We had an awesome first day in Room 110 :) Aside from a few tears, students were happy and excited to be in a new classroom with new friends, teachers, and toys :)
Last night before I left, they were installing cubbies in the hallway to make room for all of our new friends in Kindergarten, and when I got there this morning, they were all set up and ready for use. We have 53 in total, which means our class will be able to use around 18 of them. We are planning on using these cubbies starting Tuesday and they will be for our SK friends. JKs will continue to use the hooks in the classroom. We are very fortunate to receive these- they will help out so much!
We started off the day by doing our Morning Jobs (Give me 5!). Our SKs are very familiar with them and our JKs are learning. The 5 jobs students have to do in the morning are:
1) Hang up your backpack and lunch
2) Put your important bag in the basket
3) Vote on the question of the day
4) Sign your name
5) Find your name on the SMARTboard
Here are our names printed from today!
After students finished their jobs, they found a table or carpet activity to play at. We listened to the announcements, sang along to O'Canada, and got back to playing. We then came to the carpet to take attendance (it feels like it goes on forever with 30 kids!). We reviewed our bathroom routine which is:
1) Don't ask or tell; just go!
2) Turn on the light and shut the door
3) Flush the toilet and (if necessary) put the seat down
4) Wash your hands with soap and water
5) Dry your hands and leave the door open
We will be practising this until we get it down pat- don't forget to wash your hands!!
Afterwards, we sat in a circle where we showed them how to put things in their important bag (we are still waiting on a few!). We showed them that it doesn't make sense to put your lunch bag in sideways so you can't close the zipper; start with your important bag, lay it flat along the back of your bag and put your lunch in after the same way. Practising this at home would be great! We want students to be as independent as possible, and if they can't figure out why their backpack isn't closing, they can become frustrated.
We then talked about some rules we have in our classroom such as no running, raising your hand to ask a question or a say a comment, and to keep our hands to ourselves. We will be going over more classroom expectations next week :) Then we showed the JKs where the office was so they knew where to bring the attendance if they are asked to, and the SKs listened to Mrs. Tortola read them a story. The rain started pouring down, and snack time was here! Students are asked to raise their hand if they need help opening something and to stay in their seat until the bell rings, when they can then throw out their garbage. Note: Some things spill really easily- just to keep in the back of your mind :) Also, some students can't finish a juice box during their snack time, so if you put their name on it, we will set it aside until lunch. It was an indoor recess and we watched Franklin's Gloomy day (perfect for the occasion!).
It was time for Learning Centres! Students had many Centres to choose from such as Sand, Dramatic Play, Blocks, Books, etc. Next week we will be going through each of these centres to talk about expectations, tidy up, etc. Students then went to the Library with Mrs. Moore and 50 minutes later came back for Lunch! Outdoor recess it was!
It was beautiful outside, so we decided to stay out a little bit longer; we grabbed some books, magnifying glasses, shovels, etc. and explored our new grass pen and did some relaxing while looking through books. Afterwards, we went inside, got a drink, and went back to Learning Centres :) It was finally home time! We handed out important bags, and students got ready to go home.
We had a super fun day and we really hope our students enjoyed themselves :) Starting next week, we will be learning our morning routine (songs, poems, etc.), starting Literacy lessons and Literacy bins, and many other things we have included in our daily schedule :) We have so much planned and we can't wait to begin it all (after all the paperwork is done- holy moly there's a lot!).
Here are a few reminders:
- Please write your last name or child's name in notes- we lose track of which important bag they came from and are still learning your names :)
- Please send in your materials for colours so we can collage them together ASAP and put them up
- Please send in a family photo to add to our Family Tree- we need 28 more!
Thank you so much for an excellent start to the school year :) Have a safe and happy weekend!!
~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola
"Play is the highest form of research". - Albert Einstein
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