the angel classroom. I am actually going to change the bottom  space to something other than "Angel Room" because we have a few friends who attend other activities so I would like it to be a more general label so I know who is where at all times. When the students enter the classroom they will find the clip with their name on it and move it to the green square labeled "In". After they use the potty after lunchtime they will move their clip back to the "Out" space. This helps is keep track of who has and hasn't used to restroom which is very useful when you are trying to clean up after lunch while answering 22 individual questions am requests while also trying to make sure you have eyes on all 22 babies at all times!

I already had this dismissal sign we just moved it from another area of the room. This helps us have a visual of where each student needs to go t the end of everyday which can be quite the task!!

I also already had this cute little behavior clip chart. 

I had these cute classroom rules signs but I never got around to hanging them up last year so I was determined to make it happen this time around. 

My newest addition came from an impulse but during a dollar tree visit to buy up all of their clothespins. He is so cute and I love him. We need to come up with a good name for our new classroom mascot. 

I have been collecting these cute and colorful motivational signs for a while now. They were all free which makes them even more cute! 

Another one of our newest additions is our "Look What We're Learning" focus board. I used this board for almost the same purposes before, now we just have a little more info. 

We of course have our calendar and right next to that is a place for directions for all of our activities. 

The next space is where we will place the letter, number, shape, and sight words we are learning about. 

The last two spots are where I will display what our morning activity will be (journals, letter craft, letter person puppet craft, table toys, etc.) and next to that is the board we use to rotate our afternoon jobs. Incase you are wondering what Jobs are they are differentactivities the   students complete like math activities, alphabet recognition, writing activities, etc. 

It doesn't look like it would cause full body exhaustion, but this cute little classroom wears me out each and ever year!! Add in some lesson plan prep and I am sleeping like a baby every night! 

I can officially say without a doubt that we are ready for the 2014-2015 school year!!!

Ready, Steady, Go!

I still have a few things to cut out, but as of 4:30 Friday afternoon I can say we are ready to roll come Monday morning. We made it (barely) through parent orientation and I apologize to all of my super sweet parents for being so nervous! I can talk all day to 20 four year olds, but put me in front of a bunch of grownups and I become a babbling idiot. I know I forgot to tell them a million things, but hopefully the packet covered everything I missed.

Now enough of me being a complete spaz and onto the fun stuff! Decorations!

We have worked our booties off these past few days, but it was 100% worth it and I love how everything turned out. Somehow our polka dot theme turned into an owl theme which was completely unplanned, but I am really loving our "4k Is A Hoot" theme.  

Our classroom door

Since I go by Mrs. Roxanne and not Mrs. Doyle I decided to make a little door sign. 

Our Where We Are sign  incase anyone needs to find our class they can find us 

My view from my desk. The student tables and our peace table which will be an all purpose table for crafts, experiments, but it's main use will be for friends to sit and work out any issues and it will also be a place friends can go sit when they need a few minutes to chill out and calm down.

Our new behavior buckets. Instead of earning poker chips or tokens as we call them we will be using what we are calling "Buckets." Depending on what color each students ends they day on our Cool Colors Clip Chart they will earn sticks to place in their buckets. After earning 15-20 sticks (we haven't decided the actual number yet) students will be able to choose a treat from out treat box. ON the first day of school we will all work together to decided how to be a Bucket Filler and not a Bucket Dipper. 

Our soon to be Word Wall. These letters will hang from hooks on the wall and the words and pictures that go with each letter will be attached by a ring. The students will be able to take the letters and words down and use them to play, write, etc. They will also be able to put the letters in ABC order.

 

My desk and our Sensory Center. This center will not be open the first week of school to allow for students to become acclimated to centers because this one can get a bit messy. This center will be changed out as we go through the school year. 

My chair, our Hoot Owl, All of my "Teacher Stuff", and our classroom calendar.

The pan will be our Brownie Points which is how our class works together to earn their compliment parties (pajama party, dance party, movie party, etc.), Our Work Directions, Job Rotations, and How We Go Home display.

Soon to be our 100 Day Gumball Machine, Cool Colors Clip Behavior Chart, Sign In clips, and soon we will have our Class Rules hanging here. 

Line Up Feet

A View from the Door. 

Our other themes this year besides A ton of Polka Dots our super cute Owls are 

Be Organized and to Have As Much Fun As Possible! 

I have a feeling this is going to be a GREAT year! I can't wait to meet the rest of our babies and get started having some fun! 

Wish us luck this next week!! We'll need it!!

Best Layed Plans

I will be organized!  I will be organized!  I will be organized!  I will be organized!  I will be organized! 

I WILL BE ORGANIZED!!!!

Are you noticing a theme here? 

My goal this year is to be super duper organized! Even more so then last year. I will not let a lack of storage space get in my way and I will not stack papers to be forgotten! Least year I was really organizes when it came to my lesson planning. I was always at least a week to 2 weeks ahead with everything by implementing what we call "Jobs". Mrs. Nicole my fellow 4K teacher used this technique in her classroom , but I only really discovered how it worked last year. Basically Jobs are 4 or 5 weekly rotating activities and skills that each student completes. I will do a full post a little later with pictures so you can get a good idea of how they work and rotate. I spent each week last year putting together the next weeks lesson and jobs which was a lot of work but totally worth it. That means this year everything is completed and ready to go. That is unless I want to change something which I know I will do because some activities didn't work as well as I had hoped and others i will probably add more to. The good thing is the majority of my work is done which is huge! You may not think teaching preschool is a lot of work, but I dare anyone to come do what I do for 1 week then come talk to me! most people would probably run out the door screaming and crying! I still have a lot of work to do, just not as much. 

I have already started my pre planning process by mapping out our entire year in my calendar (Don't be fooled into buying a "Teacher" planner which will run you close to $15. I snagged this calendar that can go into my Teacher Keeper in the student section for $5!) I already know when I will start my assessments and when we will start all of our big projects for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Mother's Day. I always feel like I am scrambling to get these projects complete so I want them done weeks ahead of time to be sent home. I don't want any surprises this year. I want to be ready for anything the world can throw at me! Preparation is a teacher's best weapon.

Speaking of being organized I am also planning on shaking things up with our centers. I am moving things around and I have big plans for changing out some of our centers throughout the year according to the seasons and our themes. One major change I am going to test out this year is having a mobile writing center. Instead of having a table for the children to sit at I will use lap desks and the floor to allow for more freedom for those students who need a different writing environment. 

Here is a link to The Good Life from last year and our classroom setup. A lot will be changing and I can't wait to document it all right here. 

For reference here is a look back at what my classroom looked like at the end of last year after everything was put away for summer camp.

I hope everyone enjoys there last few weeks of summer break and for my friends starting at the beginning of August I will soon be joining you and good luck on your first days.

-Love Roxanne