"7:46am: Why are we here? I thought school was over on Friday!"

It's the beginning of week two and we had some tired kiddos slide through our door this morning! It didn't take much to wake us up and get us going though: a silly song about frogs, a ridiculous poem about an enormous Emu, and a slinky to be exact. Our poem of the week is about an Emu which is apparently the most outrageous animal we could think of. We enjoyed pretending to be Emus today and then coloring them as we practiced writing our e's.

Look at our kiddos hard at work!

Mrs. Ellering, who joins us for read well,
encourages Kasey as he writes "e's".

During math we learned how to use white boards which was also a huge hit! There is something mesmerizing about a board you can write on with marker and it's ok! We're going to be using them often because they are fun, and it quickly lets me assess where students are at in their learning. Today we learned a new game called "I Wish I Had". I would put counters in a stack of five boxes and say, "I have 2, I wish I had 5. How many more do I need?" Students quickly found answers by observing empty boxes and extra counters. Here is a picture. I will be sending home this activity because it is a quick and easy way to practice making groups of five. (And then groups of ten!)

We spent the rest of our day practicing how to put tools away, (it seems simple, but it's a learned skill and worth our time!) writing our Hopes and Dreams for first grade, and celebrating Anoosha's birthday! (Pictures of the birthday girl to come tomorrow :)) We also read a very kind book that tells the story of two rose growers who were bring flowers to the U.S. on September 11th. This book sparked our discussion of what happened that day. We, all together, concluded that hurting others we are upset with is not a good way to solve a problem and we're going to try different ways. (We will learn them as we go.) It was incredible to see the empathy in our kiddo's eyes and hear how they thought we could make a difference in our room. It was a touching moment for me as a teacher, and for all of us as a classroom community. 

Books We Read Today

There Is A Bird On Your Head - Mo Willems

Pigsty - Mark Teague

September Roses - Jeanette Winter

Stone Soup - Marcia Brown

Interesting Tidbits From Our Day

We are becoming more comfortable with each other! Look how enthralled Connor and Destiny are reading together!

"Ms. Carlberg, I know how we can all make our Hopes and Dreams come true! We can work together! Just like our class motto, "we are all in this together!"

"My hope and dream is to become a dinosaur!" (Needless to say we had to tweak that dream a little bit...)