We survived the first week! Everyone take
a deep breath and have a fantastic weekend... but before you do, let me tell
you a little about our first week of school.
Little known fact: Teachers are even nervous
for the first day of school. I had my lesson plans, pens, sticky notes,
pencils, and lunch all packed up by 5:30 pm the night before.
I was able to share this with the class on
the first day of school by reading "First Day Jitters", which is a
story that does not show the face of the main character until the very last
page. She goes through all the happy, nervous, excited, jittery jitters that
the first day brings. She finally gets out of bed, ready for school, and is
accompanied to her classroom by the principal to meet her class. The students
thought it was so funny the jittery girl ended up being the teacher! They
laughed for a good long while about that one. I shared with them that I was
feeling many of the same first day feelings they were and that we are all in
this together.
We shared many stories, such as "Recess
Queen" and "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?", to help us set the
stage for what our classroom, hallway, and overall school behavior and words
should look like and sound like. We have practiced routines a great deal
too.
In Language Arts/Social Studies we have
been talking about being a good citizen, which will continue in to next week.
We have also read several Folktales and Fables and written about how it feels
to be a 2nd grader and what their summers looked like.
In Math we have been practicing addition
facts up to 10. One of our most popular stations included 10 Go Fish (think
making 10 with your cards, instead of matching pairs of numbers) and ST Math on
the computers. They are getting better and better at logging themselves in as
each day passes!
If you haven't heard about our Science
this week then I am probably not doing my job! Two words: WHIRLY GIG! The kids
have LOVED this project. We are learning what it means to be a scientist and
how they often have many failures before they come to a solution/succeed. We
spent the first part of the week exploring the materials and drawing diagrams.
These past few days we started and completed the building process. What these
kids can make with just a cup, lid, rubber band, paper clip, and a wooden
skewer have blown me away! I look forward to many more opportunities, such as
this, to share with the class.
Looking forward to a great year!
