First Day Jitters!....and some updated pics!

Warning: This post may be a little long and definitely pic heavy!

The first day of school has come and gone......and I couldn't be more TIRED! I don't know why I forgot how draining the first couple of days of school are.
I'm happy to report that I have NO behavior students in my class (well...at this point). I have a few busy bodies, but nothing I can't handle. My group of kiddoes are a talkative bunch! Really talkative! Like, allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day long talkative (yeah, it's that bad). But again, NO behavior students!!!
We're starting to get into the groove of things. I've started the Jennifer Jacobson model of "Writer's Workshop" and we're up to 3 1/2 minutes of "Read to Self" in the Daily 5. I also forgot how hard it is to build stamina for "Read to Self" the first few days. Go figure.
I haven't done any of the fun things that I planned for the first couple of days (Jitter Juice, marshmellow fingers/toes, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Name Tree--just to name of few), but we've survived.

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• Oh yeah...I have 26 kindergarteners. My teammates have 25+ as well and there are 9 kindergarten teachers (including me). Sooooooo, you do the math on that one.
• Oh yeah....we still have a minimum of 25 students registering each day.

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I promised to upload pics of my finished classroom last weekend. That didn't happen, so I'm doing it today. Students have been in my room for 4 days, so it may not be as clean as it was before they came.
Here it is:

A view from the door

 

Mailboxes for each student...that I don't have enough of

 

Seats for Read to self/buddy reading

 

 Classroom Calendar

"A Safe Place" spot for those students who need extra time to follow directions :-)

 

Small Group area with my crate seats. LUV them! I've gotten sooo many compliments on them.

 

Extra Supplies

 

Manipulatives and Decodable Readers

 

Colors and numbers...a color fell evidently

 

Word Wall

 

26 desks and chairs

 

Behavior Chart

 

Daily 5 chart

 

We've started Read to Self

 

My teacher board with important info...not too much info right now

 

Teacher Desk

 

 More manipulatives and Independent Learning Centers

Student Computers

 

Classroom sink area

Back Bulletin Board

 

And there you have it! My completed classroom! I'm very proud of it!!

Now....I'm ready for my 3 day weekend! Whoo-hoo for Labor Day! It's bittersweet though because we don't have another day off until Thanksgiving Break...11 weeks later. So there's that.

 

Anywho...Happy Blogging!