One day to go!

Before the first week of school is officially over that is! It's been a good week, and I'm beginning to get to know the children. Their names are coming more easily this year, and I think that comes with having chatted with their previous teacher and getting a heads up on pronunciations before they actually arrived in the classroom. I also know some of the faces from the playground, and I'm making good progress, except for Phoebe, whom I have called Evelyn (her older sister's name) on a number of occasions - ooops, I apologise to her, but I really must work hard on that one because names are important. I'm getting some of the other girls mixed up as well, but they are all being patient with me.

I had a surprise visit from the Elementary Principal this morning, during my second Language Arts session. As I mentioned to him later, he was fortunate to actually catch me teaching a formal lesson, as most of the early part of the week has been informal or testing. What he did catch was me introducing Reading Response posters. I got these through Scholastic Book Clubs last year, and had been saving them as a great way to start the year. I'm really looking forward to seeing which books the children choose to write/draw about, and to reading/viewing their thoughts and ideas.

Tomorrow I plan to introduce them to their Journals, and to journal writing using the Six Thinking Hats as a reflection tool. I will also be discussing the "Ideas" component of the 6 + 1 Writing Traits. Should be fun. Then we also get to do Buddy Reading tomorrow with Kindergarten (at least I hope we do). Both classes really enjoyed it last year. There will be lots of other things happening tomorrow as well, so I guess I'd better finish up, and get some sleeeeeppp!!!

Hope you're enjoying this.

Karen