Monday: To start the year off with some excitement, the air conditioning in my building went out. So we were thrown into the kindergarten rooms for the first half of the day. Needless to say, that completely messed up my plans. Because along with the no air situation, we decided not to switch like we would normally (we departmentalize so I start the day with block 1 and then half way through the day we switch and I get another class). So instead of being able to go with the plans I had, I had to come up with things for my homeroom to do ALL DAY LONG. Right before lunch we were told we could go back to our rooms because the air had come back on....not that we would have noticed because my room stayed at 82 degrees. Ahhhhh!!! Long story short: I got them in, got them fed, and got them home!
Tuesday: With the air still at 80 degrees in my room, we started off sharing the kids "All About Me" posters that I had given for homework. Then we did a few more getting to know you activities and started getting organized.
Wednesday: This was our short day so we practiced our fire drill procedures and did a first day of school reflection picture activity (they had to draw a picture of what they experienced for each of their five senses). We also played a four corners game for what things were appropriate to bring and wear to school.
*This day was particularly hard for me after school. It was my first boohoo day. After school I called my mom and just started bawling my eyes out. I was feeling very overwhelmed and out of my element. I feel like I should know so much more than I do after 6 years of school. Plus, I've never really had experience teaching reading/language arts so I'm not familiar with the curriculum at all. So all in all, I was feeling very inadequate and overwhelmed. But everyone I spoke to that day (mom, husband, mom2, brother's friend) said the same thing to me. They said I can't expect to know it all my first year and I'm feeling overwhelmed because I have to do everything from scratch. But I have a great support team at school and out of school, so I'm very lucky. Unfortunately, I was told that it won't be the last time I have a night like this. :(
Thursday: We did our daily vocabulary, and then went on to write sentences explaining the first day of school pictures they had drawn the day before. We also set up our reading journals and created their text code post it notes (they have certain symbols they use to text code when they read).
Friday: It's finally here...woohoo!!! After everything from the week and feeling off track, I was definitely ready for Friday. We did our daily vocabulary, a library tour in the media center, a reading activity in their reading journals, and we did a flip book for grammar symbols that we are going to use throughout the year.
I have plenty of things to do over the weekend (probably won't get all of them done) so the last thing I leave you with are some pictures of how the room has come along since pre-planning. Thanks for following me! :)
This is me and the hubby, celebrating at dinner after both of our first weeks of new, grown up jobs :)
