Stage is set!

Stage built by a second grade student with PVC-pipe building elements

Today was a great First Day of School. We had a new admit over the days I was not there, for a total of four new students and a class of 25. Everyone came to school, and Ms. Lee hugged all of her returning students as well as a few that were not her students but they love her anyway. Her students adore her, it's clear, and are thrilled to have her again for another year.

I met almost all the parents today, and to a person they were welcoming and enthusiastic (they were hugging each other too!), and said how lucky I was to be working in this class, with this teacher. It was, I will say, very nice to have a classroom full of kids who knew the teacher, knew each other, and knew the drill- not that that kept them in their seats, but it made things easier for sure. Of the new students, some in the class had gone to kindergarten or even pre-K with two of them, so they were known as well. That left two completely new kids that we discussed during our planning time- how did their skills seem? How did they do socially? How will they fit into the class?

Ms. Lee is very intuitive- she seems to like to do and then reflect, rather than plan and execute. That's not my style, but she has a fairly low-key energy that's intuitive and nicely-paced, mellow. The kids can tell she's happy to be there with them. We did some community-building activities that were very interactive, and then a little math, a little individual reading, a read-aloud, and some math before lunch.

The kids are so cute- even though they have never seen me at this school before, they still assume I know everything. "Karen, are we having recess today?" "Sorry, this is my first day and I'm not really sure!" Ha. That really threw them off. But I did some reading with a few of them and they seemed to like me ok.

This is a photo of a construction that one of our new students did during choice time. It's a stage- the peaked part is the proscenium and the tall pieces to either side are the lights. I wonder what her parents do? It's an interesting use of them and she worked on it for quite a while. The other kids who played with these mostly made 3D constructions with the joining corners.

Apparently this set came from a science-leadership student teacher who designed these for the NY Hall of Science and left a set. Very cool addition to blocks, etc., although a bit heavy- the tall pieces are about 18 inches long.

I didn't get to set up the ELMO this week and it's still not set up, but I am determined. Next week!!