Mini Day of School and procedures, procedures, procedures

We had a mini day of school today. It was a three hour optional attendance day.  Students came to meet their teachers, see their classrooms, and get a head start on learning procedures. Most of my kids are band new to the school. My kindergarteners are, of course, all new. Most of my first and second graders are new to the school too. This is part of the fun of being part of a new and growing school! I am so excited for the learning we will do this year.

As much as I really wanted to dive into some fun lessons, my principal really wants us to focus solely on procedures this week.  Nobody ever really taught me what to do on the first day with a bunch of new students.  I was surprised to find that it took us a half our and repeated practice throughout the day to learn to form a line at least semi quickly.  Keeping quiet and hands to ourself on the line is our next battle.  Now I understand the importance of teaching every detail of the procedures! Tomorrow we are going to start from the beginning of the day and work our way slowly through achieve procedure. Hopefully we'll get our line straight and quiet so we can go out to the playground.

Besides lining up progress, we had a really great session of learning today.  We learned how to properly use crayons! They kids were so impressed with their brand new crayons and worked really hard to learn to care for the crayons so that they will last a long time.  I'm so proud of my students for being so thoughtful and responsible.  I'm hoping they will do just as well with playdough tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my scattered thoughts after what seemed a long "first" day. Our real first day is tomorrow and its a full day. Thankfully we are starting the specials schedule so I'll have a break in the afternoon. I'd appreciate your tips for beginning of the year activities and lessons.  Here are some photos of my room with my new furniture!