It's Something

Wow! So much to do so little time. With the little one experiencing separation anxiety anytime I put her down, I find myself thinking of what I need to do as I rock her to sleep. So some of the ideas that I have decided that I want to implement into my classroom are:

• A pseudo theme of my room will be: "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars"- Les Brown. I will be carrying the theme by having lots of stars and a Shooting Star of the Week. I need to decide still what that will look like, but I am thinking a special bulletin board to highlight the student and activities/share-outs based by day of the week. ie Show and tell Monday for the Shooting star of the Week and Tuesday students would bring their favorite book in. I am also thinking I will need to order a bag from VistaPrint. 
• The Classroom Economy that Beth Newingham uses in her classroom. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=139 I love lots of her ideas! I will develop the classroom rules before school is back in session and then discuss with the students the jobs that need to be done in the classroom. From there, I will have them help me assign pay rates for the jobs.
• Also from Beth Newingham, I will be creating Star Student Bios. She changes them based on the theme that she creates in her room. Here is a practice one that I created for the "Little One" 

Additionally, the students will complete their Bio on the first day of school while I answer any parent questions, direct students on what to do with supplies, or take a moment to breathe (this is after all my first year).

Well, that is all that I've got so far, but I'd say it is pretty good considering I have not even seen my classroom yet and I am not entirely sure what I am dealing with here. I am off to go run some errands including a trip to "Learning is Fun" to pick up Star Borders for my room, JoAnn Fabrics for for bulletin boards instead of butcher paper, Staples for Binders, and the Dollar Store just to see what I can find. :)

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