The First 2 days of kinder

The first day of kindergarten:

I was so happy that ‘Rafael,’ from summer school, was not on my roster! And then yesterday the office notified me I had two more students –and Rafael was one of them! Aaaah! (“What’s your name teacher? What’s your name?”)

He did demonstrate a darn useful skill today: He's is good at catching stray crickets that escape from the frog tank. (With perfect accuracy and no freaking out at the possibility of an insect jumping up his sleeve.)

“Good job Rafael. You can put the cricket in the frog tank, and then you can go and get a sticker!”

(He spent the rest of the day looking for crickets …and spiders…. and rolling around on the carpet…. and hitting people at playtime….)

After recess, I counted to make sure all 19 students were in line before we marched into the classroom.

5 minutes later Stevan walks in.

“Where did you come from, Stevan?”

“I was late from recess.”

(Hmmm… Can I not count to 19? Was there an extra student wandering around my room that I didn’t even notice? What nonsense!)

(Still not counting correctly: on day two, one of the students from next door apparently got in my line and came into my room with all the rest of my students, and settled right down to playing with playdough--which I always have out as a first and calming activity for the first two days, while I checked in all of the folders full of signed papers and called students to put their sleeping towels in their special towel cubbies. When I called clean-up I noticed (finally!) one too many students. Hmmm ... Did I count him at recess time yesterday?)

“No David” is still the popular book in kindergarten. They didn’t go CRAZY over it like last year’s class—but as soon as I had finished reading it, they called for it again, as well as the other David stories. If you’ve got 4 and 5-yr-olds, try David Shannon’s ‘NO, David’. (Click to see the great/zany illustrations. Turn the volume off.) I called my daughter today to see how she did on her first day of teaching a ‘first day’ of kinder, and she said she and her class thought the book (no david) was boring. (How is that even possible?!—the vibrant colors and sharp teeth had me right from the cover!)