after the fact.

I posted so few pictures from school this year. I took more pictures than ever (thank you, classroom digital camera!) but posted hardly any of them here. 

This may have been my most stressful year of teaching. Ever. Even more stressful than my first year. (No kids and house then. Just Corey and the cats in our little apartment.) 

It wasn't stressful because of the kids. The kids were great. Just so many changes. Nothing was familiar this year.

But I survived the year. I found my groove and figured out how to adapt a new curriculum to fit my beliefs about 1st graders. And every single one of these 22 kiddos can read, write, add and subtract.

And we had a lot of fun learning to read and write and add and subtract. So just so I can remember some of the fun... and remember these sweet faces who hugged me and drew pictures for me and told me they loved me... It's kind of like my first group of first graders, all over again. 

Making necklaces for 100's Day... (back in January!)

I read this super cute book and then we make and eat 100 pancakes! So much fun. (The giant ketchup bottle filled with pancake batter? Easiest way ever to make baby cakes.)

It usually works out to 4 or 5 per kid and we eat them with a squirt of whipped cream on top. So fun. =) 

They each brought a collection of 100 things...

3rd, 4th and 5th graders all came to the gym and toured around, seeing all the K, 1 and 2 collections...

2nd grade made vests, decorated with 100 of something...

Science. I think we were separating rocks, pebbles, gravel and sand...

Reviewing shapes with cute little penguins...

Fractions! They each started by glueing down 4 yellow circles. Then we glued the red fraction pieces on top. We discussed and labeled and showed how you could glue the red piece anywhere on the circle and it still showed the same fraction. It was fun and hands-on and concrete for them. I love lessons like that.

We practiced our transition words, writing books about how we brush our teeth. The pages are actually stapled onto construction paper cut to look like a toothbrush...

I had 1 or 2 equations on their desks some mornings when they would come in. All they had to do was put it in the correct column as they did their morning jobs. We also did some that were greater than, less than or equal to. They loved it and it was so easy.

Too many pictures for one post. More to come...