Be a bucket filler!

To begin the week, we talked about ways in which we could be Bucket Fillers. The concept of being a Bucket Filler is based on the book "Have You Filled A Bucket Today? (A Guide to Daily Happiness For Kids)" by Carol McCloud. The main idea of the book is this...

We all carry an invisible bucket that contains our feelings. When our bucket is full, we feel great! When our bucket is empty, we feel sad. A bucket filler is someone who says or does nice things for other people. By doing this, they are filling other people's buckets and filling their own bucket at the same time, since making other people feel good makes them feel good.

On the other hand, a bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things.

We created a list of ways in which we could fill others' buckets. The students had many fantastic ideas to add to our list, which will be posted in our room throughout the year. One quote that made me smile was, "If you're playing hide and seek, even if someone is in the worst hiding spot, you could still tell them good job so they don't feel bad."

Our first days of first grade!

What an exciting first two days of school we've had this week! We toured the school, learned about our new classmates and teacher, practiced some of our first grade routines, and wrote about a favorite summer memory. Perhaps our biggest success this week was enjoying our first lunch at Dryden! Having lunch at school for the first time always makes first graders nervous, but everything seemed to go smoothly, and the students seem much more confident in the lunch process now. I will continue to accompany the students through the lunch process this week as needed, so if your child is thinking about trying school lunch, encourage them to try it out this week while there is still a great deal of teacher support. I am looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

Goodbye Butterflies!

Last week we released our butterflies in the courtyard garden. Most of them were eager to spread their wings and explore their new habitat, but a few needed a little encouragement. The children were able to see some of the butterfly body parts more clearly as they landed on flowers and explored the garden. (You will notice in the photos we have our hands outstretched hoping that a butterfly might land on one!) We are now very excited anytime we spot a painted lady butterfly when we are outside, and wonder if it could be one of ours!

Royal Reader!

Our final Royal Reader visited us with a spirited reading of "Let's Go White Sox!" It was evident who in our class cheers for the White Sox and who the Cubs fans were! Thank you for coming in to read to us!

A Royal Reader Birthday Surprise!

One birthday girl in our class got a wonderful surprise when her mom arrived as a Royal Reader! She read (very appropriately) "But I Wanted a Baby Brother!" and "The Secret Birthday Message". Thank you for coming in to read to us!

Royal Reader!

Our next Royal Reader surprised us with a funny favorite, "Scaredy Squirrel". The children enjoyed this humorous story and shared many stories of their own!! Thank you for coming in to read to us!

Royal Readers!

Wow, I cannot believe we are nearing the end of the year so quickly! I apologize for my absence on the blog... I have been playing catch up and just remembered I have not updated the blog in a while. My apologies!! We were visited in the last couple of weeks by several Royal Readers- the first was an aunt who was visiting town and dropped in to surprise her nephew as a Royal Reader! She even got into character as she read us the book, "Strega Nona". Thank you for visiting our class!