Happy First Day of School! This morning, we welcomed in our eleven students to our Room 5 community. Here are a few highlights from our first day together:
1. School “Orientation” – We first dissected the word ‘orientation’ and learned that to orient means to position or adjust and organize. This allowed us to understand our school and figure out where everything was. We went on a tour of the school and playground, before returning to our classroom. As a class, we did a classroom scavenger hunt to learn where everything was and how it helps us as a class.
2. Domino Exploration – During our math block, we explored dominos as a math manipulative. After exploring this tool, we had a challenge problem to build a domino window so that all the sides add up to the same number. This was quite the challenge! Afterwards, we discussed as a class how this connects to math.
3. Quiet Time – During our quiet time, students selected between reading, drawing and sitting quietly. This time is to help us adjust from coming inside and to reset our brains for the afternoon.
4. Keepy Uppy! – As a class, we played multiple different versions of Keepy Uppy with balloons. We iterated and made changes with each new version as we learned to work together. At the end, I asked students to read my mind to predict why I would do this activity as a teacher on our first day. Students determined that this helped us practice our collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills. Students also discussed how the activity made us learn through struggle and fail well. This will be a theme throughout our year together.
5. Birthday Celebration – We celebrated a birthday in our class by savoring some sweet watermelon slices!
This was a wonderful first day, filled with joy and laughter. We cannot wait to see everyone back f0r day 2!
