Routines, Agreements, and Books!

The second day felt much more natural, though it was still a bit chaotic as we are still really practicing all of our different expectations (for the hallway, restroom, recess, drinking fountain, and lunch room) and classroom routines.

Some of the highlights of our day included:

We finished sharing our brown bag biographies.  I went last and the kids seemed to be very curious as to what I chose to share in my brown bag.  I included a Harry Potter chapter book, the movie "Up", Twizzlers Cherry Nib Licorice, and a picture of my husband and family! :)

Today we also played a fun get to know you game where the students had to find friends who had done certain activities over the summer-made ice cream, went camping, read a good book, wrote a letter, played a sport, etc.  I do believe they really enjoyed the activity and almost everyone had a paper filled with signatures of those who had done the specific activity during summer!

The children were asked to bring their favorite book to school and I began by sharing my favorite picture book (and reading it aloud), A Bad Case of the Stripes.  The kids were extremely engaged and I think loved the story!  From there they each shared their book they brought by telling us the title, what it was about, and why it's their favorite.  A number of kids had books about horses and Diary of  a Wimpy Kid!  It was fun to see what kind of books they enjoy!

To begin our class discussion on classroom rules and agreements, I read the book What if Everybody Did That?  If you have not read this book, it is SUPER cute and really leads to great discussions about why rules are important!  From there we worked as a class to decide on our common classroom agreements.  This is our final list that is now posted in our classroom (plus I had every child sign their name at the bottom-like a contract!).

I Will...

1. Listen while others are talking.

2. Always raise my hand.

3. Keep my hands and feet to myself.

4. Use nice words when talking to others.  Be kind to everyone.

5. Follow directions.

6. Follow the Marion Way (Be respectful, responsible, and honest)

We did mini skits to model and teach our rules and the kids enjoyed being actors.  We will continue to review and emphasize our class agreements throughout the next several weeks!

In addition to our agreements, I went over the "Build Your Rainbow" system and we discussed the behavior reward coupons.  This will also be revisited over the next couple of days as we will not begin building rainbows until Monday, the 27th.

With a few other learning activities beforehand, we ended our day by completing this activity page which let the students draw, but I also asked for them to write...something that happened at the beginning of our day, in the middle, and at the end.  I do believe it was a nice way to wrap up our time together on this warm Wednesday!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, so parents, please dress your children cooly and remind them to bring their water bottle!  

Thank you for stopping by!  We are off to a great start!

Mrs. Clough