Back to School with the Gingerbread Man

 I never thought going back to work after a year maternity leave would be so difficult. I have to admit. I cried myself to sleep the night before I went back to work for our first professional development day. I never thought I would be one of those emotional moms but my baby girl gets to me. The first morning I was trying to get ready to go to work my baby girl kept wrapping herself around my legs.

We started school this past Thursday. I am teaching kindergarten and grade two this year. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to teach grade two. I am lucky to have a fabulous grade two teaching partner that teaches the class Mondays, Wednesdays & Friday while I am teaching kindergarten. Since my teaching partner has been teaching grade two for many years she is an expert and had everything set up for our second graders Thursday.

Isn't this classroom bright, fun and inviting? My teaching partner set up the classroom. She has always had such a fun classroom.

 I love how organized and fun this classroom is. If you were a student wouldn't you love to learn in a classroom like this?

 My teaching partner introduced a fun get to know you skittles game to the class. Each student got to pick two skittles and for each colour there was a different question for them to ask. For example, if a student picked a red skittle then they could tell us their favourite food. The students really seemed to like it.

 This is my "I survived the 1st day of school" face! No matter how long you've been teaching I feel like there's always a reason to celebrate a successful 1st day of school.

Now, on to meeting my kinders on Friday. I had my parents fill out this student information form which you can find in the Let's Get Meet the Parents Ready.

We are so lucky that we have staggered entry for our kinders. This Friday I only had 12 of my kinders and this Wednesday I will have the other 10 kinders come for their first day.

After coming in the classroom and playing with play-doh, we start our morning by making & baking gingerbread man cookies. 

We then go back to the classroom to read The Gingerbread Man. While reading The Gingerbread Man a letter falls out from the gingerbread man. The letter states that we can't catch the gingerbread man.

After reading the letter we then had to go search for our gingerbread men. We searched the gym, library, playground, music room and the office. We finally found our gingerbread man cookies in the principal's office.

 On Friday students drew a self portrait.

 Students also created a gingerbread man hat.

 We had fun creating a gingerbread man craft.

 We ended our day taking a photo for their first day of kindergarten.

All of the first day of school gingerbread man activities can be found here.