Wow what a week! The first week of school always exhausts me. I know I have fallen asleep in my chair every night this week around 6pm. Only to get up and chase after a high school-er that is in band and volleyball. I thought, once I got back into school, I would have so much to blog about, and I do but I was too beat to even open my blog page. But it is Friday...and that some how gives a teacher more energy.
I have a great group of little fish this year. I love teaching in a diverse area. I have students that are Asian, Kurdish, Latino, Arabic, African-American, and Caucasian. Only one that is silent out of 19. That won't last long :)
This week we worked on procedures. Nothing sets the tone for the year as this first week does. I spent a lot of time on simple things. Some of them were how to: sit on the carpet, push in a chair, go to the bathroom, walk down the hall, eat in the cafeteria, hold a pencil, use glue and scissors, and some whole brain teaching concepts too. It is always eye opening at the beginning of each year, just how far they go by the end of Kindergarten. So many of them rely on their parents to do everything for them. I work hard to make them independent. Some of them just look at me with wide eyes and I can hear them thinking...she wants me to do that all by myself. LOL! And guess what? They are amazed they can do it and grin from ear to ear.
One thing I forgot to do this week...I forgot to tell them I would be back to pick them up from the cafeteria after they ate. I had three crying when I came back the first day. I felt so bad. I never dreamed they thought I wasn't coming back for them. One of the little fish said, "Mrs. Tomes...I thought you weren't going to come back and get us and it was crazy in there." I couldn't help but give her a hug and tell her I would be back each day to get her from each place we went outside of the room. Kindergarten is like no other teaching job and I love it so much.
I took a couple of snap shots of what has been going on in my classroom this week. Besides procedures, I introduced A-E and the numbers 0-2. It was just a quick intro, more in depth is coming later, but it gave me a quick assessment of where my fish are. We also read lots of books about the first of Kindergarten, including Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes. Oh my, did they love this book! I am not sure how many time I read it this week. We did a tour of the school with a Groovy School Tour from http://mrsliretteslearningdetectives.com The fish loved it!
Today we did self portraits from Character Clips by Krista Walden. They turned out adorable. Take a look!
Aren't they great?
Check her out on Teacher's Pay Teachers: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Character-Doodle-A-Face-Creative-Clips-Digital-Clipart-655616
We also worked on our names this week. One of the things we did was glue beans on our name. It was a great way to practice gluing techniques as well as learning what our name looks like. They turned out really cute. Here they are drying on the table.
I got my new stamps from Oriental Trading this week! It was like Christmas. They are really big however. I am wondering how to store them. If any one has any ideas, please let me know!
I hope ya'll had a fantastic week. Mine seemed to be :) Keep swimming out there!
