First Day of School! First Day of School!

I always think of Nemo on this special day as I get my own two children up and say them, "It's the first day of school!  It's the first day of school!"  They were so excited!  I bet today will be the easiest time I will have getting them out of bed this school year!
My day with my new Kindergarten kiddos went pretty well.  I am not used to talking so much in one day though!  Lots of procedures and repeating directions today!  I have to remember that it gets better each day!
Here are a few things that we accomplished today:

I give each child a cut out of the first letter in their name.  I ask to see who can name the letter and then I give them a variety of foam sticker shapes to decorate their letter with.  The kids really enjoy it and I send it home with them the first day.
We also did a few activities to go with the book, The Kissing Hand.  It was so busy, I unfortunately did not take pictures of these two activities.  However, you can check out the links below for their sources!
The first activity we did was a card for their parents.  This  card idea was a freebie on the blog, Peace, Love and Learning.  After reading The Kissing Hand, they colored the cover and wrote their name.  I had an aide help each student place a painted handprint on the inside with the poem.  After they dried, they were given a foam heart sticker to place in the palm.  Grab this freebie from the link above and be sure to check out all the other goodies from her fabulous blog!


 To also go along with The Kissing Hand we made these neat headbands.  This idea came from another awesome blog and their great freebie! First Grade Blue Skies offered a wonderful variety of Kissing Hand activities including a fun Chester headband.



 

This little one was making her bears sit in a class and face the teacher.  How sweet! 

Finally, we completed our first lesson with Saxon Math where we explored Teddy Bear counters and writing the number 1.

Well, that is it for today!  I also am looking forward to posting about our Circle of Respect that we use as a behavior management tool in our classroom! 

Hope your day was a good one!  Do you do anything similar with your students at the beginning of the year?  I would LOVE to hear from you!