Last week was my first week back in the classroom, so I'm in exhaustion mode. This is particularly proven by the fact that I wrote this post four days ago and haven't found the time to upload pictures to it until today. Isn't it funny how we always forget how exhausting the first week of school can be? I'm lucky to have taught more than half of my students last year when I supplied for a teacher on maternity leave. Even though I knew my students, it is different for the students to walk into a classroom that is "mine". In addition, we are doing flexible leveled groups with the students, which was a major procedural change to teach to the kids. But overall, it was a great week. Here are a few of the highlights from the week:
On Monday we created lists of the books that we were interested in reading during this school year.
On Tuesday we saved Fred! This is a great problem solving and cooperative learning activity where students try to put a gummy worm (Fred) into a gummy life saver (his life preserver) without using their hands. This is an activity I learned about at a conference last year. You can download the free graphic organizer sheet from Perdue University.
On Wednesday we began using our Calendar Books and put together our Interactive Math Notebooks.
On Thursday we created made up characters for the first realistic fiction stories we are going to write.
On Friday we chose the countries that we will be using for our Year Long Country Study.
Of course we also worked on classroom expectations, which are centered around the four levels of respect with this anchor chart:
And we learned procedures for lining up, transitioning, using supplies and working in groups. I hope that your first week was (or will be) calm and productive.
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