I Am Special

We have already completed our second week of school! It's going by fast! Today we finished up our theme of "I Am Special" with the story of David and Goliath. We read the book David and the Giant and the kids loved it. We talked about how David was a very special person who God used to do big things, even though he was small! Then the students got their own turn at defeating the giant! I set up a Goliath head high up on a shelf for the kids to take turns knocking over. They were given a ball to use as their "stone". When they knocked him over we all cheered for them! They loved this! During centers they got to make a sling shot like Davids with 5 stones in it. 

Here they are decorating their sling shots. 

The giant Goliath! He's not very pretty!

One of our little warriors ready to defeat the giant!

Special Week

And our "Special" week continues! Today we talked about how we all are unique and how God made us all different and special. We graphed the hair colors in our class, lots of blonds there today!

The students also got to decorate their name to make it unique, just like they are!

They turned out so cute!

Here are some of the other students playing with puzzles and blocks. 

I Like Me

Our second week is off to a great start! This week we are talking about how we are all special. On Monday we read the book "I Like Me!" and made self portraits.

Here is a close up of a few. Lynley's was one of my favorites! :)

I'm sure you have all heard about our "Clip Up Stick" by now. I wanted to explain it to those who were wondering about it. Every student has a close pin with their name on it that they can move up and down the yardstick. Everyday they all start in the middle on the color green, which says "Ready to Learn!". When a student does something good, such as following directions without having to be told, they are asked to "Clip up". When a student breaks one of our four rules (1. We are nice to others 2. We listen to the teacher 3. We keep our classroom clean 4. We play safely), they are asked to "Clip down". At the end of the day, if the student has clipped up all the way to pink, they are allowed to go to the treasure box. If the student has to clip down to orange they are to have a time out. If they clip all the way down to red they might have to go see Mrs. Toni and they will get a note home. So far we haven't had anyone clip down farther than yellow! The children have responded well to this and I hope to continue using it throughout the year!

Lunch time! We have some good eaters in our class! They love Mrs. Nancy's cooking!

The completed bulletin board! So many cool cats! These students have been doing a great job this week getting into the daily routine of things. Still working on staying in our centers at center time but they are getting better! They love the songs we sing in the morning. Singing and motions helps to keep those busy students focused while we learn! Every morning this week we have sung the "Hello, How are You" song, which they love. We then go around and introduce ourselves. I roll them a ball and they have to say "Hello my name is ________". We've been having lots of fun and I can't wait for the weeks to come!

Second day and they are all worn out!

My new door sign thanks to some sweet parents! 

We are off to a great start with our first day! The kids had a great time and were wonderful listeners! Here are a few pictures of the room:

We read the book Pete the Cat and His White Shoes and the kids LOVED it! We read it twice! Then they got to make their own Pete the Cat during centers. They turned out so cute!