Workin' for the weekend

Well, y'all, I've officially completed my first full week of teaching!  What an exciting, but exhausting week it was . . . I came home Friday night and think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow at about eight o'clock!  After a three-day first week of school, five days was quite a transition--for my students and for me :)  (I bet some of you reading this may be thinking, "welcome to the real world, Allie, this is how it works!"  I know, I know, working people go to their jobs five days a week, but I'm new at this, and need some adjustment to five 10-to-12-hour work days in a row!)

Some neat things from Friday and the week in general:

Fresh produce
The elementary school that I work at is part of a fresh produce initiative; we were awarded a grant this year to introduce our children to healthier lifestyles, not only through exercise, but through the food they eat.  As part of this, two to three days a week, fresh produce is brought to our school and distributed to every child.  You heard me--very child!  It.Is.Awesome.

This past week was a national health awareness-type week, so as part of that, the kids got to try a new fresh fruit or vegetable every day!  This program is awesome--check out what my kiddos got to entertain their palates with:

Monday we tried blueberries . . .

. . . peaches on Tuesday (they were really sweet!).

On Wednesday we had cherry tomatoes and ranch dressing.

Fresh strawberries on Thursday!

And Friday was fig day!

 The tomatoes and ranch were the biggest surprise to me--I think I only had four children take a taste and decide they didn't want them!  And as for figs on Friday, I'm at least a decade and half older than all my kiddos, and it was my first time trying a fig!  Kind of tart, but tasty--and a really pretty fruit!

We also read the book "Yoko," by Rosemary Wells, as a class to understand that we should at least try this fresh produce, even if we don't think we're going to like it.  The book is about a cat who brings in sushi for lunch and her classmates make fun of her and tell her it's gross; this leads the teacher to have an international food day with the class, so all the students can try food from one another's cultures.  The class tries all different food, and most decide that the sushi is pretty delicious!  We related this to making sure we all taste each fruit or vegetable, and then decide if it is something that we like or don't like.

I feel so lucky that my kiddos are part of this initiative, and can't wait to see all the fruits and veggies they are introduced to this year!


Braggin' on the 5th graders!
I was walking down the 5th grade hallway this week, and couldn't help smiling when I saw what one class had created!  Check this out:

Hanging in the hallway are these 5th graders' "classbook" pages--the "social network of room 311."  How creative and relevant is that?!?  The students each wrote a little bit about themselves to "connect" to each other, and their teacher did an awesome job with the templates.  I just felt like I needed to brag on what some other people were doing :)




I'm so excited for this coming week, where I will really have the opportunity to jump into things with my students--I've been completing all of my beginning-of-the-year assessments in literacy and math, and while it's been great to see where my students are starting the year, it's taken a lot of time.  That being said, with all official beginning-of-the-year assessments out of the way, tomorrow will kind of be like another Day 1!


Whew--let me tell you, I don't think I've completely understood the words "sleep" and "weekend" until the past couple of weeks!  The two words work hand-in-hand, and are both blissful states of relaxation.  Here's to trying to enjoy the rest of the weekend before kicking off week three tomorrow!

Weekend love from Room 106,
Allie