Tuesday, August 16, 2011

First Day: Done!

Today was the first day of my first year of teaching!!!

Overall, I'd say it went well. Not perfect, but good enough considering that it is only my first year!

We started the day off with magic playdough, courtesy of Jodi at The Clutter-Free Classroom. I was sure that my second-graders would see through the "magic" part, but they were convinced it was legit. My favorite quote of the day: "Will the magic ever die??" Haha! The playdough really came in handy for early finishers. I think they probably would have played quietly with it for the entire 3 hours that we were there today! Here it is, pre-magic.
We also made name mosaics (thanks, Fabulous Firsties, for the idea!). I combined this with a different name graphing idea I saw somewhere else. We read Chrysanthemum and talked about our different names and then did the activity. I'm not done with the display yet, so I will just show you my sample! If you choose to do this, and it was actually pretty easy to manage (so I'd recommend it), I suggest tearing paper into pieces instead of cutting it. Cutting tiny squares was taking me FOREVER, so I tore instead and I think they looked nice!
Then I took some more random pictures of my room. Here is my desk!
And here's a closeup of our class pets - African dwarf frogs! The kids are obsessed. One of these days we'll have to name them... no one asked today was their names were so I'm in the clear for a bit, haha.
These are our rules. I copied them straight from First Grader ... At Last, which was one of the first blogs I ever read! The kids really liked them although I think they might be too abstract for my students. We'll see how it goes.

 So overall, pretty good day. I need to work on a couple things with the kids, like not talking when I'm talking and staying in their spots while I'm teaching. But I have a good feeling. :) Thanks, blog-world, for all of your ideas and inspirations!! More pictures maybe tomorrow!

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Wishing you many more first days in your teaching career.

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  2. I'm so glad you had such a good first day! I am definitely making that play-doh...I could have used a little magic today! It was a challenging day, but I know it will get better after a few weeks when they get into a routine. Did your kids keep the playdoh in the bags until it changed color so that they wouldn't get food coloring on their hands--I wonder if my kids would be that patient! Also, do you remember how much playdoh the recipe makes-just trying to figure out how many batches I'll need!
    ~Meredith
    Keen on Kindergarten

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  3. My thoughts are with you and I'm so happy that your first day flowed so well. I can see all the effort you put in making your classroom a special place to learn and grow.
    By the way, your blog is certainly eye catching too.
    Deborah
    http://splitmultigradeclassroom.blogspot.com

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  4. Thanks Jill! I just made a double batch of the play dough and it turned out great. I can't wait to bring it to school tomorrow and let it work its magic! I'll let you know how it goes. Good luck on day 2!
    ~Meredith

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  5. Sounds like a great first day! I really like the idea of name mosaics!!!!

    I'm thinking of a way to adapt into my theme.. hmm :)

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  6. Sounds like your first day went so smoothly! Have a great year!
    Rowdy in First Grade

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  7. Jill! I hope the magic never dies!

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  8. Hello! To answer your question, I gave my students strips of paper and they tore them all themselves. Some needed help with this step, but it went pretty smoothly!

    Jenn

    Back Hall Collaborators

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