Josiah started Kindergarten just a couple weeks ago! It's amazing watching him walk down the hallways of the school where I've been teaching since he was born. He and Rachel have run down the hallways and played in my classroom, but this time he is actually there as a student! The transition has definitely been a bit difficult but overall he has had a great first couple weeks of Kindergarten! The first week, he came for "staggered entry" where he came for a day of assessments and adjustment with a smaller group of kids. He had a good time, but since there were two of us Track 1 teachers working together, his teacher and myself, he had a little difficulty separating from me. He wanted "Mommy" quite a bit. All in all, he made some friends and had a great time! He even had a blast playing in my classroom that afternoon by himself (while I was working around the classroom), which is what he's been used to at my school and had probably been looking forward to all day!
Reading a story with Mrs. Julie Arellano on staggered entry day (in my classroom)!
Coloring with friends!
Mrs. Kerri Sauer making Josiah smile for a picture! :)
Lunchtime!!! The cafeteria looks empty because it was staggered entry day. It's actually pretty full on a regular school day now.
Centers (math center)
A favorite past time after school in my classroom - drawing on the white board!
That Friday was Josiah's first "real" day of Kindergarten in Ms. Lisa Wilson's class! He was definitely nervous that morning (he was hungry, then not hungry, then his tummy hurt, and he did NOT want to be in any pictures as you can probably tell by his picture above with Rachel and Peyton). Rachel, on the other hand, couldn't wait to go to Kindergarten! She was definitely sad when she realized that I was taking her to preschool instead of to "Mommy's class", as she puts it. Her teacher, Ms. Joanna, is amazing, though, and made her feel better. And it helped that she had "Tumblebus" (what her shirt is for), her gymnastics/tumbling class at school, that day. Josiah finally did eat his breakfast in my classroom, which has become a preferred place for breakfast for him. I think he likes the peace of my classroom with just him and me... he also enjoys it when Hannah Arellano (first grader, daughter of Julie Arellano, the TA in my class) shows up and they can play before the day starts! His day got better when I took him in Ms. Wilson's room. He remembered some of the kids that had been in his staggered entry group and he liked being able to see Mommy every so often. Josiah would get a little sad occasionally when seeing me because he wanted to come to me and knew he couldn't get out of line or leave his seat, but it was nothing that a hug couldn't fix!
Josiah enjoyed sitting with a friend he made at staggered entry. It made the transition easier for me to leave the room without him being sad (although I was still sad).
Josiah and his teachers, Ms. Wilson (right) and Mrs. Sauer (left)... right before Ms. Wilson, my dear friend, kicked me out and told me to get back to work teaching my own class!!! ;) She knew that Josiah would be much better without me hanging around! I did have to keep myself in check because I wanted to peek in on him and see how he was doing throughout the day. My class did keep me busy, so I didn't have too much time to go next door. That will be a good thing for me this year (to stay busy)! It still seems so surreal, and makes me sentimental, sometimes to watch him with the other Kindergartners and know that he's really here!
Josiah loves his teacher, Ms. Wilson! All smiles by the end of the day!
So with Josiah making big steps in his life, Rachel is wanting to take big steps too! She copies everything Josiah does (hence the backpack in the earlier picture) and despite still being a month and a half away from being 3, she has moved up to the 3-year-old class at school! She's fully potty-trained and wants to do everything herself... including painting her toenails!!! As a treat one day, I painted her nails with some little girl glitter nail polish I found and she loved it! Of course, she wanted to do that by herself too and got quite a bit on her fingers and toes (more so than the actual nails), but we had some great girl time!
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