Have YOU filled a bucket today?

We made it through our 2nd day! I remembered to take photos of each student today (totally forgot on Tuesday!). The day began with a yummy welcome back pancake breakfast, put on by our SCC (thank you!). Then, students were off to their first K/1/2 gym class. I joined the class for the first few minutes and then left them with the capable hands of Mrs. H- the Grade 1/2 teacher so that I could have my prep. I will be teaching the class on Days 1 and 5. They worked on practicing freezing on the spot with the cue of a whistle, played some Octopus tag, and tried tag games in increasingly smaller general space areas in order to see how hard or easy it was to maintain personal space.

Next up we had our calendar meeting, followed by snack. During free choice centers there was a lot of action in the kitchen, rice table, and even a puppet show broke out! We also had a fix it man on the loose who was measuring everything he could find with a measuring tape.

After recess, we began working on establishing a routine of readings books in the reading area for a few minutes after each recess to get ourselves gathered together. By last period, it was going quite well! I read aloud to them, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? Then, we watched a video of the story How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids and had a discussion about how everyone could fill someone else's bucket. Finally, students represented their ideas on paper. By lunch I was already hearing "He's dipping my bucket! ....They are filling my bucket!" In case you aren't familiar, the main idea is that we all have invisible buckets. When we use kind and caring actions and words, we fill a bucket. If we use unkind and mean actions and words, then we dip buckets.

 

An example of student work.

After lunch recess, I introduced students to something new to our classroom for all of us. I received a package in the mail yesterday that will be the first of many from Little Passport. We were introduced to characters Sam and Sofia, who will be travelling the world and sending us gifts and photos once a month! We received a suitcase, passport, boarding pass, picture of the magic scooter that is going to take them around the world, stickers, and a world map. I am looking forward to where the learning will go from here. I already had one student pointing out different parts of the map and asking me what each place was.

I also had students work with me in pairs on a beginning of the year assessment. Basically, I get them to record any letters, numbers, words, and shapes that they know. We rounded off the day with some singing and dancing and our first Talking Circle. We will end each day with students sharing their thoughts on the day. It is exciting to me to observe them learning to respect and listen to the person who is holding the talking rock.

Looking back at Tuesday's work, I put together a class book that can be viewed online.

 

 

There were a lot of positive feelings on the first day and they appeared to carry over to today. I'm looking forward to  3 day week next week. Until then, I hope that everyone has a great weekend!