Whew! We made it through the first week!

I don't know who is more exhausted, me or the kids. Ok, probably me, but seriously...this was one crazy week! I will say that aside from the heat advisory that kept us cooped up inside all week, this school year is off to a fantastic start! We have an amazing group of kids...seriously. We are probably the smartest class of first graders. Ever. Wink, wink. Well, I am eager to share with you what we did all week, so here we go!
We started the week getting to know the rules and procedures for our classroom. We read a book called "David Goes to School" about a naughty boy named David who got into all kinds of trouble at school. After we read, we talked about what a good student looks like and how David was not a good student! We made this chart to remind us not to act like David!

Yep. I drew that awesome picture of David. We also practiced reciting our classroom rules with fun hand motions to help us remember them. One of our rules is about being kind to others. We read this book:

After reading, we talked about how to be "bucket fillers" and not "bucket dippers". We made a chart of our ideas.

Everyone got to decorate their own "bucket" which we then put on the wall. Once we start using the writing center, we will have forms for students to fill out where they can say something nice or encouraging to another student and put it in their "bucket". When we start community circle next week we will also take time to share moments from our day in which our bucket was "filled". We will also discuss times in which our buckets felt empty and how we can help each other when things like that happen.

Another book we enjoyed this week was "Yo! Yes." which was about being different. It is a book about two boys that don't have much in common and don't really understand each other very well, but they become friends anyways. After reading the book, we wrote about ourselves and something that we like to do. I was really impressed with some of my little writers! I love this one. It says I like to do "crafts". Great inventive spelling!

                                                                         By Student #5
Another way we built our classroom community this week was by reading "The Giving Tree" and making friendship trees for a classmate. I failed at getting a picture of that (and my phone camera was really frustrating me this week because it kept deleting all my pictures!!!) but they turned out super cute!

Once we got to know each other a little better and got acquainted with the rules and procedures of the classroom, it was time to start earning some rewards! The kiddos were eyeing my lollipop tree (thanks Pinterest) during open house, and that was one of the first things they asked about on the first day. I had a few kids that I caught setting a great example for their classmates this week, and my lollipop tree was a huge hit! The cool thing about the lollipop tree (besides getting a lollipop of course) is that if you pull a lollipop with a pink stick you get to visit the treasure box!

Another cool part of being in our classroom is the "special supply bucket". We are sitting in 5 "teams". Each  team has the chance to earn points throughout the week by listening, keeping a clean work area, helping one another, sharing, following directions quickly, etc. On Thursday at the end of the day the team with the most points is the winner, and they get to use the "special supply bucket" all day on Friday. Who wouldn't love to write with a rainbow pencil all day? Let me tell you, it certainly makes school work much more fun. Our winner this week was team number 1, and they earned it! I think they were excited.

Next week, we are all ready to get rolling with Daily 5, Fundations, and writing. This week we introduced "read to self" during our Daily 5 time. I have decided Daily 5 needs its own blog post, so that's on my list of things to do (along with 5 trilling other things). But here is a quick peek at one of our friends practicing "read to self", along with our I-Chart to help remind us of our roles during read to self.

Well, thanks for stopping in! I hope you enjoyed a peek at our first week of school, and I can't wait to share our learning with you throughout the year! Please check back frequently and leave comments. I am trying to get access at school so I can share your comments with the students. I want them to be a big part of the blog eventually, and even write posts, so I know they will appreciate having an "audience".