My First Day in Pre-K

Well, day one is in the books! And, I have to say, I am really happy about how it went! You know how you always have a picture in your head of how you think things are going to go on the first day? Well, I had a picture in my head of how I wanted things to go, but really had no idea how I thought things would actually go since this is my first year in pre-k. But, the really cool thing is that in my morning class, which is pre-k 4, everything went EXACTLY as I hoped it would! My kiddos were great, we rocked right through everything I had planned in the time I thought it would take, I got to spend a lot of time talking with my kiddos to learn a little about them, and we actually dismissed on time! I had SO much fun! We read, we sang, we played, we shared. I couldn't have asked for a better first day!

Now, my pre-k 3 class in the afternoon was still good, but not quite as close to the Utopia I had created in my head! I was hoping for a wonderful, drama free, tear free afternoon. But, I had really built myself up to expect the worst. Lots of people had told me how I would need to get any extra person I could find in the school to be in my room to help me with criers and runners. But, there were no extra hands available, so it was just my TA and me. I was terrified that we were going to have a ton of crying darlings and not have enough arms and laps to soothe them. Well...we only had two that cried!! One stopped pretty quickly after I picked her up and held her for a little bit. But the other...ummm...let's just say her vocal cords are probably REALLY worn out tonight! Before dad left, she was fine. Extremely shy, but fine. But when dad was ready to go, and she wasn't ready for him to leave, I had to scoop her up so he could get out the door. That's when it started... Blood curdling screams for the next hour! I felt so bad for the poor baby! Nothing we tried helped. All she wanted to do was to bolt out the door. So my TA and I took turns blocking the door and trying to calm her down. Finally the poor thing had worn herself out so much from screaming and pounding on the door, that she laid down and fell asleep!! Now, I may be new to pre-k, but I am NOT stupid! We just let her sleep! We woke her up when it was time to go home!!

Once she was asleep, the rest of the afternoon went really well! My kiddos are just adorable! I kept catching myself just smiling and giggling at the things they would say and do! Everyone says that at some point I will get past the "cute" factor, but I don't think I ever will!

So...what did we actually do today? We met Llama Llama to start our day. We read "Llama Llama Red Pajama,  and I brought out my stuffed Llama Llama. We read "If You Take a Mouse to School," and I brought out my stuffed mouse. At the end of the day, we read "Llama Llama Misses Mama." But, I made sure not to read this one until it was time for mamas to come back! We sang "Tooty Ta," "Five Little Monkeys," and "The Alligator Chant." We read "Apple Happy" We learned about and played with things from our math & science center and reading center. And, in pre-k 3, we played with bubbles, which was the favorite activity of the day! If you want to take a look at the books we read today, just click on the links below!

I am so glad today is done! And, I'm even more glad today went so well! I am super excited to see what tomorrow holds! I know I will probably have the same screamer in my pre-k 3, but I am ready for it! I have a feeling this is going to be a GREAT year!!