First two days!

Wow, I'd forgotten how exhausting the first days of school can be.  Just getting up at 5:15AM was a shock to the system, but the constant energy needed to keep myself moving was C-R-A-Z-Y!

Anyway, it was a great start to the year.  My kiddos are adorable and seem so eager to get learning.  Just what I like! The first day was a half day and we got to know each other and dived right in with some projects- decorating a picture frame for their first day photos and I traced each child for a painting project the next day.  Here is how 2 of the frames turned out! We are experts with glue bottles already!

The next day we really got in to the routines of Kindergarten. We began our math series with a unit on Position and Location. The kids really enjoyed the memory game that comes with this one.

Then it was time to paint.  I love this project! I have to love it to do it every year.  It can get insane with all of my students painting at once and needing different colors and spilling the paint and trying not to get it on their uniforms... You get the idea.  However, it is awesome to see how much they enjoy it.  They really love to recreate themselves, as you can see by these two that I took a picture of- I love the ears on the first one and all the hair on the second one.  Too cute!

 After lunch, we spent the afternoon working in our Poems, Songs, and Anchor Charts notebooks.  We started by putting in the 5 Little Monsters poem (credit Deanna Jump) that we read and then put in our first anchor chart for Reader's Workshop (credit Kim Adsit).  This chart reminds us what being ready to learn looks like.  After they glued the chart in, they drew a picture to go with it.

We ended the day with a visit from our 5th grade buddies where I think we got out every bucket from the toy shelf.  I'm pretty sure the 5th graders wanted that playtime more than my kiddos! Thankfully there was a surprise waiting for me at home... delicious!

Thanks Dad!!!