Today was our first day of school and we have been hard at work to get our classrooms set up for our kiddos. I was moved into a new classroom this year to teach second grade and I couldn’t be happier about it! I have spent the majority of last week preparing my classroom for today! My kiddos are amazing! I’m so excited that I get to spend a whole year with them!

Over the summer I narrowed a list of themes down to two: “passport to learning,” “Up, up, and away.” After shopping around a bit, I decided on the “up, up, and away” theme. I couldn’t have been happier! Here are some pictures of my class and how I incorporated my theme throughout the class.

On each desk, I made these little welcome notes for my students. I wanted them to come right into class and know how excited I am to spend the year with them. I have been waiting all summer!

The browsing book bins will stay here all week as we build on our stamina for reading independently. As I assess my kiddos, they will move to having their own bins of books on their independent reading level. Those will hopefully be put together by week two or three.

I have not finished my library as of yet. I’m still working on organizing and labeling the library. The boxes are labeled with a cloud to incorporate my “Up, up and away!” theme. I’m pretty happy with how the library has turned out so far. Especially those little chairs!

When my kiddos came in this morning there was a Who am I? paper on their desk for them to work on. I got the activity from www.mrsthompsonstreasures.com. Throughout the week the students will use these sheets to help introduce themselves to each other. Every morning I will read one off and the students will take turns guessing who’s paper it is. It is so fun to see how the students are excited to guess their classmates’ papers. They are really interested in getting to know each other!

I can’t wait to share more of my classroom as I work to complete my room. It is not 100% yet, but its what we call a “work in progress.” I couldn’t have done it without some of my amazing coworkers! They came into my room while I was sent to a last minute workshop on Friday. I am so lucky to have them!

Jestine Cross
Jestine Cross

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