Well as you might expect the first day is always the hardest, but we made it though.  A few yawns in the afternoon but no complaints.  It will certainly take a week or two before they know the routine and become more self sufficient.

The first order of the day was setting up my expectations, class rules, and acceptable behavior.

Reading – Only the first graders had time to read their daily book while I did Morning Calendar with the kinders.  Calendar time is a time for each student to get up in front of their peers and tell us all about today, days of the week, counting, and as time permits, a story from me.

Handwriting – Review of capital letter formation with a concentration on the letter “A”.  Our handwriting books have not arrived yet, but we got started anyway.

Math – Kinders did Lesson 1-1 Counting 1, 2, and 3 in different arrangements.  For 1st grade the Lesson was 1-1 Spatial Patterns through the numbers 9.

We finished our day with Learning Centers.  The children are broken into fours group where each day, each group has a different station to go to.  The first station is technology with the children allowed to choose Math or Reading.  Station 2 is Guided Reading with me.  This is a more in-depth look at a story each child reads.  Comprehension, phonics and word usage are the areas of concentration here.  Station 3 is our Writing Station, where the children will begin the process of writing a story surrounding a picture they have drawn.  Station 4 is an Educational Choice station where children are self-directed in choosing an activity.

At the end of the day the children went to their weekly assigned jobs which rotate every week.

Mr. M.