Getting it Done

Another productive day in the classroom!

Take a look...

My masterpiece of the day. The idea is that as we learn about the colors, the children will find/bring in small items in various colors and place them in the bags. Then I will tape/staple them to the train car of the matching color. I want to write a little poem or something to explain that and post it above. I am also going to add the color words of course. I got this idea from Jessica Meacham's page, but I made it myself.

We put up the letter/picture cards for the phonics program and the number cards along the bottom.

I am still trying to figure out where I want the rest of the stuff on the big wall and I have to get my calendar supplies out of storage. I don't want to have this wall be too busy so I have to think some more about placement. I also have a little easel that I will bring out and use for instruction as well when I really need the kiddos to focus on one particular thing.

Since I don't have a bulletin board outside my room (they are designated for student work instead of a welcome to the class type board), I decided to just add the swimsuits as decoration. Originally I was going to write the students' names on them, but I decided against it. I think they look cute just as a little additional decoration above the main wall.

I added another set of alphabet cards on the cabinets near the "house" area. I figure the kids can never have enough exposure to the letters!

The room doesn't look that different, but a few more things are checked off the list.

Speaking of lists, I got my preliminary class lists today. They are interesting. I only have 14 kids in the PM class (so far) and there are 3 boys and 11 girls. Weird, right? The AM class has 18  kiddos (10 boys, 8 girls). I am fairly certain the classes will change between now and the first day and that most likely both classes will be larger, yet right now they seem unbalanced in a few ways. A few more boys should definitely be added to the PM class. I have a mixture of kids classified as both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, but that is the extent of the diversity in my classes. The morning class has a much larger percentage of non-Hispanic children than the afternoon class. I don't really care how the classes are made up or who I teach and when, but I do know that the morning session is preferable and I question why I have twice the number of Hispanic children in the afternoon class. It may be nothing, but it seems odd to me. That also leaves me with very few kiddos when children leave for English Language Development. That could be quite nice, but it just seems unbalanced between the AM and PM sessions.

I won't be working in the classroom tomorrow, but I am meeting a few friends to walk in the morning and I am going to take them in and show them my space. They are both teachers in the same district that I went through my master's program with.

P.S. I just got an email from a rep at Oriental Trading who quoted my recent post where I mentioned that I was disappointed in some of the items that I purchased there and encouraged me to provide some feedback because customer satisfaction is important to them. One the one hand, I was thinking...that's creepy and totally random...how did they come across my post..yet, they sure are on top of their customer service if one of their reps is actively seeking out websites/blogs that mention their products and takes the initiative to contact customers who are not satisfied. I feel bad now like I hurt Oriental Trading's feelings! I will say that some of the things I ordered from there are great.

The balloon lanterns are absolutely adorable and I think they are one of the cutest decorations in the entire classroom. I have not yet figured out how to assemble the beach ball lights, but they look pretty cute as well.

The took a risk on the stampers I got because some of the reviews were iffy, but I was happy with the size, bright colors, and easy to grasp handles on the stampers. I will see how they hold up once the kids start using them, but so far I am happy. Now that I was contacted, I feel like I should return what I was not happy with or at least provide feedback rather than just saying something negative on my blog space. Although, it is my blog and I can say what I want. hehe. But seriously, go OT for being interested in customer satisfaction. Bonus points have been awarded!

Have you ever been randomly contacted through your blog?