Well we made it!! Our first week (okay really only 3 days) is officially done! I am E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. It amazes me that I am able to do this every year. I need to work on my stamina!! Anyhoo, here is a little peek at my 3 day week:)
We started on Tuesday with back to school night. I had 14 out of my 23 kiddos show up which is about an average turn out for our school. This year I tried something a little different. I got this idea off of Pinterest and I LOVE it! Now usually I have the kiddos come in, find their desk, grab papers, put away supplies and then go. In and out. This year I had stations. Five stations to be exact. Each student and parent had to visit each station and it was wonderful!!
The first station was a sign-in. This way I could keep track of who came. The 2nd station was a paper pick-up station. The parents had to pick up some papers from the school in either English or Spanish. The third station was another paper station BUT these were papers for me. I have found over the years that important papers tend to get lost. I decided instead of sending them home I would just have the parents fill them out right there! GENIUS!! I know! So I had the parents fill out how their child gets home and a survey about their child. The fourth station was where they put away their supplies. Then they found their desks. This wasn’t a station but they had papers on their desk as well, it’s ridiculous the amount of papers we overwhelm our parents with, so they had to visit their desks to pick them up. The fifth and final station was the “o-fish-ally” in second grade station, another Pinterest idea!!
Now on to the rest of the week. It flew by! I can’t even keep track of what we did each day because it was a whirlwind! I always read First Day Jitters and then we write about how we feel about our first day. A lot of the kiddos were SO surprised that the character in the book turned out to be a teacher! Actually…a lot of them thought it was a kid in the first part of the book and then she just grew up by the end…comprehension is definitely a high priority…moving on. We also worked on our brochures. I really like to know who lives with each student and more about their lives outside of school. Many of our students have mixed families or multiple generations in their household and I like to keep track of this. Insert brochure.
This is a freebie on our Facebook page which you can get here.
This always happens to me. EVERY TIME!! My boards NEVER fit! Seriously. It’s bananas. But I am going to pretend that the three faces hanging off on the board don’t bother me. Move on, right? It really drives me nuts. I’m going to have to change it.
On Friday we did one of my FAVORITE activities. Now let me back up a little. I live in Washington State which is Seahawks territory. I am not a huge football fan. I mean football is great. Just not my thing. Usually I start watching it…then take a nap in the middle…then wake up to see who won. It’s actually a really great way to watch a football game…but let’s get back on track. Like I was saying we are in Seahawks territory and we have a player by the name of Derrick Coleman. He is my favorite. He has a Duracell commercial, which we watch on youtube. It gives an insight into his story and how hard he had to work to become a Seahawk. Never give up people!! I mean…talk about a great message. Back to successful students. I started by showing my kiddos this video. All I had to do was mention the Seahawks and they were all ears and eyes! We talked about all the things that Derrick Coleman had to do to be successful at football. We talked about how hard things must have been but how he overcame it all. Then we moved into talking about being a successful student. This is what the kiddos came up with.
Now this poster came from Pinterest (which is where most ideas I have come from) but I can’t find it anywhere. I swear it’s on there somewhere so if it was your original idea I give you credit. The drawing was all Pinterest. BUT the ideas were my kiddos. Once we brainstormed they made their own.
We did a lot of other things but really…I’m exhausted and thinking about it again makes me want to fall over and sleep:)
I did end my week on an awesome note BECAUSE of THIS!!!
My Erin Condren Plan Book FINALLY came!! I learned my lesson!! DON’T WAIT UNTIL AUGUST!!! Note to self…order in June. It is so pretty and I love it. I haven’t put anything in it yet…I’m too tired to think about it…but it’s so pretty!!
Since tomorrow is Sunday I guess I better focus myself. On the docket for next week: schema, connections, hopes and dreams, trust builders and breakers and story problems. Plus we are starting assessments. I’m exhausted just thinking about it!!!
I hope everyone has a restful and relaxing weekend!!
