This morning when students arrived they had the option of going outside with Katie who is with us until 7:50. This worked really well and made the transition to Morning Meeting much smoother. We will keep trying this on nice days until the colder weather sets in.

Today we spent a little bit of time discussing rules, or ways we need to be in the classroom to have a successful year. We will continue this discussion over the next several days and then establish a small list of classroom rules for the year.

We have been doing a little bit of yoga each day to break up our listening times, get children moving, and hopefully help them feel energized and focused! Some students have been reluctant participants which is fine, but if they choose not to join us they need to sit quietly at a table. I am hoping that soon everyone will feel comfortable participating.

Today I began work stations, which is a time when students are working at various tasks in small groups. This will be a critical routine when I need to assess students and when I begin reading groups. One of the stations today was documenting what is happening with our caterpillars. In anticipation of this we read the book ish by Peter H. Reynolds. This is about a boy whose drawings never feel "right" until his sister points out that they don't need to be perfect, they can be treeish, mountainish, or in our case caterpillarish.

Please remember to send in $3.50 for the Flynn.

PLEASE NO MORE BACKOGONS or other toys at school. They are problematic even at snack and recess. Thank you.