The first day of school triggers lots of emotions, both excitement and fears. The first day of school triggers lots of questions: Who is my teacher? What will my classroom be like? Who are the students in my class? Will I make friends? Will I have a lot of homework? Is my teacher nice? So here is the rundown.
McKayla started 7th grade. She has seven different classes: Pre-Algebra, Language Arts, Humanities, Science, PE, French, and AVID. AVID is a program that is meant to be a college prep class. They teach note taking, outlining, following directions, test prep, and all sorts of things that give tools for success. I figured that I would rather McKayla learn these things early rather than on her own in HS or even college. The AVID teacher is awesome. They get to go on a bunch of field trips and participate in service opportunities and leadership. It is kind of like being on student council, but with a strong academic purpose. McKayla is excited about this year. She has a great group of friends to eat lunch with and talk. She had great success in 6th so we know she will do well this year too.
Madison started 5th grade. She is now in the "rule the school" grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Reddy and she is very happy. Mrs. Reddy is from North Carolina and has a soft southern accent. Madison loves it and is desperately trying to pick it up. She does not have any of her best friends in her class, but that is okay because she has the cutest boy in the school in her class and she is determined to snag him. Madison usually gets the boy she sets her sights on.
Monterey starting big tots. It is actually Tiny Tots, but they divide up big tots and little tots according to who will start Kinder in one year and who starts in two years. She is very proud to be in the older class this year, because she knows that she is one year behind her sister. Her teachers are Miss Tamara and Miss Marion. She is thrilled to have them because she had them last year and adores them. She has a few old friends in her class as well.
At the end of the day, she was zonked. Sorry about the awkward angle, but I was driving at the time, but still wanted to capture the exhaustion with her clutching her fruit loop name.
Maya started Kinder. This was the BIG one this year. Last year I had to cry over my baby starting middle school. This year Maya had the lion's share of the tears shed by me. Her teacher is Mrs. McIntyre. She is very nice and everyday this week has sent the kids home with a different treat:
Hershey Hugs to help them get over the separation anxiety,
peanuts to say "I'm nuts about you"
starburst because they
are stars and
smarties because of all the wonderful things they are going to learn this year. (Sorry about the blurry pics, I need to read the instruction manual about blurry pics.)
Here is Maya having a little trepidation about walking in the classroom. I love her in her uniform and her cool Camp Rock backpack. They first day, the parents spent the whole day with them. We did a scavenger hunt to learn about the different features in the classroom and we did different activities as we went.
Here she is listening to the instructions. Along with the other activities shown here, we had to make her hand prints, she had to write her name, we had to weigh her and measure her height, we had to find the potty and sink, and we had to find her cubby.
Here she is building her family in unifix cubes. The white one is Maya and had her name on it. The red one was for her daddy. The blue one was for her mommy. Green represented brothers, orange was for sisters and brown for pets. During the week, they reviewed each child's family.
Maya loved the computer center. She played the
Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom game and loved not having to fight with three sisters and a mom and dad for her 'puter time.