Lovely Three Day Weekend! Catch up!

I must say I was BEYOND excited when I found out Labor Day was on Monday and that we wouldn't be going to school that day. I very much needed this 3 day weekend.
All last week, I was super super sick and still went to work (I know I should have stayed home to rest but I HATE sub plans!). I also had a lovely MAC-Ro training (school-home math program) and I had a morning of looking at my DIBELS data and setting up my small groups so I did have to plan for a half day sub! Blah!
Overall, it was a very successful week!
Let me go back and talk about the first week of school. We started on a Wednesday and we went over procedures, rules (WBT), and did fun "about me" activities. The following Monday, we started going over the Alphabet, sounds, and the Kinder sight words my firsties are SUPPOSED to know.
My kiddos were so cute and kept saying that they already knew their letters and sounds and it was too easy... that's when I let them in on a secret... We were working on Kinder stuff!!! That first grade wouldn't start until we reviewed all of their kinder work so they had to do their best. WORKED LIKE A CHARM!
2 weeks later (this past Monday), they were super excited to start REAL first grade.
In my district, we use Harcourt's StoryTown so after the 2 week inventory (working on letters and sounds) we start the first lesson.
The first lesson is on short a words and my kiddos rocked it!
I'm so excited to work in an Intermediate SEI class this year! It is such a huge difference academically than my Pre-Emergent to Basic class that I had last year. I struggled very much last year just getting some kids to know their letters and sounds in first grade!
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I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention this but on the first day of school, I got an amazing email. It was from Donor's Choose and they told me that my project had been funded!!!
A week and a half later, I had 2 iPod Touches in my hand!!! The kiddos are so excited about them and I can't wait to show you guys what I'm doing thanks to a wonderful new teammate!
Talking about teammates... My school is huge! As in we have over 700 students in a K-3 school so there are also a lot of teachers (not enough)... There are 7 teachers in my first grade team and 3 of them are new! One taught kinder last year, another one taught kinder for the last half of the year last year, and one is brand new!
They are soooo awesome because they love cute stuff like me and they are all into really TEACHING the kiddos and making it a fun experience!
I mean, they shop on TpT... How awesome is that! I am not the only one!!! :)
I'm really excited because we have also been planning together and really talking about our assessments and scores and making goals.... LOVE!
This year is going to be awesome.
That is enough blabbing... I feel like I need to catch everyone up since I haven't been blogging!!!
I hope to be back sometime next week to show you some pictures of my room! It feels like it isn't done but it does look pretty good.
I'll leave you with a beautiful pic of my very own Kindergartner...

Love that little lady!

<3