Where Were you Before You Stepped Into Room B4?

So... where were you Before you stepped into room B4??  See what I did there?!

I really took this idea and ran with it (as you can tell by the shoes on the door and the cute craftivity pictured below).  Mrs. Oslen and I had lots of fun with this "shoe" theme during the first week of school.  We think the students did too!  They enjoyed decorating their shoes, threading and tying (yes- I said it... they ALL tied the laces... practice, practice, practice!), and writing about what grade they were in last year.  It was a great activity, not only because the students got to practice tying shoes, but because they were able to use the writing to introduce themselves to the class.  As we explained at Back to School Night, we have a very special class.  We are so lucky to be the only class in the entire school, and actually district for that matter, with 2 grades.  Think about all of the neat things that we will be able to do this year!!  As you already know, we think it is so important that the students feel as though they are part of ONE community, but at the same time understand and know what grade they are in.  That is why we did this activity as the very first writing assignment.  The students told the rest of the class what grade they were in last year, and some of their favorite parts of being in that grade.  And now, we all have an understanding of what grade we are in this year and what grade all of our friends are in.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we have been super busy in room B4.  We have been practicing our daily routine, learning and re-learning classroom and school rules, making new friends, and taking part in LOTS of fun learning experiences.  On the very first day of school we read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.  This is my all-time favorite first day of school book.  I don't care how old students are... they LOVE hearing this book.

Here's a brief synopsis:

Chester the raccoon is nervous about the first day of school and is sad to leave his mom.  So Chester's mom comes up with a plan.  She kisses the middle of his hand and tells him that whenever he misses her to place his hand next to his cheek, which will always make him think of her.  Soon, Chester realizes that his mom could use a gift like this as well.  He decides to kiss the middle of her hand, for times when she is missing him throughout the day.  What a great plan!

The students, Mrs. Olsen, and I all agreed that we could use this kissing hand while we are at school as well!  After we read the story we made cute Chester projects.  The students also wrote about what they hope the new school year will bring.  Some of our little raccoons have Dr. Suess hats as well!  These belong to our first graders.  We made these after reading The Cat in the Hat when we were practicing the -at family.  We decided our raccoons would look great donning these fabulous hats!  What do you think?!

At Back to School Night we thought it would be fun to go undercover and try to get the parents to guess who we were.  The students wrote some really great clues about themselves and then disguised themselves with a little Groucho Marx look.  And... how lucky are we that one of our teachers also doubles as a photographer?!  We love you Mrs. Olsen!!  Thanks for the great pics!! They are so cute that I had to share a few.  Now lets see if you can guess who is in our class!

Did I mention that our class is so special?  This year in our district the first grade classes are piloting a Chinese class.  However, since we are so special, our 2nd graders are also taking part in this wonderful opportunity.  Miss Maria, our Chinese instructor has taught us many new Chinese words, how to greet a teacher when he or she walks in the door, and how to count using special dance moves.  We are really looking forward to a great year in Chinese class.  Below you will see some of our students practicing bowing, which is used as a sign of respect, as well as practicing special dance moves that help them to learn Chinese counting words.

In order to celebrate the first day of fall, we talked about characteristics of fall, read some great fall books, and then went on a fall scavenger hunt.  It just happened to be the windiest day of the year, which made for a very fun outdoor scavenger hunt with our clipboards, papers, and pencils.  But, as always, we made the best of it. :)  The students collected some things that reminded them of autumn and brought them back in the classroom for more investigating.  They chose three of these things to write about.  They enjoyed explaining how their findings remind them of fall.  

How are you celebrating autumn??  

Thanks for stopping by!!