Happy, happy evening, friends! Today marked Day 5 of my life in 1st grade, and it is rather wonderful. In fact, my heart is so full. I’m happy and relieved and in love. I have 23 friends who are so loving and kind and talkative and silly and joyful. Learning is exciting and there is an underlying urgency to be growing as readers, writers, and leaders. Last year in 5th grade, my ‘word’ for the year was ‘endurance’. This year, my word is ‘refresh.’ This year is a great perspective in team work, positivity, common goal setting, and united school vision. My first week has been wonderful, and I’m so excited to share with you our first 2 days together. 🙂
My sweet friends were SO excited. They could not wait to see what books I had placed in their book bins (4-6 books of varying levels, until I have benchmarked students). So what was the verdict? We all held our reading stamina for 1 minute 42 seconds before we needed to come together and regroup. Ohmyword. This was definitely a moment of panic for me. My initial thought? Houston, we’re not in 5th grade anymore – ha! 🙂
After brainstorming, we wrote sentences about our favorite parts of the day and illustrated our ideas. This sweet friend loved writing! #agirlaftermyownheart
After exploring the sunflower, we took time naming him. After every student shared an idea, we went back to our tables and narrowed our choices down to six (one per table..although two tables did choose the same name). This is the first time I introduced a Kagan structure – round table. After each table synergized, we came back together as a class to create a class bar graph. Our five name-choices were – Sunny, Fuzzy, Mr. Sunflower, Snowflake, and Trevor.
Initially, Sunny and Fuzzy were tied. Once we eliminated all the different choices and we took a re-vote, Fuzzy was victorious. So, friends, I introduce you to Fuzzy!
On our second day, we were so excited to meet our Reading Stamina goal of 2 minutes! After reviewing the Read-to-Self Expectations, we built our reading stamina to 2 minutes 37 seconds – woohoo. A small, but so-important victory. 🙂
To close out our day, we read the classic – If You Take a Mouse to School… So many of my friends had read the original Numeroff book, so we were able to make some great text-to-text connections!
My outside bulletin board has this teaser on it, so I was waiting for my friends to share their ideas! Our focus this year is “A Love for Reading” so we spent much of our first days together practicing, talking about, and planning for our reading!
Molly Maloy says
Yayy!!! Reading your post made me so happy! I am so glad to hear how much you are loving 1st grade and your new school!! I could literally hear your voice as I was reading this!! So funny! Hope you have a marvelous rest of the week with your sweet students!!
Kaitlyn says
It sounds like you had such a wonderful and joyful time starting school! Your students are so lucky to have such an awesome teacher. I can't wait to read more about your journey!
🙂 Kaitlyn
Smiles and Sunshine
D. Frideley says
1st Grade is the ONLY elementary grade I haven't taught. I'm not positive I could handle the responsibility of teaching kiddos to read. I did jump from 5th to PK-4. It was a huge shock to my system, but I loved that year.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm highly impressed with your commitment to Daily 5. I would love to read a post about implementing it.
Deniece
Jessica Lawler says
Sounds like you're having a wonderful time, dear friend! Your little kiddos are lucky to have you – and so are your new teaching teammates!
I laughed right out loud when I saw the name suggestion "Trevor" 🙂
Enjoy this week – and take a nap…you deserve it!
~Jessica
Joy in the Journey
Kate says
I know!! It was quite possible the most first grade name ever-ha! 🙂
Caitlyn Delaney says
Oh my gosh I want to be in your class! Your kiddos look like so much fun! I love your moment of panic, as a fourth grade teacher, I'd be panicking too!! You're clearly going to be an amazing first grade teacher! Have so much fun with the little ones!
-Caitlyn
Fourth Grade Lemonade
Jessica says
Can I say how glad I am that you're starting first…now that you're one step ahead I know I'll always have great ideas to implement in class. I can't wait to start my first day in first grade!
Little In Betweens
Kelly Anne says
Yay!!! I agree with Molly- reading your post made me so happy! What an amazing first week and a very lucky group of firsties! Thank you for your inspiration 🙂 Have a wonderful second week!!
XO, Kelly Anne
AppleSlices
MJ says
What a wonderful thing to read this morning! I love how you call your kids your friends. Love that! I can just imagine how happy they are each time they hear you refer to them like that. Happy for you for a fresh, new, collaborative, happy year! Thank goodness that it seems bad years are always followed by really good ones that restore our love for teaching. Have a wonderful year!!! 🙂
Mrs. Filiatraut says
Are those primary lined post-it notes in the picture with If You Take a Mouse to School or just paper?
Mrs. Rohrbaugh says
I LOVE how you started out your year! I wish you the best for the rest of the year!
The Fourth Grade Fizz
Melissa Reed says
What a wonderful start to your year! Firsties really are a special group. Can't wait to hear more about your class as they grow!
Mary Carlson says
This was so wonderful to read! I don't get kids until Sept. 2nd but your post got me excited to meet my new 2nd graders. I hope you have a fabulous year – you are off to a great start!
Kaitlin Edmunds says
Totally adorable! You seem so comfortable and happy! That's awesome. Have a great rest of the year! 🙂 Can't wait to read along with your journey 🙂
Kaitlin
K&C Love Grade 3
Maria Petersen says
Thank you for your inspiration! I was recently placed in 1st and freaking out! Just like you I went from an upper grade down to 1st. LOL appreciate all the advice.
Tory says
I AM OBSESSED WITH THE BULLETIN BOARD. Pure genius. What font did you use for the words??
Catherine says
I used MTF Jumpin Jack!
Amy Fiedler says
Thank you for these wonderful ideas! I’m moving up to first grade next year and I love your ideas for how to get started.
Sheryle says
This is so great! Plan to implement several of these ideas. Usually do jitter juice but I know they do that in Kinder and needed a change. We’ll still do our Cowboy Theme activities but incorporate some of these as well.. favorites : 1st Day in 1st grade, sunflower & graphing, math tools, If You Give a First Grader a Book. Simple yet meaningful! Thanks again! ☺️
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