Our first day of school was filled
with laughter, curiosity, and excitement for the year ahead of us! Our young
students came in ready to work. We talked about the exciting year ahead.
This morning they filled out a
resume so I could get to know them better. I asked them to share what they are
good at, their weaknesses, and what makes them unique. I was curious to know
the favorite thing about their bedroom, things that make them happy or worry,
as well as what they want to be when they grow up. I look forward to reading
their thinking over the weekend! Then we had our agent in training ceremony in
which the agent number chose the student. Every year, similar to Harry Potter
and the sorting hat, students come up to the table and pick a stick out of the
sorting mug. The agent number that comes out is his or her number for the year.
Then I get to learn everyone's name and number! We discussed our creed
and got to investigate several staff members who came to visit us.
After this activity we headed to the
cafeteria to learn about procedures for lunch and recess. This year our school
is continuing to use the PBIS model (http://www.pbis.org/) to help bring success and positive behavior to our school
culture. With the PBIS model we do a lot of talking about caring about
ourselves, others, and our school. Click here
to see our classroom matrix.
We spent some time getting to know
our classroom. We learned about Where Am I-which is a weekly guessing
activity that challenges student's state knowledge. We discovered we have a lot
of books in our classroom. Students saw we had a bothering box and a smile o
gram box. The bothering box is a great place for students to put things in when
they are being bothered or need help problem solving. Please encourage your
agent to use it throughout the year! The smile o gram box is a place for
students to write compliments to classmates when they catch each other doing a
good deed. Students then moved to their tool section of the classroom and saw
the lunch board/assignment bins. I pointed out the common core bulletin board,
which focuses on everything we will be learning this year.
Students then noticed we had a white
board table. We had a presentation on classroom guidelines and routines. Click here
to see it! We completed our classroom tour and returned to our seats. You might
have heard, but yes we have a microwave in which students can heat up lunch (no
popcorn though).
Students then created shelf markers
for our library. They are allowed to take out two books to leave in their book
boxes and also have a classroom library card to take books home. Please make
sure your child returns the book when he or she is finished. If you ever need
book suggestions please do not hesitate to ask. Students received a whole lot
of materials too!
Before lunch we had our read aloud. Today
we read Everyone Poops and The Gas We Pass. We then had a serious
conversation about bathroom etiquette and hand washing, as well as what to do
when you have to pass gas in school. The words excuse me is great and
the rest of us continue with whatever we are working on. There is no need to
laugh or wonder where it came from. Tomorrow students will hear The
Holes in Your Nose. Students had PE with Mr. Dunlea and we celebrated Julia’s
birthday.
We had to activities today to create
our hallway bulletin boards. The first asked students to create a visible
selfie. You might be wondering what that means. Click here
to learn more! Tomorrow we will do some goal setting and discuss what it means to be
successful in school. We will create tweets of our goals, learning about how many
characters Twitter actually allows. Students certainly do reach for the stars
in A113! I hope they all reach their goals by June! Thank you for sharing your
most precious gift with me and welcoming me into your lives.
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