Our First Day of School

Kids are like crayons.  I am sure glad they aren't all alike.

It was a wonderful day!  Twenty of my twenty-two students tiptoed into my classroom with no idea of what to expect.  I helped them store their supplies as they began looking around the classroom.

We only had ten minutes for introductions as we headed off to explore the Library.   After listening to a story from our Librarian, the students worked on choosing Just Right Books from the shelves.  We took a tour of the school on the way back to our room.  Once there, I shared one of my favorite picture books, Chrysanthemum.  Chrysanthemum is the story of a mouse attending school for the first time.  She is teased mercilessly by some of the girls in her class.  The book was a good foundation for treating each other fairly and with respect.

The book was also a great transition into a whole-class discussion about rules for our classroom.  The students wrote two to three rules that they thought would be important.  They shared their ideas with each other and then each student selected a favorite and shared it with the entire class.  They wrote them on stickies and posted them on the wall.

I led the students in discovering that all of their ideas could be sorted into three groups.  The groups were; respect for your right to learn, respect for the right of others to learn, and respect for the teacher's right to teach.  We made an anchor chart, signed it and hung it on the wall.  Next, I had to separate two boys for not keeping their hands to themselves.  Sigh.  It just shows that when we hear it, say it, and do it, we don't always learn it.  That's okay.  I'm going back tomorrow.