Lots of Back to School Pictures!!

I just finished my second full week of school and man I'm tired.  How do you forget how tiring the first few weeks of school are?  I think if we remembered how it was each year, we might not go back.  HA!

I'm kidding, I would go back ;).

 We spend a ton of time at the beginning focusing on learning how to be peacemakers...not peace breakers.  I think I already shared this activity with you, but I'm sharing again because I love it so much.  This really helps my kiddos to learn how peacemakers act...they get really good at using that language.  I love to hear them say to their friends, "You are being a peacemaker because you ____."  

 We just spent the last two weeks learning all about colors using the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

I also use Brown Bear to introduce the routine and structure of our centers to them.  And, we retell this story several different ways.

Here, we partner up and paint one section of our Brown Bear story map.  I use this to introduce paint and paint brushes.

We also have character cards that we use to retell the story with a friend.

Then, they go in the brown bag with the story stapled to the front so they can share the story with someone at home.  

You can tell by the pictures each student is engaged!  :)

 Who doesn't love chocolate?  This is a hit every year...I love how it has color words, characters, sorting and counting (for the students that are ready) all in one.

 We graph how we get to school...see Froggy??  More on this in a later post!

Tons of Froggy fun is coming!

 Ok, so I love these little color cut-aparts from my Brown Bear Unit if I do say so myself.

"Really?!?!"  Yes, because every year I can see SO MUCH progress by the time they have done one of these for each color...that's 10 of these that they have had to color, trace, write, draw, glue, sequence, and spell.

Here's the deal, every year on the first couple pages, I'm like, "Why do I do this to myself...this is so hard", but by the end of the colors, even my kiddos that could not hold scissors correctly and make a stroke have shown some improvement and that makes me happy!  

Are these perfect by the end??  Absolutely not!  Do they all look like this?  No way!  But, the slightest improvement makes me smile and usually there's significant improvement over two weeks.  Practice makes perfect right?! 

 Speaking of scissors??  I have several sweeties who didn't know how to hold scissors or open and shut to cut.  So, this happened!  I did the google eyes last year but this year I wanted to do something that really caught their eye.  Um, it definitely helped...a lot!  All I have to say is "Fuzzy on top", and they immediately switch if need be.

 This (Rainbow Strokes is from Brown Bear) was in writing center...along with some other things from my Write Your Heart Out August/September Edition Unit.  Room 28 (that's me) needed a little practice on strokes ;).

 Here's some of what went in Literacy and Math centers from Brown Bear.

 We are learning how to roll cubes, use bingo dotters correctly, spin spinners, use game pieces, take turns, WAIT our turn, share, use clipboards, use markers...and well, play centers!

I must say it went pretty smoothly.  I do not begin pulling "real" small groups just yet.  I do take the few extra minutes I have after helping everyone finish and get to their next place to work on writing names, or learning how to make a straight line so we can begin to form a letter.  

Every year I ready Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum by Lisa Wheeler and we do this fun bubble gum blowing activity.  We had 4 "bubblers" as I call them and 11 "non-bubblers".  

First we read the story.  Then, we make the faces without the bubble.  Next, we chew and try to blow bubbles.  Last, we add either a bubble or popped bubble and build our graph.

Check it out!

 If you read all of this...Bless Your Heart!

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Check back soon because I have TONS of Froggy Fun coming to this blog soon!