Our First Day

Today was a FABULOUS first day of school! We had a busy and productive day!

First, we watched announcements. We practiced a fire drill, our lock down drill, then we got to work! We are making two classroom books. Our first book will be a collection of student questionnaires we completed for our morning work. Our second book showcases our families.

Classroom Community: Sharing our family posters (pages in our book)

We also cut out our concert t-shirts. Students will be earning badges this year, while on the fourth grade concert "tour". Today, students earned badges for attending Open House, having their picture taken, and for completing and turning in their Summer Reading Calendars.

Mrs. Arens and Ms. Prose brought their classes into our room today. We introduced our fourth grade behavior incentive program, Responsibility Cards. Then we "welcomed" a "special guest", "KiDee". Ms. Leom didn't have the chance to "meet" her, but heard all about her lack of respect (Shoes on a desk?! Wearing a hat?! Turning in ripped and crumpled papers?!), poor choices (Chewing gum?!, Listening and singing to music IN class?!) and dramatics (Eye rolling?! Tantrum?! Sighing?!) ... the fourth graders had many suggestions to help KiDee be better prepared for fourth grade. Students received their Responsibility Cards. We will be practicing using them this week, and they will go into effect on Monday. (Ask your fourth grader to tell you ALL about the craziness!)

We also talked about our classroom rules: Citizenship, Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, and Follow Your Family Rules). Then students worked in pairs or groups of three. Each group was given one of the rules and asked to illustrate an example. Here are our groups:

Our class motto we developed is: "School expectations help us to be safe, to feel respected, to help the school environment, so we can learn."

Ms. Leom started reading a book to us, "The Boys Start the War" by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds. The first chapter introduces us to the Hatford Boys as they realize a family of three girls moved in across the river. Disappointed that the family wasn't a family of boys, they ... (ask your fourth grader for the juicy details!!!)






Ms. Leom made individual book marks for every student. Students visited the classroom library and started reading. We are readers!!

We were THRILLED to welcome our high school helper, Hannah, to our classroom. We are SO thankful for her help!

It was a full day of learning. Stay tuned for more updates as we navigate and build our classroom family!