Our First Two Days!

Meet Our Class

First Day Photos

                                    

We had a great first few days in 1-1! The children have enjoyed getting to know one another through the sharing of their "All About Me" bags. There were big smiles and lots of excitement when the children shared an interest that others also had. We did not make it through all the bags in our first few days. We will continue sharing our bags through next week. As the children have a chance to share they will bring their bags home. 

Routines

The children are hard at work learning our classroom and school routines and procedures. They are doing a wonderful job going through: arrival, lunchtime, and stack and pack routines with only a few reminders of what they need to do. Next week, we will continue to go down to lunch a little early so the children will feel confident with the lunchtime procedures. 

Classroom Rules

As a teacher, one of my goals is to create a classroom environment where all students feel safe and valued. Yesterday, we worked together as a team to come up with our classroom rules. Discussing the rules together gives the children ownership and lets them actively decide what they want our classroom community to look like. The children did a wonderful job of coming up with rules that will make our classroom a safe and happy learning environment. The children came up with such a long list that we had to narrow the rules down. The five rules below encompass all the rules the children came up with.

Our Classroom Rules:

1. Be Kind.

2. Be respectful to others and their property.

3. Use nice manners at all times.

4. Be safe.

5. Work as a team!

Reading

On the first day of school, the children listened to the story: First Day Jitters. The children engaged in discussions about the emotions they felt about starting first grade. It made the children feel better to know that other children and even the teacher had some jitters before starting school!

On Friday, we read the book, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? The children learned that everyone carries around an invisible bucket and that we can fill others' buckets and our own bucket by being kind and considerate. The children shared examples of ways that they fill buckets while at school and at home. They worked as a class to sort words and phrases into two categories: Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers. 

The children also worked together to create a class book titled, Our Bucket Filler Book. We will keep this in our classroom all year long for the children to enjoy. 

The children were so excited about being bucket fillers that they told me throughout the day ways they had filled a bucket or how someone had filled their bucket! I hope that your child came home and told you all about being a bucket filler.

Notes:

~ Thank you for all your support at home and your help in making the start of this school year a great one! 

~Wednesday, September 2nd is Curriculum Night. I hope you can join me in our classroom to learn about what your child's year in first grade will look like. K-2nd grade presentations are from 6:50-7:30 pm. This is an adults only event!