Our First Day of School

We had a GREAT first day.  We were so incredibly busy that I forgot to take any pictures.  I ALWAYS take a class picture on the first day and totally forgot until the bus bell had rang yesterday.  Mrs. Jones popped in and snapped this picture for our Facebook page, so I snagged a copy of it so that we would at least have one picture of our first day together.

We began our morning learning a few procedures for our classroom.  Each student received a handbook and we talked through a few of the procedures like morning routine, entering the classroom, bathroom, etc...

After reviewing a few procedures we took some time to talk about the kind of teacher we want.  This is the list the students came up with.

We read two books yesterday.  The first one we read was Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus.  The kids thought it was funny and we learned how to check for comprehension while we read.  The second book we read was Chrysanthemum.  Again, the students loved the book.  We used this book to work on accuracy when reading by cross-checking when we are unsure of a word.

After we learned our two reading strategies we began discussing Daily Three Time.  We launched Read To Self so that students could begin working on independent reading.  We created this iChart to help us understand Read To Self.

We will add our last way to read a book tomorrow.

We spent most of the day getting to know one another and learning about our classroom.  I know we are going to have a great year together!

Our First Day Of School

We had such a great first day of school!  This morning the students quietly walked down the hall and into the classroom.  They learned that they should immediately make their lunch choice, then unpack, then finally sit down and read the board.  We will work on perfecting our morning routine throughout the week, but I have a feeling they're going to do a fabulous job tomorrow!  This morning once they unpacked and got seated they began working on their welcome packet.  The first day of school is always a quiet one.  Everyone is trying to get comfortable in their new "home" for the year and they're a little nervous about what they can and cannot do.  I snapped this picture during their quiet working time.  I'll take another one in a few weeks and we'll see if they still look this hard at work :)

 I always like to take a group picture on the first day of school.  This is my lovely group of 4th graders!  Man do they look smart :)

 Of course they wanted to do a silly picture :)

 By the time we got to lunch they were loosened up and talking to one another.  They seemed to really enjoy their first day at lunch with their friends.

 A few other things we did today :
1.)  We learned 1 fun thing that each student did this summer
2.)  We played outside
3.)  We went to Spanish
4.)  We set up and learned about or D.O.T. Book
5.)  We learned how we would go to the cafeteria and leave the cafeteria
6.)  We began reading The City of Ember
7.)  We organized our desks, crayon boxes, and cubbies