On a roll!

Ok, I am getting ready and cooking with gas now! I got into my classroom a little bit and got to organize is it some, and I'm excited about how it's coming together. When it's finished I'll post pictures of it. What I'm not so excited about is today we found out that thanks to budget cuts and economic crisis, I could have up to 27 little darlings in my class! Oh my goodness!!! I'm just going to have to pray about that and have faith that God is going to keep me strong and able to teach all those babies! (As you will learn quickly, all my students, from 1st to fifth grade, are my babies. I'm known as the Drama Mama by my Drama students! :) )
Ok, so what have I done to prepare? Well I'm have been working on the cute and efficient today. I finished my behavior management board:

It's a baseball field! (It is mounted on one really cool, one really big, oil pan from Wal-Mart, at a little less than 12 bucks.) Student's start in the "dugout" every day. (the brown area) My fella lovingly pointed out that the dugouts should be at the bottom, to which I replied I knew that... BUT, this was more efficient.. haha... At any rate, it is my plan to clear the board every afternoon, and students place their baseball in the dugout when they arrive in the morning, (attendance check!) and then they can go from there. If they do well, are caught being good, show kindness, whatever, they can "run the bases," meaning they move their baseball to 1st, 2nd, and so on. If they make a home run I make a BIG deal about it, raving and hugging and bragging to other classes, and even announce it on the morning show! My kids loved this last year, because they LOVE it when someone earns a home run, so they are really eager to run the bases. On the other hand, misbehavior earns a "strike," on the lines below.  Again my lovely pointed out there are only 3 strikes... (he's a sports nut, can you tell?) and I replied.. they are "1st graders dear... trust me" Strike 1 is just a reminder, a warning to get it straight, and I take no points from conduct. Strikes 2 and 3 lose conduct points and earn consequences. They have to fill out a reflection in the "penalty box" (a time out area) where they have time to think about and correct their behavior. They also lose some of their recess time. If they don't get it together, then they get their "out." If my kids get out, they really are out, I'm putting them in time out with another teacher, calling their parents, or sending them to the office.

What's with the big space at the bottom you ask? Well, I like to utilize space as much as possible, so that space is just the right size for my Homeworkopoly board, I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to use for student game pieces though.

The second thing I'm working on is my stools. These stools have taken some time to find, I got this idea stuck in my head and couldn't quit till I found them. So anyway, I finally got a hold of 5 stools, 3 perfect, 2 that will "do for now." *wink* So My fella, who loves me and goes along with most of my crazy whims, has been spray painting the legs green for me, and, on the perfect ones, I am painting the seats to look like sports balls. The other two are not perfect because they have padded seats. :( So, I'm just going to cover those with my sports fabric.  These stools are going to go in the center of my groups of desks at school. They will pull triple duty. First, they will hold the group supply boxes. Second, they will be author's chairs for special presentations, and third, they are just so darn cute to go with my theme! Here is the first one, and I'll post the rest when I'm through painting!

Whew! I'm tired now! I am going to get up in the morning and run down to the resource center and die cut some jersey shirts for my door for open house: "Tucker's Team Starting Line Up" with student names on each jersey! I can't believe school is about to start again! More to come!