A Great Start to the Year!

Yesterday, we finished our first full week of school!  I will admit that by Wednesday it felt like it was Friday, but we made it through!  It was also Book Fair Week...that very definitely added to the exhaustion!

We couldn't have asked for a better start to the school year weather-wise!  I have to say that in my 20 years of teacher, I have never had a more perfect string of days with cooler weather!  For a school that doesn't have A/C in it's classrooms, that is a wonderful blessing! Here are a few pics from the first week of school...

Jitter Juice!  Helps get out the jitters everyone has on the first day.

I have a secret ingredient that I will NEVER share!  ;-)

We love our tire swing!

You always have to take a silly picture after taking "real" ones!

This week, we started out learning about Patriot's Day.  I always struggle with how to talk to students about what this day means for those of us who were alive on 9/11 and were able to understand and experience it.  I always want to make sure that I don't give too much detail, because..well, they are only 7 & 8 years old.  We started out with a great video from Reading Rainbow -- The Tin Forest episode.  This episode exposed the children to students who attended a school next to what would become Ground Zero.  I highly recommend it!

We read great books about September 11th and we had wonderful conversations about that day.  I was really impressed with the students' depth of knowledge and understanding of what happened on that day.

After watching the video, we spent time making a book about Patriot's Day...

We also got to experience our first two birthday treats!  I wondered how students would react to not having a food treat...they loved it!  Jackson brought in his treat pretty quickly since is birthday was during the first week...those Hot Wheels and Disney toys were a hit -- but I forgot to take pictures!  Conner brought in his Birthday Treat this past week & I remembered to capture the moments of students playing with their "treat".

"Slappy Hands" and a play structure...lots of fun!

What girl isn't excited to get a cup of "slime"?

I don't know that I've ever seen students enjoy a Birthday Treats like like they did these treats!  It's going to be a great time this year!

Whew!  That's just a tip of the iceberg of what we've done so far. It's been an adjustment for us getting back into the swing of things!  I've already said on many occasions that 25 students is a lot, but that also means that it can be a lot of fun! I can't wait to see what this year brings!