You are a full-fledged, locker havin', friend makin', limit testin' preschooler! The district I teach for has a program called "Pre-K PALS" that's just for teacher's kids and you are in one of their 4-year-old classes. It's a big step from being in the comfort of Steph's house every day. You have your own classroom complete with 15 other kids - and 10 of them are also boys!! You have calendar time...you learn at centers...you check out books from the library...you eat lunch in the cafeteria...you have music class...you have a guidance counselor, principal, and a school nurse (who you've already had to visit twice!)...and you even have a computer lab in your building (where today they had you "match stuff on the screen").
Your very first day was technically Friday, August 17th. However, it was a "teacher work day" which meant that most kids were only there for a few hours. The backpack I ordered for you hadn't come in yet but I still had to get a quick picture of you entering the building on that first day.
Your legit first day was Monday, August 20th and I attempted to get a picture of you before school.
After Parent Orientation, I snapped one of you in front of your mini-locker...
and one of you in front of your teacher's "Whooo's Here?" bulletin board.
That cute backpack (decorated in robots!) that you can just barely see in the picture above holds two things: your daily folder and your poetry journal. Your folder is used to communicate each day's behavior as well as transport any notes, reminders, etc. Your classroom is on a color system consisting of green, yellow, and red. As I type this on your 18th day of Pre-K, you've already had two "yellow days"! The first one was for not cleaning up in a timely manner and the most recent one was for wrestling in the literacy lounge instead of reading! While we don't like the idea of 11 boys being in a class together, we are still holding you responsible for your behavior and you have to practice good behaviors at home each time you get your color changed at school. You learned quickly after that first yellow day...and so the next time you had one and I asked you about your day, you stared out the truck window and said, "Can we just not talk about it?" Good try, bud!
The poetry journal is a precious homework idea! You get a different poem each week and we are responsible for reading it together and then you have to illustrate it at some point during the week. Your very first one was called School and you took your assignment seriously!
At first you thought you should draw a firetruck! After revisiting the homework later, you decided to draw a bus going down a hill with kids inside. You very elaborately described your drawing to us each step of the way. You worked on it for almost 30 minutes and you took your time as you thought of all the different things that are on buses. It was the most I'd ever seen you draw and I was very proud of your final product!
It's going to be such a big year and I feel incredibly blessed that I get to witness you through it all!
I can't believe how big your boys are! I have 11 boys in my room. I understand :) I hope that your year is going well. First grade again?
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