They're Finally Here! Our First Week of School

They're finally here! My brand new class of 

second graders! I've been waiting....

and waiting...and WAITING for them to arrive!

And they finally did!  Here's a little recap of

all of our first week fun!

We read the MOST precious and perfect first day book,

You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt, author of the 

lovable little Scaredy Squirrel.  This little bunny of a book 

character is waiting and waiting for his readers to arrive. 

 I convinced my class that, I too, I've been waiting...

and waiting.... and WAITING for them to arrive!

We'll used this book all week for my class to explain 

what took them so long to get to my class, get to know 

each other,get up and get moving, play games, give opinions, 

do some writing, and of course, have fun!

On meet the teacher night, as my new students approached

our classroom, they were greeted with this....

And a note on their desk after a big hug from me!

Our first day of school finally arrived! We read our book 

the very first thing, before anything else....

Then I asked, "What took you so long?"

I made a big fuss over how LONG I'd been waiting and 

how happy I was that they were finally here! I have to admit 

they had some pretty good reasons to keep me waiting!

As a getting to know you activity after reading the book my 

new friends turned to a neighbor and explained what took 

them so long to get to my class! Then we made these 

little books for them to write about all the things they 

had to do before they could come to second grade. 

Later that day we played The Bored Game so my class 

could connect, share stories, laugh and roll their eyes together, 

and find things they had in common.

Their responses were priceless!

Before dismissal we wrote about our day. 

I wanted to check on everybody and give them a little outlet 

to express their relief or concerns and to generally get a sense

of how they were doing.  I make a copy of these to save as

a beginning of the year writing sample, too.

The next day we talked about all the things my students wanted 

to learn and do now that they were in second grade. 

We made this character craft and wrote about some 

of our goals for the year. 

Oh, the allure of the easy button! 

 My class had a lot of fun with those eyebrows! 

We had a whole conversation about placing the

eyebrows to show different emotions.

I used our bulletin board as a backdrop to take 

first day pictures then later in the week to display our writing.

On Wednesday we got out our brand new writing journals!

Our new friend the book character bunny scolded us 

and said how unfair it was for his readers to keep him waiting. 

"As unfair as having to go to bed when you're not tired!"

So to introduce our journal routine I gave them this prompt.

So that I could get to know everyone a little better we did this...

On Thursday, we got up and got moving with a How Long? hop!

I just love all the time idioms in this book!

We worked with a partner to roam the room and answer some 

time related questions!

How long does it take to find a needle in a haystack?

How long does it take paint to dry?

On Friday after a fun-filled first week, I hung our book character 

bunnies and sent everyone home with these keepsake cards!

You can see last year's You're Finally Here! fun with 

even more activities and additional bulletin board ideas!

Find all of these activities, as well as the book,

You're Finally Here! by clicking on the pictures below.

Find the book at IndigoBooks.com

If you haven't already, you'll completely 

fall in love with this book after watching this

adorable book trailer by Jennifer Johnson!

Don't have time to find the book? Read it online!

You're Finally Here! read by Arwen Sharp 

is available on YouTube.

Ready or not, here they come!  

Have a fantastic first week my friends!