This book presents a step-by-step guide to creating a smoothly functioning, literacy-rich first-grade classroom. It helps teachers do such things as bond with their new classes, create happy and cohesive environments, develop students' organizational skills and self-control, keep students motivated, integrate children's literature and the arts into all curriculum areas, and work with English language learners and children having little help at home. The 14 chapters focus on: (1) "Getting Ready to Teach"; (2) "Designing and Setting Up Your First-Grade Classroom"; (3) "Celebrating the First Day of School"; (4) "Managing Your Classroom and Motivating Your Students"; (5) "Connecting with Families"; (6) "Helping Children Work on Discipline and Self-Control"; (7) "Our School Family: Creating Community, Managing Conflicts"; (8) "The Beginnings of Literacy: Children's Faces Looking Up"; (9) "Reading Isn't Just Curriculum, It's a Miracle!"; (10) "Creating and Maintaining Literacy Centers"; (11) "Teaching Writing: From Scribbles to Authorship"; (12) "Math Matters"; (13) "Ya Gotta Have Art!"; and (14) "Making Social Studies, Health, and Science Come Alive through Literacy and Play." (SM)