First Day

I found the first day to be very stressful. I had some boys that I hadn't taught before join in. I found them to be very active. The other problem is knowing where to begin. It sounds like it should be simple but I can't begin at the beginning with kids that are in grade 3.. All of the children had the first 3 books to learn over the past month. Some did a great job and others have hardly looked at it. I am trying to review the first 3 books at the same time as go ahead with lesson one. The games that I used for review were,1. I hid an object in a bucket that started with the letter a. the kids had to guess what it was. 2.I also had a lot of objects that started with letters a-e - I played the game of take away one and guess what it is. It was very challenging day. I guess it boils down to- the ones that have great parental support will do better. One boy is quite far behind and I am going to volunteer to work with him for a couple of hours on a Friday by himself to bring him up to speed.
Anyway, I went ahead with lesson one- sitting clowns. I made a die from two kraft dinner boxes that I cut down to have 6 equal sides. I then wrote a,e,i,o, and u on each side. The children took turns throwing the die and then saying the sitting clown song. It was very successful. I also had the kids paint a long tube (the inside from plastic laminate) so that they will have their own personalized baton for singing the clown song.
I find myself being more organized that I should be at time. I put away all the props that I had used in the quessing games and then I realized that I would need them again the next day.
I hung my white board on the wall and then put velcro on the edges to stick a marker and eraser to it. I am finding one of the tricks it to be very orgnized and have stuff at your fingertips. Anytime, you are looking for something or hesitating for a minute - that is when they get out of control