First Full Week of School!

Oh. My. Word.

Never have I ever felt such exhaustion. I've been running around the halls like a crazy person these first few days, and my legs and feet have never been so sore. I LOVE IT!! This means that I am back in full swing, ladies and gentlemen. I've got such a sweet, precious class-I know we are going to have a great year together! Here is the first full week with my new sweeties:

Monday:
4 - count 'em - FOUR new faces joined our class Monday morning. (Did I mention I've been running around like a crazy person??) Our class is finally complete with 21 sweeties, and we are rockin' and rollin'.

I decided to do an author study with Kevin Henkes books this week, so we started with a first week of school classic: Chrysanthemum.

(click on the pictures to find the books on Amazon)

We talked about how our words can make other people sad or happy - wilt or bloom. We watched what happened to Chrysanthemum's heart as the mean words were said to her (wrinkled a big red paper heart) and then opened it up when Mrs. Twinkle was nice to her. We signed the heart and hung it on the wall outside our classroom, saying that we promise to never use our words to wrinkle others' hearts. They took it very seriously. Too. Stinkin'. Sweet. 

Tuesday:

We made Chrysanthemum flowers and wrote about what makes us wilt and what makes us bloom. Find the activity here with Hollie Griffith. 

cutie-patootie

Wednesday:
Sorry, no pictures. We finished our Reading Baseline Test and went to the library for the first time. Not a very exciting day, just practiced routines, rules, blah blah blah. You know how it goes!

Thursday:

 Why haven't I read this book more often?!?? Kids stress and worry, too. This book really allowed for some connections-everybody worries, but it doesn't have to be all that you do! Our reading skill for this book was compare/contrast with Venn diagrams and text-to-self connections. I got all the materials I needed from Read with Me ABC. My kids loved it!

Friday:

We had our first visitor today!

Back off ladies, he's mine. :)

My class LOVED my husband, and he's such a good reader! He asked them good questions throughout the book and made them giggle a lot-especially the girls. It was so great having "Mr. Shawn" come visit. In honor of his month in the NICU at DCH, he read Julius, The Baby of the World to wrap up our Kevin Henkes week. 

After he read, we made a Wemberly craft and connection from Worried Wemberly Back to School Activities. I love the way they turned out!

I promise I teach math! We've been practicing using math tools such as connecting cubes and shape blocks. We are perfecting the way we sit on the carpet for math talk time and work in groups during math workshop. Next week comes the interactive, cooperative learning!

That wraps up our week! Overall, I'm really impressed with my crew. They work great in groups and want to make me happy - every teacher's dream! I keep forgetting they are only 7 years old. We've definitely got some growing to do, but I think we are going to have a lot of fun together!

Now for a 9:30 bedtime on a Friday night. I know, I know.

Don't judge.