First Day of School!!

Welcome to the blog - I will try to update it every day, so that you can have some insight into what we arre up to in school, and hopefully have a little information to use to pry details out of your child (I know that's a challenge in my house...)


Today was a bit of a whirlwind, as I'm sure you can imagine. We were very busy, and it seems like the day really flew by. When the kids first arrived, they worked on the name plate that they took home today - they were to draw their favorite animal and their favorite sport in the upper corners, and their favorite food and their age in the lower corners. Each child then had the chance to share their work, so that we could all get to know each other a bit better.

We also had a bit of a chance to learn some of the procedures and rules for the classroom - we spent a good deal of the morning working on things like lining up, walking in the halls, raising hands, and the like. The kids also got to meet *most* of the 500 pets that we will have - they are red wiggler worms, that we will use to compost food waste. There is some good information about worm composting here and here, if you're interested, and our worm bin looks like this. Worms will be the first science unit that we will do this year - you will probably hear way too much about worms in the coming weeks.

We has Reader's Workshop in the morning as well - the kids learned about the workshop format (opening meeting, work time, and then closing meeting). The kids got to read independently during work time today.

After all of that, we went down to the lunchroom and goot everyone to successfully navigate the lunch line - then the kids went out for recess (as the process gets smoother, the recess time will be longer).

When we got back in, we had a bit of time for Read-Aloud - we started to read Nate the Great and the Fishy Clue. Then it was off to the Media Center for our time there with Mrs. Hennen. When we got back from Media, we (finally) unpacked our backpacks and bags of supplies, and put them where they belong. The kids also loaded up a homework supplies box, that they can use for their homework. I asked them to find their "homework space" at home and put the box there.

After the unpacking, we had Math Workshop. This workshop uses the same format as Reader's Workshop, and today the kids got to explore using math tools - dominoes, pattern blocks, multi-fix cubes, square tiles, and wooden blocks.

After we got cleaned up, it was time to get organized to go home - get the Take-Home Folders passed out, backpacks packed, and all lined up in order. Then, it was time to go!!