A New Colony

This last week has definitely seemed like a bit of a whirlwind to me.  I have such a great group of kids and I look forward to getting to know each of them better as the school year progresses.  Besides, all of the normal learning of routines, procedures, and expectations, this new group of Busy Bees had a lot to do this first week.
The students started writing in their Think Books, where I give them a topic each day and they write 2 or 3 sentences that focuses around that topic.  This gives them a chance to do some free and creative writing.  The highlight of the Think Books this week for most was probably being able to decorate it with feathers, stickers, and all sorts of little things to really make it their own.  I absolutely love when kids can feel proud of something because they have helped create it.
I introduced a little bit of science this week.  Our focus was on "What are the different types of science?" We also talked about what qualifies as science.  The students went to 4 different science centers where they had to determine if that activity was science or not.  At the "Ice Center" they observed ice melting either in their hands or on the table.  Some students even found out here that when you slide the ice around on the table, it melts faster.  At the "Paint Center," the students mixed two different colors of paint and added that to their science journal.  At the "Attribute Block Center," the students had to sort different shapes and colors of blocks into different groups.  The last center, the "Cubes Center," had students taking apart pre-built items and creating new designs out of the snapping cubes.  After some time to explore, discover, and discuss the class was able to determine that all 4 of the centers were science....all different types of science.  As we continue throughout the year, we will be diving deeper into each of these areas of science, along with other areas.
Tuesday afternoons is our regularly scheduled P.E. time, and we began with some basic jumping skills.  The students had a great time jumping in and out of hoops and spots on the ground using two feet at once, one foot at a time, and skip-jumps where they jumped with one foot and landed on the other.  This was the introduction to our Jump Rope unit for the year.
In this first week of school, the class as a whole was able to earn a total of 300+ Class Dojo Points.  It averages out to about 20 points (or so) per student.  The class is learning very quickly that earning points can be very easy, as long as they are following directions.  It will be very interesting to see what our grand total is this coming Friday when I hold our first Class Dojo Store.
Throughout the week we also managed to get out the Chromebooks twice!  With having 1:1 Chromebooks in the classroom, I like to spend part of the year on understanding how to properly use the device.  While the Chromebooks are fun and we do many different things on them, I remind the students that we are very lucky to have such wonderful TOOLS (not toys) in our classroom.
So this pretty much sums up our first week as a new colony of Busy Bees.  Normally I would post pictures that went along with some of what I wrote about, but I am still checking on picture release permission forms and want to make sure that I am respecting what everyone is requesting.  Hopefully some pictures will make it up here this next week!

Here is to looking forward to a great 2016-2017 school year!