The Desk Fairy

This week the desk fairy came to our classroom for the first time. The desk fairy comes every once in awhile and rewards students who have kept their desk clean. In order to receive a prize from the desk fairy, the kids' desks have to be in a very neat and orderly condition. I think it's important to start teaching kids how to stay organized and be responsible for your own things and this is a great way to go about it.  We had a mini lesson on how to organize your desk and what to do to keep it clean all the time. After a few days, the desk fairy made her first appearance.

Students who had a clean desk arrived in our room to find a small trinket and this note from the desk fairy:

You never know when the desk fairy will be back. Everyone has been working really hard to keep those desks clean in anticipation of her return!

And I can't leave this post without sharing the cutest quote ever.  Upon seeing the note from the desk fairy, I overheard one student say, "wow, I can't believe there is a desk fairy. First the tooth fairy, now the desk fairy. Who knew there were so many fairies?!?"

I love first graders; everything is always so new and exciting to them.

Classroom Setup

I know it's a little early, but I spent some time a few weeks ago in my classroom getting things ready. I absolutely LOVE setting up my classroom every year! I just love that fresh start feeling you get going through all your things, organizing, and decorating (I'm a nerd, I know!).

Every teacher knows the feeling: walking into your room at the start of the year and feeling completely overwhelmed at the thought of how much there is to do. Looking at all the furniture stacked in the corner and all the blank walls can be a little stressful. I always worry it's going to take forever, but every year I surprise myself.

the "before picture"

I spent about 4 hours working the first day, and about the same amount of time the second day. I am happy to say that I am DONE! Until I get a list of student names, there is nothing else to do. Everything is organized and ready, I just need add name tags to the desks and the front door and I'll officially be ready for the year.

Here's a peek of the after:

 View of the room from the doorway

 My classroom library. So organized ... I LOVE it! :)

 Something new this year: my writing wall. Found this idea on Pinterest and LOVED it. It says, "Use your writer's eyeglasses" and then each of those posters has a convention the kids need to make sure they check for while editing their work. I made bookmarks to go with those posters for the kids to bring to their desk as they are working as a reminder.

 The back side of the room ... The cubbies are still full of stuff I need to move to my new reading recovery room so that will be cleaned up a bit before school starts. 

 The word wall, which currently has just the words the kids are expected to have learned in kindergarten.

Word work and Work on Writing center materials

 The Daily Cafe. I am SUPER excited to have this in my reading corner this year. In the past this area was reserved for Every Day Counts (calendar), but since I am not teaching math this year I was able to move my Daily Cafe board over. I think we'll be able to use it much more efficiently this year since I can reference it as I read stories to the class.

 Entry table: This is where students turn in their work and their daily folders. 

This is also new this year and I cannot wait to use it! This is our writing VOICES wall. Just like the Daily Cafe, we will add strategy cards to the wall as a reference as we learn them. I think this is going to help me be more intentional in my writing instruction.

I really love how it turned out. Since I am not teaching math or science this year, I had some extra wall space to work with. I had a lot of fun coming up with some new bulletin boards to fill the space. Now, we just wait for the kids! Only a few more weeks. It's going to be a great year. :)