I'm going to make it through at least one week of frequent blog posts before the year carries me away! Here is a quick peek out our first week in Rm 124! First of all, my kiddos were great! That being said, I am still exhausted at the end of ever day and repeated my directions more times than I can count. Oi vey! Can it be October already?! However, for it being the first four days of school, these kids were troopers! We did a lot of "back to school" activities and not surprisingly, I over-planned- hoping to fit in all the fun back to school lessons, games, and books that I found. I still think we got through quite a bit though! In no specific order, here's a few Peeks at Last Week :) We read some of my favorite back to school books including First Day Jitters and My Mouth is a Volcano. No first day would be complete without making Jitter Juice from Abby Mullins Super in Second pack! We didn't waste any time getting started on writing! The kiddos worked hard on some hot air balloon writing craftivities (which I will post pictures of when we finish them up next week!) that focused on goal setting in second grade. We also did a quick writing piece on Thursday called "Full of Smiles after my First Week." We talked about synonyms for "great" and the kiddos came up with a TON to describe their first week. Okay, it's confession time. I had planned on doing a balloon launch at the end of the week to tie into our hot air balloon writing, but environmental concerns got in my way! So, I had already set my heart on having 19 balloons in my classroom on Friday, so I had to get creative quick. Hence, the quick writing piece at the end of the week to justify me getting the kids THESE: It actually worked out great because the kids did MORE writing than I planned. Here's two of them! If you want the writing paper that I used, you can grab it {HERE} This is the first year that I am planning on doing Bucket Fillers with my kiddos. We read the book and did a BUNCH of activities from Ashley Reed's Bucker Filler Brigade Pack. We did this little group sort from Ashley's pack to compare the actions of Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers. There were so many great activities in this pack that really helped my kiddos get an understanding of bucket fillers. I think it is also going to help them explain how they are feeling. I already had some kiddos talking about what "empties their bucket" and how their bucket was "overflowing" after their first week in second grade! How cute are they!? We were up to all sorts of other things from gummi bear math to review some first grade concepts, to exploring math tools with Amy Lemons "Let's Get Started" Beginning of the Year Math Activities. I need to be better about taking pictures of what we do! I'm out of practice! If you have started school, I hope your first week was great! Thank goodness for a four-day weekend to help me recover. I even had some time to work on clipart- I didn't realize how much I had missed being able to doodle since the crazy start of school! Don't forget to snatch up my Limited Edition Clipart Set: Bright KIDS, Scribbles and Elements- available for 1 week only!