This week while I took pictures, I tried not to capture everyone's faces as I didn't have the signed permissions I needed yet. I'm pleased to say everyone is cleared for pictures now, so next time I post, we will be looking at their lovely smiles!
The first couple weeks are a mish-mash of establishing routines, infusing curriculum, and instilling a love a learning...we had a such a great start with all of that!
Take a look...
We spent lots of time this past week building a classroom community...with over half the class being new to UES, we needed to spend time getting to know each other better. We did this in many different ways...we shared All About Me bags with each other, participated in a Scavenger Hunt of interests, and played with "Fortune Tellers" full of questions to ask each other.
Another way we worked on building a classroom community is we developed our own "kindgom's" rules! We read the book, The Kingdom with No Rules, No Laws, and No King and then got into small groups to develop our own rules! The end result looks like a total mess, but what's so cool about it is that when you dissect it...it's a ton of statements that can all be categorized into FOUR main rules:
be respectful
be kind
be safe
be fair
Take a peek...
This week we read a book called My Name is Sangoel, about a boy from Sudan who comes to the United States and no one pronounces his name correctly. His name was from his Dinka tribe and was so very important to him. Sangoel figures out a way to teach those around him how to pronounce his name by designing a t-shirt with a picture of a SUN and a soccer GOAL...from then on kids and adults know how to pronounce his name.
So we decided to do the same...our name pronunciations are hanging in the classroom (you can see them Tuesday night!), but here are just a few of the creative ways that your kids came up with pictures and symbols and words to help others pronounce their names.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your families, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday night for Back to School Night...it starts at 6:45 and there are three 20 minutes sessions...each session is exactly the same, but this allows parents an opportunity to see various classrooms if they have more than one child attending UES.
If you have any questions in the meanwhile, please shoot me an email
karen.wills@fcps.org
'til next time...
