We are finally back to school and there are no words to describe the excitement of having little scholars in front of me again, so eager to learn, play, and create!

I am so grateful to my new Americorp friends, Alexia and Ethan, who helped me create book characters to fill the empty seats. When the children arrived, they each got to chose a table with a ’friend’ from a book to sit next to.

This started our first day out great, with so many awesome conversations about books and book characters we love.

And of course we found time to select books just right for each student and began our Independent Daily Reading routine.

We talked about the similarities and differences within all of us and the things that made each of us special. They included their unique traits on special mirror projects based on Macie’s Mirror, and also on their ‘Behind My Mask’ art work.

We also discussed what it means to be a part of a community and separately ( because of social-distancing guidelines) designed different parts of our school community using a variety of building materials. After each part was created they children wrote about their process and what they noticed about each of the structures.

We read Billie and The Magic Bubble, which you may remember from this post, and talked about how important it is to wear our masks and stay in our ‘bubbles.’

It was different, of course, because of the new guidelines and regulations due to COVID19, but it was still a special first day of second grade for all of us in Room 106 and I’m looking forward to learning and growing with my students and colleagues.

I’m also so pleased that both my daughter and son had positive experiences going back to school despite the challenges.

It’s times like these when little things make such a big difference. My favorite moment so far actually didn’t happen on the first day, but rather the second, when a student arrived so excited and told me she couldn’t sleep all night and couldn’t wait to get here because she loves school so much and that second grade is the best. It is! I have the best class and I’m grateful for this new year, and the opportunity to make a difference.

Another favorite moment was on the third day when we were reading the book My Name is Yoon and discussing how the character changed throughout the story. One student got so excited and referred to the book we had read the day before, which was A Little Spot of Confidence. He said, “Yoon got her spot of confidence!” And it was true. The character gained confidence throughout the story. I loved the text to text noticing!

I could go on and on with favorite moments but I really just wanted to make this a quick post and I really hope you are all having lots of favorite special moments of your own whether you are back to face to face teaching , or participating in some sort of virtual learning endeavor.

Thank you so much for visiting the blog today. I hope you found this post worthwhile. I truly appreciate your time and attention.

If you would like to connect further, please feel free to leave me a comment, message, or email and I will get back to you in a timely fashion.

Yours truly,

Jennifer

ps. I do have a few back to school outfits to share and of course, they are all from Shein. Click the links in each caption for details and remember to use my special coupon code (MTFIista) for 15% off.