2 More Linkys??

Never let it be said that I turned down a good linky! I have laundry to fold and American Idol to watch tonight so I'll try to make this brief, but I couldn't pick just one linky now could I?!

First up is Tara's first linky party that takes a look at your lunch!

I have the cutest lunchbox ever! It's even themed for Spring!

Isn't that cute? Unfortunately it sits at home, unused, because I just buy my lunch at school. I have to give props to our cafeteria - they really try hard to make good, healthy food for our kids. We also have a good salad bar - fresh fruit and veggies, plus mixed lettuce. Generally I have a salad each day, or maybe a beef taco without the shell or chicken quesadillas without the tortilla. I'm low carbing it, so my lunch choices are limited. I do tuck a couple of sugar free candies in my purse each morning though, they're my guilty pleasure : )


We go to lunch at about 11:40 each day - unless I can somehow get through math and writing and cleanup early and get to the lunch line ahead of the other 1st grade classes! Most of the time however, we barely beat the 2nd grade classes, and that's only because our custodian comes and asks if we're ever going to go get lunch! I love that man - I'd be off schedule all day if it wasn't for his reminders!

I eat lunch with my kids in our classroom EVERY DAY. Generally I put on a book on cd and we listen to it silently for the first bit of lunch. This way we have a solid ten minutes to eat without distractions so no one can complain that they didn't have enough time to eat. After the story we can socialize as long as we keep it to a dull roar and stay seated! We dump our trays at 12:05 and then clean our tables and floors - this is very important unless you want ranch dressing on their papers and taco sauce tracked on the rug. I'm constantly amazed at how much they grow when so much of their food ends up everywhere but in their mouths!

Once we're cleaned up, at about 12:10, we go to recess for what is supposed to be 20 minutes but usually stretches to 30 :) We rotate recess duty - MWF one week and TTH the next week. On days when I don't have recess duty I try to use that extra time to get ready for the afternoon or do a quick blog hop : )


The next linky is a Classroom Library linky from Literacy and Laughter:

Coincidentally, our reading time is right after recess, so in a way these two linkys go together!

I have to preface this by saying that almost every book in my classroom is mine. I have maybe 20 books that were purchased with Title I money, but the rest are mine. I was so dismayed when I got to my first classroom and realized that there was NOTHING in it. Literally no toys, books, games etc. The few things that were there were so old and raggedy it was apparent why they had been left behind by the previous teacher! I've been trying to build up my library, but when I got switched to 1st grade this year I realized that I didn't have enough leveled readers. I've tried to improve that situation and now have enough that everyone can have 2 or 3 books on their level during our silent reading time. That said, I am a tad embarrassed that I don't have a more impressive library.


I have tried to make it cozy though:

Here's our Reading Center: a table with two chairs and 8 crate seats. My students absolutely love those crate seats! Our custodian is a big fan too as we just stack them up at the end of the day in the small nook to the right of hermit crab tank so they're out of the way for when he vacuums. Right now our tablecloth has bunnies on it for Easter. I change it out to match whatever our theme is. The kids love to come in and see a new tablecloth lol! Oh, and before you think that I put a whole lot of effort into it, I just buy a yard of fabric and slap it on the table - no hems or anything! Right now our bookshelf just has a variety on it, but I do try to rotate the contents to match our theme.

 These are our leveled readers. As you can see, I have a wide range of reading abilities in my class - all the way from 0.5 to 4.5! We have a lot of Elephant & Piggie, Henry & Mudge and Mr. Putter & Tabby books as well as Fancy Nancy and Biscuit. The empty baskets to the left are for our library books. We had to turn them all in before Spring Break and we don't get to go back for more until Friday. We're also not allowed to take our library books home (school rule, not mine!), so we put them in our color coded baskets, except for poor Purple table which has to use a black one since I can never find purple baskets!

 Here are two of my boys reading EEKK style in the nook. for some reason they all just love to try to squeeze in there with a buddy! I have a lot of non-fiction readers that I keep on the science shelves under the hermit crab tank, and they are wildly popular, particularly with my boys.

Alright, I hear American Idol starting in the next room, gotta go! Make sure you check out both linkys! Oh, and please Rustle Up a Response for me below and let me know that my library isn't as sad as I think it is!