Our First Week Together

What an amazing week we've had here on team Wizards!  It's been a very full week.  Students participated in a variety of activities to help them build connections with their new classmates.  We also introduced and practiced new routines and expectations.  After several read alouds, we discussed what traits will help us to be the best team we can be.  These traits included being open to meeting people, getting to know them, and potentially making new friends.  Another important trait we discussed is flexibility.  We know that there will be many situations each day that will go much smoother when we all can be flexible.  All in all your students really shined this week.  When it comes to our expectations and routines they are fast learners and we have been impressed by how quickly they have caught on.  On top of all this learning, we had a lot of fun together and are looking forward to a great year ahead.  

Learning Expectations and Routines

"Mindy" a Wizard "alumni" came to help model various expectations.

 

Lining up after recess - we learned about the daily competition

Creating an acrostic about the expectations in our cafeteria

We learned about the routines and expectations in our cafeteria from our administrators

Getting to Know Each Other

We spent this week together as a whole team.  

Both Homerooms had Morning Meetings together each day.

The wall between our classrooms stayed open while we completed projects and activities. 

We enjoyed team snack/recess by playing soccer, four square, basketball, and basking in the sunshine. 

We worked on developing our values about how we will work together over the next two years.

We listened to the books Enemy Pie and Chester's Way and did activities and held discussions to consider how the themes in these stories apply to how we can better work together as a team. 

Students came up with their own ideas about the theme of Enemy Pie and then met with teammates to hear their thoughts about the meaning of the story. 

We played "Martian from Mars" on the first day of school during team recess which is historically a Wizard's favorite. 



Our reading and math interventionists came to introduce themselves and began getting to know the kids.  We played "Cringe or Slay" and Human Bingo. Their energy was high as they tried to get blackout on their bingo boards but LOTS of connections were made! The first two people to finish their boards got Ms. Anderman's famous prize...a number 2 pencil. 😄 

 

On Friday we watched Inside Out and had popcorn. We spend a lot of time teaching the kids social-emotional learning including self-awareness and self-regulation. This movie provides the framework for these lessons. We will revisit the theme in this movie throughout the year. Next week the kids will create their own islands of personality to share what matters to them and makes them who they are.