A Great First Week

 We made it to Friday!  The kids have been so good.  They have worked hard and played hard. On Fridays, we will break from our normal routine and have more free choice time.  So today I introduced "centers". 

 Fridays will also be the day we do art.  We made ladybugs today because ladybug starts with "L".  Every week the class will make something that starts with the letter of the week.  A lot of the time  this will involve paint, so Friday is a good day for your child to wear clothes that can get messy.  I really work hard at teaching them how to be careful with paint but accidents happen.  I usually end up being the one with the most paint on myself. 

 We have ladybugs flying all over the classroom now. 

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.
I'm going to need more snacks for the class soon.  If you haven't already sent a class snack, please do so next week.  I usually only ask you to send snacks once a month. We have a student with  severe allergies to nuts in our class, so please don't send anything with nuts or peanut butter.

Singing and Dancing

 I love to use songs in class.  If I can find a song to teach something, I use it. 

 This is the class singing and dancing to the nursery rhyme " Jack and Jill". 

 We have also learned "Humpty, Dumpty".

 This afternoon we worked with pattern blocks again.

Second Day Learning

We were so busy today that I forgot to take pictures after our first lesson. 

 We started out the morning talking about the difference between numbers and letters.  Letters are for reading and writing and numbers are for counting.  Then everyone went to their tables and sorted letters and numbers.

 We practiced writing our names and getting the letters placed correctly on the lines.

 I'm working on teaching them how to handle books and what it should look like when they are reading. 

They have lots of rules and procedures to learn and right now that is taking a lot of our time.  By this time next week, I won't have to talk about rules as much and we can get a lot more work done. 

In Math, we learned about the pattern blocks.  The names of the shapes are kind of tricky but they thought it was fun to try the hard words.

This is a very bright bunch of kids and I can't wait to see what all they can do.

A Terrific First Day!

 Today was one of the smoothest 1st days I've ever had.  The kids were so good and so eager to start learning.  We jumped right in with our letters and did something I've never done on day 1.   We got out the glue.  Glue can be a little scary for me because there is such potential for disaster.  If you've ever tried to clean up a whole bottle of glue that has been squeezed out, then you know what I mean. 

 

I read the book "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" to the class and then we talked about what letters our names start with. 

 Then we pulled out the glue and everyone decorated the first letter of their name.

 The class did a great job lining up to go to the gym. Hands go behind our backs and not on our friends.

 When we are on the carpet, we sit criss cross applesauce with hands in our laps.  Eyes, ears, and brains are ready to learn.

 My class goes to Mrs. Brown for Science and Social Studies and then back to me for math.

 Today we learned about math materials and how to take care of them and then how to put things away. 

Our letter for this week is "L" and some of the kids discovered they could use the math materials to make the letter "L". 

Like I said before, it was a great day.  Your children should be very tired. I know I am.

See you tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big day. The first day of Kindergarten!

This was me on my first day of Kindergarten. I attended Jack and Jill Kindergarten in the big city of Lockney, Texas. I remember being a little nervous but I also remember being ready to break open that brand new box of school supplies and get started.

These were my kids on their first day of school at Thomas Arnold. My son, Tom, went to a private Kindergarten that I just happened to work at so I was with him everyday that year. The next year, he started 1st grade at Thomas Arnold Elementary and my daughter, Katie, began Kindergarten.

I had to drop them both off for the first time on the same day! I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't stop thinking about them. I desperately wanted to know what they were doing. I wondered if anyone would stop me from watching through the window. (I decided that I probably shouldn't.) I was the first mom in the pick up line that day and couldn't wait to hear all about their day.

This was our conversation:

Me: Hey guys! I've been thinking about you all day. I want to hear about your day. Tell me everything!

Tom: It was good.

Katie: Fine.

That was it. I couldn't drag any more information out of them. It just about killed me. They had been away from me for an entire school day and I had no idea what went on. Did they make new friends? Did they like their teacher? Did they learn anything? Every question I asked got the same response: good or fine.

I tell you all that because I don't want you to have the same frustrating experience. You will want to know what happens at school and I'm sure some of you would like to watch through the window. (Don't try it. Mrs. Nix frowns on it. You can volunteer and actually be in the classroom if you would like.)

This blog is for you, the parents. This first week, I will try to post every day so you can see what is going on in the classroom. I'll let you know what we are learning and you can see pictures of the kids in action. A good way to start a conversation with your child, especially if you get one word answers like I do from my kids, would be to show him/her the pictures and have them tell you about what was going on.

My goal is for this to be informative and sometimes entertaining for you. I would have loved having this kind of information when my kids were little. Actually, I would love to have this information now. Tom will be a senior and Katie a junior and I still get one word answers.

I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!