Back to School

What a roller coaster couple of days! Monday was our first day back to school. It was great to meet my kids and get to know them a little bit. Unfortunately, the weather here has been terrible! Constant rain. And I'm in a demountable with no walkway cover. Not even to the nearest bathroom. And with rain pouring down, my 25 little grade 2's just needed to GO. NON-STOP! There was hardly 10 minutes that went by without someone needing to GO! And when 1 needed to go, they ALL needed to go! And no, they can't wait until I finish giving instructions, they have to go NOW!!

It's the same every year too- I always forget how very little they are. By the time they finish Grade 2 they seem to have grown so much - they jump ahead in leaps and bounds academically and they just seem so much more mature when they leave me December. Maybe I should move to Grade 3.....

We've been doing a lot of work on expectations, routines and MANNERS! Boy, does this group need it! We have completed most of the activities from Growing Kinders "The Day a Monster Came to School" freebie. We've read the story, made our class promise and have drawn pictures and written about how we can make smart choices and show our best listening manners. I've bought some back-to-school packs, but I think this freebie is the best! I've been able to use everything!

 Here's the sort we did for Above the Line, Below the Line and Bottom Line behaviours from the freebie. Please excuse the glare - with 2 whole walls of windows, another with a concertina door that can't have anything on it, and the other with the IWB and whiteboard, windows are really the only place I have to put things up!

 

And with a view like this, I don't really want to cover them all before I put stuff up! Our local forest is just next door. I LOVE all of the natural light I get.

 

Here is my CAFE board too. Nothing on there yet. We have started building our stamina for Read to Self. On Monday, we reached a whopping 1 minute 32 seconds!! Yesterday, we reached 5 mins! Hopefully we'll continue to see improvement!

Hopefully I'll have some more pictures soon. I always forget to take them when I'm teaching or working with the kids!