Kindergarten students were on the look-out today for Pete the Cat Rockin' his School Shoes. As they looked for Pete the Cat, they took a tour of the school and visited Mrs. Brown in her office to see if she had spotted him. No such luck, but did they worry ... Goodness, No!!! They are just so excited to be in Kindergarten, and they are looking forward to a great year here at Spanish Oaks Elementary.
What better way to get rid of the first day jitters than by drinking jitter juice? All it calls for is a positive attitude, bravery, friendship, confidence, and most importantly, FUN! After trying the jitter juice I asked the class if they liked it, and then we graphed their answers. Looks like it was a hit!
We had a fun time with our sight words today by using Playdough to spell them! It is important for students to be practicing spelling their sight words any chance they get. What better way to motivate that learning than by having a little fun?!
We were lucky enough to have a few members of the MMHS football team join us in class today. The purpose of the football team's visit to our school was to show students how important it is to read. They read a book to my class and then let my students ask them questions. Way to go MMHS for being good role models for the students at our school!
To build classroom unity, we had a friendly aluminum foil boat making competition. Students were given two pieces of aluminum foil and 5 minutes to make a boat with it. Then we tested each boat to see which would hold the most pennies. I was very impressed by how creative they were! The winners of the competition were on table 6 with a grand total of 100 pennies!
In Mrs. Robinson's class we sorted by how we felt on the first day of school. 13 "loved it" 8 were "happy", 0 were "worried/scared".
A special "thank you" to soon-to-be Eagle Scout, Nathan Dunn, for his wonderful contribution to our school ... a brand new "Buddy Bench"! This will be a great resource for our school and we are so excited to see how it benefits students this year, and in the future. Thank you, Nathan!
Buddy Bench Tips:
The first graders were in for a treat this morning because they got to go on a field trip, and it's only the SECOND week of school! We walked across the street, one class at a time, to help make our first grade t-shirts. Students got to press a pedal which would trigger the ink to be released onto their shirt. They also got to watch their shirt go through a dryer and catch it at the end. Most students haven't taken it off all day. What a fun way to start the year!
In my math group today we learned about rounding. When we hold the string and let go of 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers the balloon stays the same. If we let go of 5 fingers the balloon go up. That analogy helps the students to remember to round up for numbers 5 and larger.