Basking in the Glory of Bucket-filling

Not to count our eggs before they hatch, but SERIOUSLY, we have done it. We couldn't have asked for a better first day. Our kids are great, our parents are great, our team is great, our classroom is great. 


Everyone arrived on time and excited for their first day of school. We broke the ice with some intros and free play time (I think I introduced myself about thirty times in ten minutes, and most of them still don't remember our names - oh well) and then made our way to our breakfast tables. We didn't have a SINGLE meltdown when parents left - I think because of a combination of their excitement and our (distracting) enthusiasm in getting each kid involved in the classroom from the moment he or she walked in. 


We all found a spot in the circle - and identified our places by colors and shapes on the rug - and Miss Felicia began with a good morning song: "Who came to school this morning? [child's name], stand up, jump up and down, turn around, touch the ground, now you may sit back down!" About half the kids got up and danced with varying levels of interest - a few waited for the second go-around of the song to stand up. We went through a calendar lesson - we learned that today was the 2nd day of the month of July and that it was a Monday (and we added those words to our word wall) - and a weather lesson (it was partly cloudy). Then, we read "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?"


We learned that everyone in the world has an invisible bucket, and we are all happy when our buckets are full but sad and lonely when they are empty. And we can't fill up our own buckets - we have to fill the buckets of our friends and family members by doing kind things for them. In our classroom, when we see one of our friends being a bucket-filler, we will put a rock in his or her bucket to remind the whole class of how important it is to fill our friends' buckets. And, we realized, it makes us feel good to be bucket-fillers!


And then we all wept at how incredibly precious all of our little bucket-filling people are. Okay, not quite, but it was seriously moving. 


After circle time we played outside - almost everyone tried the monkey bars and many of us practiced writing our names (a Kickstart goal) and drawing pictures with chalk. Miss Taylor witnessed some fantastic bucket-filling when six of our friends did a great job taking turns and sharing the few available swings. When we walked through the hall and to the playground, we practiced walking in a line.


We had a quick tour of the classroom, and then we talked about planning and making choices for center time. We thought long and hard about our choices for centers - reading and writing, dramatic play, stamping, blocks, and bucket-decorating with Miss Julia. Everyone got to try EVERYTHING. 


Finally, it was lunch time - each child had chicken strips, a whole wheat wrap, lettuce, and an orange (something tells me we have Monica to thank for this impressively nutritious meal). Everyone did a great job cleaning up, and then - realizing that we were all exhausted - we each found a cot and a book for quiet time. A few kids read quietly, a few completely passed out for almost the whole 45 minutes.


After we rested, our visitor Sam led us through a fun song and dance workshop (photos to come, courtesy of Andy). Unfortunately, our afternoon playground time was cut (really, really) short due to a surprise thunderstorm, but we returned to our centers back in the classroom until everyone was picked up.




Small victories of the first day:

• A, who had been pulled out of her previous preschool program because she was unchallenged and her creativity was being stifled, participated in almost every activity with a smile. Apparently she's a gifted painter and a soon-to-be fabulous reader. One of the best things about our program is that we have the intuition, flexibility, and availability to discover each child's needs and provide the intellectual and creative opportunities that that child needs to grow. If A is ready to read - and she is - she's gonna read. 
• When we were playing with chalk this morning, M couldn't identify the first letter of her name, though she recited the ABCs beautifully. By the end of center time, not only could she recognize the four letters of her name, but she knew the correct order of letters - and wrote it! She was incredibly proud to show her family her writing practice sheet at the end of the day. 
• L and L built a magnificent tower together, and then knocked it over with J's help. And then they all rebuilt it. 
• K read Green Eggs and Ham to me. Enough said. 

From the bottom of my heart, I can't wait until tomorrow morning.