Getting back in the swing of things!

Goodness gracious! I had forgotten how much work the beginning of the year is!! So much paperwork, so many things to go over. Needless to say, it has been a crazy past couple of days. Slowly but surely my new sweet kids are learning the ends and outs of 1st grade. For the first two weeks, we do an ABC review, so we won't get into a story until the third week of school. I spend these two weeks doing lots of 'getting to know you' activities. One of my favorite crafts for the kids are self portraits and what better time to create these than now? Here are few. To see the complete slideshow, check out our class wiki (link is to the left!)

Aren't they cute? We also started math centers today which went really well considering it was the first time. I plan on doing mine like the workstations in Debbie Diller's book Creating Math Workstations, which is a must read for those of you who haven't read it...along with Reading With Meaning by Debbie Miller. :) I'm using Cara's (from The First Grade Parade) assessment from her new TPT packet to group my math groups and once I have those figured out, the math workstations will begin, so check back for that! Anyone who would be willing to share their tips on making math workstations work, please feel free to share!!! :) Also, any ideas for activities at these workstations would be greatly appreciated! 

I hope everyone else is either enjoying their last carefree days of summer or having a great start to the new school year!! :) :)