Well I have survived.

I have made it through the first 3 days and open house!

I have a great class! I definitely have a few challenges but I have to say it is SO SO much easier than last year!

Celebrations today:
Little "Blue" used kleenex 5 times!!!! This is HUGE progress. He has been using either his finger or his tongue-Totally disgusting!

Little "Magenta" was NICE to other students-had some bullying issues the first two days.

oh and Little Mr. "Green" is loving talking to me. He gets a lot of speech therapy. It took me 2 days to figure out what kind of pet he had. It's a Lizard-but when he says it lizard it sounds like "Little" We celebrated for sure when I figured that one out!

This is already shaping up to be a great year. Some of the other staff members were talking to my mom (who also works in my building) and were saying that they felt bad because my class was really loaded. Made me feel good because I was thinking I had it pretty easy:)

Kindergarten last year taught me so much!

Hope your year is going great too! I promise I will post pictures of what we have been up to soon.

Happy (almost) Friday!

~~Allyce~~

Currently September already?!

I sort of can't believe it is already September! But then again I am ready for it. Tomorrow I start school! Can't wait to meet the rest of my little darlings and get the year off to a great start.

Here is my September currently.

Explanations-
1) My new teacher chair came from Ikea and I LOVE it! I love the color and how comfortable it is! Yesterday as I sat in my classroom and stressed a bit I was loving it even more.
2) I am so so happy that I made the choice to live at the beach and stuck to it. I now have my dream job and I live in a place where other people come for vacation. Can't get much better than that!
3) I bought cowboy boots a few weeks ago. I still absolutely love them. Super comfortable and super cute. Love 'em.

Have a fabulous Labor Day! And for those of you who start school tomorrow like I do have a great first day!

Hoping I'm not too exhausted to post tomorrow.

~~Allyce~~

First day jitters two days early and a question

I am already getting the jitters about the first day! And we don't start until Tuesday! I am sitting in my classroom...it's ready to go... But I am still nervous! I know it will all be fine but my nerves seem to disagree.

Super sweet story for you. Got an email from the parent of one of my kinders last year. She said "A had a great first day! But then she got tears in her eyes when she told me you were not teaching there anymore."
Of course this made me cry!

Question: our school is looking to get a new laminator... What one does your school have? Does it work well? Any information on other laminators?
Ours went belly up last week and left everyone in a pickle. So any information would be great!

Time to go enjoy my last two days of summer! And hey the sun is actually out!!!

~Allyce

My room is ready!

My room (except for mess on small group table) is ready! Can't believe school starts one week from today! I have meetings and trainings the next 3 days. So classroom needed to be very close to ready to go. I only have a couple little things to do-clear off small group table, get stuff laminated and hung up, finish calendar area. 

Here is a simple tour!

entrance.

Close up of entrance board. Attendance/lunch count, jobs, and weekly information.

view from the right side of entry. Carpet area, calendar, door to other classroom.

Word wall, sink, student tables and computers.

small group table. The barbaloots with the truffula trees make me smile every time.

My mom is working on numbers with Seuss characters because these ones are driving her nuts. You can sort of see my clocks that I LOVE (and so do many of my coworkers). Bottom left corner are the pillows for floor readers. Hooks for backpacks and coats. Books on shelf on right.

Birthday board, monster behavior poster. Journal storage.

Math bins, quiet activities, lovely view from window :)

Writing board! Listening center. Can't beat getting free tape players and headphones! Can't wait to use all those books on tape.

My sister (note:she is 20 as of Saturday! YIKES! she is supposed to be little still) has made up a new game with my teddy bear counters. Very entertaining for all around.

She has been helping me for 2 days. So she decided that she deserved to be in a picture. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Tuesday- a very productive day! (warning-photo heavy!)

I was very productive today! I finished projects at school then went grocery shopping(might have stopped at Starbucks-where I found out they won't have my favorite mocha coconut frappachino's again until summer... So sad!) Then a trip to Costco and Freddy's. And back home with just enough motivation to clean out and swap our cleaning/junk closet and our snack cupboards and do a few other small things in the kitchen (tupperware drawer? NIGHTMARE!)

I can't get my pictures to go in the order I want them. GRRR.

Hope you had a great Tuesday too!

Super cute bulletin board my little sister and I made. (this is only 1/2 of it)

One of my jobs tomorrow...

Tomorrows goal is to finish my word wall.

Nearly full shot (I can't zoom out any farther with my phone. )

My clocks are COMPLETE!

Before and after of cupboard.

Before and after of pantry.

Another job for tomorrow.

Yes between my roommate and I we have 3 count them 1-2-3 crockpots. And we didn't use any of them even once all year... I plan to use some of those recipes I have pinned!

Tables are getting ready!

Haven't decided completely what to put in these yet...

You can't really tell but there were well over 100 boats on each side of the bridge today on my way home from shopping.

The other half. (the other first grade teachers side)

Not really school related...at all. But exciting all the same!

So I have been spending a lot of time at school. But this post is not related. (I did spend an hour cutting out laminating this evening.)

Anyway.

Guess what happened on Tuesday?!?..........................................................................................................................................
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 I became an Aunt! I am so so excited! I think I mentioned before that my mom got remarried nearly two years ago. Well that meant I gained 2 older sisters, an older brother and sister in law and another younger sister. ( I became the middle child!) Well my step-brother and his wife had a beautiful baby boy on Tuesday afternoon! His name is Finnian and I love him already. And I haven't even gotten to meet him! I may or may not have already hung 3 pictures of him in my classroom... No pictures here though, sorry. No social media for the little one. But you better believe I wrote about him in my welcome to my class letter I am mailing out (hopefully tomorrow).

There was something else I wanted to tell you...and now I can't remember. I am pretty sure that my new principal thinks I am crazy because I go to ask her questions and then can't remember until I get back to my classroom...then I have to walk back down the hall. Oh well.

I think I may take tomorrow and just work here at home...except I have letters to hang on my word wall board and I need to print/copy my letters and mail them...All day today I thought it was Friday. So I hadn't planned on going in.

Oh now I remember what I wanted to tell you. I found some funnies on pinterest tonight :)

can't remember if I already shared this...

 

You should see my coffee table right now...

Hope you have had a Fabulous Thursday! Enjoy your Friday!

Progress report #3? 4?

I'm breaking blogging rules and posting twice today. Sometimes breaking the rules is totally worth it!

So here is my classroom update for today. I feel like I actually made a bit of progress...maybe. Got my bunting hung up again after it fell down overnight. Needed something stronger than double sided tape. All taken care of. I started the morning meeting with the other 1st grade teacher. We figured out our schedules and figured out when to begin different parts of the curriculum. It was good-and productive. Then it was time for lunch because we were both exhausted and I needed to come home and let the dogs out.

My carpet area. Got bigger chairs for the computer tables. Need to set up my calendar area but I need it to be laminated first...   

I have a bunch of little stuff to put away. Looking from the corner behind my small group table.

Looking into the room from the door.

A little different angle from behind my small group table.

my books came yesterday! 50 books for $50! It was like Christmas in August!

Looking right from behind my small group table.

Table boxes for writing folders/reading work books. Mailboxes below.

Small group table. You can sort of see the stars I put at each seat. (Can't remember which blog I saw that on but I LOVED the idea!)

BOOKS! So so many! These are mostly read aloud books. 

My not so little little sister came to help me. She got to lower all of my tables:)

Taking bean bag chairs in tomorrow for this area.Shelf on the left is full of math manipulatives.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my little laminator?! Here come the name tags.

So there you have my classroom. Tomorrow I think my goal will be to get all of the little stuff put away. Then I can finish the other little stuff and do my bulletin boards! So excited for that! 

A summer recap...

I still have a couple weeks before school starts officially. But monday was our first meeting so I feel like summer is coming to a close. Here is a picture recap of my summer...

My dad came to help and decided to pose for the picture...

yearly rodeo! Had a great time!

This was near the beginning of the summer when I brought all of my books home to organize...

Sorry about the quality. In Vegas!

My friend at my old school. She works in the preschool across the hall and volunteered to come in and help me move all of my stuff out. Talk about a good friend! I already miss her!

My new boots! LOVE THEM!

You are probably sick of seeing these. But they are just so cute.

Finally got all 3 prints hung. Now I just need to find some bedside lamps that I actually like...

Oh the joys of classroom pets that come home in the summer... better than the rat 

my dad used to bring home...

I promise my dog is not as obese as she looks in this picture...

A fun day at the beach.

It was hot...so I bought the dog a pool. And my sister ended up in it...

My grandpa just before his 79th birthday. So good to have him here!

4th of July. A good time with friends! My little friend A LOVED the parade! It was her idea to give the thumbs up!

So as you can see it has been a great summer! (sorry the pictures were out of order.

I meant to post this on Sunday...so there is a possibility that I will be posting twice today-breaking all sorts of bloggy rules. oh well. I have classroom pictures!