First Week of School

We made it and everyone is in one piece! We got our first week of school and our first week of the new loop is out of the way. During this time we accomplished quite a bit:

• We started discussing our expectations for the new loop,
• We immediately began moving into new routines and schedules,
• As issues came up in class students began the task of taking on classroom jobs,
• We are reviewing math while I'm getting to know your child as a mathematician,
• Students are creating a presentation of things they think I should know about them,
• Students got to meet our new MAT Mrs. Meredith,
• We are getting back into the flow of reading and writing by doing real reading and writing. This helps me get to know them as readers and writers,
• Our Chromebooks are all set up and accounts have been created.

Really, this list is simply about getting procedures down and setting up expectations for the next two year. This is a critical part of the class because it's these expectations that help facilitate the kind of community we want to create for ourselves. 

As next week progresses, we will slowly move into other procedures such as social studies and science. This week we will spend time studying geography before we move into our study of pre-America and Native Americans. We will look at the continents, inching our way towards European and Asian countries, before moving towards South America, the Caribbean, and North America. Since much of our Social Studies involves Native Americans, the Age of Explorations, and the colonization of the Americas, I like students to have a sense of where many of the countries we are discussing are located, or at the very least, have some exposure to countries beyond our borders. I love this part of social studies!