The First Day of School

Of course I didn't get much sleep last night, but that didn't stop me from being completely WIDE awake this morning when my alarm when off. I left my house at 7:00 to get to school early to shake the nerves and things ready. Boy was I NOT ready. We weren't supposed to pick up the kids until 7:55 in the cafeteria, but at 7:35 kids and parents start streaming into my room as I am trying to get ready for the day. No big deal, I tell myself, just give them Play-dough to keep their little hands occupied. That worked for the most part, but I still felt flourished as I helped each child unpack and say goodbye to their parents. I was SO SO SO lucky that absolutely NONE of my kids even shed a tear when their parents left! What a blessing! I was the most nervous about that I think. I didn't know how I would console 17 sad kindergartners with just 2 arms.

Today was a lot of going over procedures of the school and the classroom, and my class probably could have cared less about it all. We did have fun doing the calender, having visits from principals and other teachers, singing Dr. Jean songs, coloring pictures of ourselves to tape on the Expectations poster, sharing little tidbits of our lives, taking tours of the school and classroom, and of course in exploring manipulatives and the centers.

I really do have a cute group of kids. However, there's a handful of them that don't feel its necessary to listen to me when we're at the group rug, so after school, I readjusted the way our group rug was set up. I made a box on the carpet with masking tape, and inside the masking tape put even smaller strips of tape even spread out and labeled them with their names. In doing so, I seperated all the kids that don't need to be next to each other, and put the ones that need the most attention right up front next to me. I think this will make a HUGE difference in their behaviors at the group rug. If not, we'll just try other strategies.

I definitely think today was such a great learning experience. There's about a MILLION things I would have done differently, but I can't change that now and I probably wouldn't if I could. I can only improve and get better for tomorrow and the days that follow after that. And I will, if anything, I'm even more excited to actually start teaching reading and math tomorrow instead of just going over rules and playing. But don't worry, we'll review all that tomorrow too!