Our First Week Together

The first week of school is always a special one, full of "firsts" and fun adventures. We have eleven wonderful first and second graders in our classroom, and twelve friends in the adjoining classroom who will join us frequently in our project work and on field trips. That's twenty-three great pals and two teachers starting a year that will bring joy, curiosity, and not a small amount of laughter.

Children had fun getting to know me and each other a little better. We thought about wishes and dreams for the year, wrote them down on special wish paper, and burned the paper so the ashes magically floated up to the sky. It was a lovely ceremony. We shared All About Me bags - always a great way to show our favorite books, music, hobbies, and so on. This is also a fine opportunity to work on our oral language skills.

      

             

This week in math we played a math game (Salute!) and did some assessments to best assign Singapore math books. 

Math groups will begin next week. We also read Math Curse, a picture book about a child who learns that math is EVERYWHERE, after his math teacher tells the class that you can think about nearly everything as a math problem. Indeed, as we were readying to go to the fabric store for our annual pillow project, we realized that we would need a LOT of math - money skills, fractions, percentages, and telling time!

Speaking of our field trip, all went off without a hitch. We had lots of adult helpers, both at the store and back at school when we returned. Children picked out fabric, sewed using a machine and by hand, and now have super cozy fleece pillows to use all year long at quiet reading time. 

We began our first chapter book read-aloud this week, and finished the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh. This classic is such a sweet book, and fits in perfectly with our theme of nature exploration as we follow Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin as they explore 100 "Aker" Wood. I am reading from the book I received the year I turned eight years old - received from my mom at Christmas. My ancient pooh bear will soon make a trip to the classroom; he is a ratty ol' thing, well loved.

We had our first "specials" classes, including science with Shan, art, music, french, and latin. It was a very busy week, and we are tired and exhilarated at the same time. Children will rest up and get ready for more adventures next week! We are ever-curious about what the future will hold.