We have had a fantastic first week of school! Getting a school year under way takes an enormous amount of patience and perseverance on the part of students, with a lot of time spent listening and learning new routines. I am always amazed at how quickly children internalize these routines as they adapt to the flow of our days. A few of the things we have done this week include:

• practiced walking safely in a line as we move through the school 
• learned how to use classroom materials including pencils, markers, scissors, and glue sticks
• learned about reading books to ourselves by looking at the pictures and telling the story
• explored materials that we will use during math
• learned about expectations for using the playground safely
• learned about options for choice time in the classroom
• learned how to connect a color to how we are feeling in a given moment and talked about how this can change throughout the day
• watched a collection of caterpillars eat and grow, including several caterpillars that we found in the middle of the playground (we started wtih 6 and now have 13!)

We will continue to practice all of our routines in the coming weeks and learn a few more as well!