first day(s)

The first day(s) of school are now behind me. Our school splits the first day into two days, so half of the school came yesterday and the other half came today. Tomorrow I have my full class for the first time. Well... hopefully. Three of my students haven't shown up yet. One of the three is a girl who is new to our school. She's in the Dominican Republic right now. Her cousins (who also attend our school) assured me that she'd be in school on the 18th. So she'll miss the first week of school, which is a crucial week. We cover the rules, the classroom procedures, the getting-to-know-you activities. It's so hard to get them caught up on all that stuff. Especially when they're new to the school, because everything is new to them.

At any rate, it's been a good two days. The kids enjoyed hearing some stories and doing their first real first grade project. It's been my first day of school activity for the past 4 years, and it's always a big hit. I read them The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn, which is a wonderful story about Chester the raccoon, who is nervous about his first day of school. To make him feel better, his mother gives him a kiss in the middle of his hand so that he can always feel her love.


We follow that up with this project, where the kids trace their hands (this is my sample project, which is why the hand is so big) and draw a heart to show where the kiss goes. Then, we attach the poem (which I found online somewhere, years ago). The parents always love it.

Anyway... so far, so good. I think it'll be a fun year.