Five for Friday - on Saturday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for 
Friday... a day late!
  

This week was our first week of school and we had a four day week.  Typically we have a two or three day week so this four day week was LONG!  Here are a few quick highlights from our week.  

ONE: Jungle Theme 
Our classroom has a jungle theme this year and to get my kiddos excited about the "jungle" we created jungle animals using paper plates.  I love this craft for the first week of school because there isn't a ton of prep involved and the kids can easily assemble their animals.  It's also simple enough that I can have 4 groups of kids make four different jungle animals.


I have a rather large bulletin board as your walk into my room so I will keep these animals up all year.  I have four other bulletin boards to display student work so it's nice not having to worry about this one. 

TWO: First Day of School Book

Each year I love to do a predictable chart about how the kids are feeling on the first day of school.  We create this chart after reading First Day Jitters and it sparks some great conversation among the kids.  Then as each of my kiddos discuss how they are feeling, I have them come up to write how their feelings on the chart.  Typically I have them write the first letter of the word but a few of my kiddos were able to write the whole word.  


After creating the predictable chart on the first day we create a class book on the second day.  My class was so excited to see their work in our classroom library!  

  THREE: Calendar
We were finally able to begin our calendar/morning meeting routines on Thursday and it seems like I always need to take a step back at the beginning of the year to remember I'm working with 6 year-olds during the first days of school.  When our kids leave us in June they are second graders, so independent and adjusted to the routines.  When we get a new bunch of kids each year I always forget how difficult it is for them to sit and listen the first few days!  We didn't get to every aspect of the calendar routine this week... little by little we'll build up our stamina.  

FOUR: Read Alouds 

These books are hilarious!!  They came in the mail at the beginning of the week and I was reading them one night before I brought them to school. I couldn't help laugh at the writing.  I even had to share some of it with my husband... even he thought it was funny!  This week I used them as read alouds and the kids LOVED them!!  One day during our share time at the end of the day a few kids named these read alouds as their favorite part of the day!  

Five: Math Manipulatives
This week for math we worked on number sense, naming numbers and then building them.  I wanted to get the kids working in groups and working with manipulatives to begin setting the groundwork for our math workshop time.  We used manipulatives two days this week and for the first two days the kids did an awesome job!  They took turns with their buddies and for the most part used the manipulatives as "tools not toys".  A huge success for us this week.  Can't wait to get more practice in next week!  

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!