Mrs. KillKelley's Class Blog: The First Week of School

My Philosophy

I believe it is important to create a community where all learners feel safe, respected and have a sense of belonging. It is important to focus equally on the social, emotional and academic needs of students. I strive to meet children where they're at by differentiating instruction, choosing developmentally appropriate activities and providing a balance between teacher-directed and self-directed learning. I value play, the arts, movement, creativity and laughter as important and meaningful parts of the learning process for children.

Friday, September 2, 2011

The First Week of School

We had a fantastic first week back to school! We have spent the past three days doing team building activities and getting to know our new friends Griffin and Mira. We created our Hopes and Dreams for second grade and made self portraits. Today Jordan and Sam's Moms came in and worked with us in the gardens. A big thank you to them for giving us that opportunity today. We also spent some time looking at Tia's Sailing Blog and posted a comment to her. I am shocked by how much everyone grew over the summer! It has been so nice to settle in with the same group of students for a second year.

Next week we will start to ease into our regular schedule. Firefly has the Red Clover books for the month of September so we will spend September reading them and using them to launch our Readers and Writers Workshops. The new titles for this year can be found on Shelfari on this blog. This year's books are terrific!

We have started the school year without our wonderful Miss Claire. She broker her ankle in three places last Friday and will be having surgery next Friday. We are hopeful that she will be back in December, but it may be January before she is able to return to work.