Finally breathing!

I'm back!  It has taken me about three weeks, and many glasses of wine, for me to finally catch my breath in my new district but I'm finally getting there!  My new school is totally different than my old school.... But I love it so much.  My kids aren't different.... Kids are kids and I love them so much.  One of my kiddos, the other day, stopped my riveting lesson on the 50 states to say,"Miss.... We know you didn't choose the thug life.  The thug life chose you."  I responded, "I'm so happy someone finally understands me!"  Needless to say, we love each other.

So.... What have I been up to?

1. Setting up my room

My classroom was an old music room and is huge and awkward.  It doesn't have any bulletin boards and horrible walls.  I used a trick I saw on Pinterest and covered some of the walls with plastic tablecloths.  My husband suggested edging them with decorative duct tape and .... Voila!

2. I really wanted to start my new year with a bang so I used the first day activity from the book Teach Like A Pirate. I had the kiddos tell me something about themselves through the sculpting of play doh.  I'm cheap, so first I found a simple recipe on Pinterest and spent a Sunday making play doh with my midgets.

My new students looooooved this activity and made some amazing things

Musical notes

Bacon

A crown because she's a princess:)

Asian noodle

Volleyball

3. I did some really fun getting to know you activities using Twitter rules.  I had so many teachers come in to look at themI got  to meet a whole bunch of the staff! #yolo!!!

What do you need in a teacher?

What is your opinion of school?

What type of learning environment is the best for you?

4.  I've started our interactive notebooks and the kids already love them.

I'll have some amazing student work to show you next week.  If you are interested in some of the geography units I made for the interactive notebook, go on over to Teachers Pay Teachers and take a gander.

Lastly, I am making a big ole Common Core push this year so we will be studying primary sources till our eyes bleed.  If you are doing the same thing, you may want to look at my TPT store.  I have made task cards for both documents and artwork as well as offering both as a mega bundle.

Have a great week!