The *First* First Day.

When a Kindergarten student comes to school on their first day, it is a huge milestone. There are so many experiences that they will have, (on that day alone!) which they have never had before. The first time they walk down the hallway with their class - it wasn't a line, but we were in a group at least! - the first time they hang their backpack up in their very own locker, the first time they order milk, their first recess on the playground! The list goes on, and on. You get the idea.

This being my first Kindergarten gig, it was very cool to be a part of all of this. When I went outside into the sunshine to greet my littles in the morning, I was also greeted by many, many bigs! How adorable to watch so many parents and grandparents sending their tiny loved one(s) off the school for the first time. There were some tears (from the parents), and a lot of photo taking. It was a lovely way to begin the day.

Now I was aware that the day was going to be a little hectic, but I had not quite braced myself for how quickly the time would fly, and how very little we would manage to get done! It is easy to forget that so many of these little beans have never even been in a setting with a large group of their peers, let alone have to follow specific instructions, eat their snack in ONLY 20 minutes, have their outside activity time determined by a bell... once again, the list goes on! It is going to take some time, some slowing down and some practice, and I'm excited for the challenge. There are a few things I would have done differently, had I the opportunity for a do-over on the first day, but for the most part, we had a great time.

We started out the day with "The Kissing Hand," by Audrey Penn, and talked about how we might be missing our families a little bit. Then we made our own "kissing hands" to go along with a cute poem to take home, to let our loved ones know we were thinking of them while we were at school.

Painting our hands to make a hand print.

We glued a small heart in the middle of the palm
of the hand to represent a kiss.

 This was a great activity. If you click here you can download it for free!

We also did a few things to put in our portfolios that we will do again at the end of the year to see our growth. One of those jobs was to draw a picture of ourself on the first day of Kindergarten! We talked a lot about how in real life, our arms and legs do not come straight out of our heads (although a few pictures still portrayed that, which was okay too!) and we had some really great results.

And what is a day in Kindergarten without a brain break dance party? The kids loved getting their groove on to a few "Go Noodle" videos. Go Noodle is an awesome resource for anyone who wants to get kids moving in a fun engaging way!

A highlight of the day was the giant spider that visited our classroom, too! And by highlight, I mean the most terrifying moment of my life to date? This spider. One of the kids went home and told his mom that it was as big as his hand, and that was hardly an exaggeration. Luckily, I managed to hold my wits together enough to scoot the spider into a paper cup with a paper plate (and quickly put a mason jar on top of as a weight). and we took it outside to release it at recess.

Gross.
This photo hardly does the size of this guy justice.

All in all, reflecting back, we truly had a fabulous first, first day. I am sure that our first second day will be even better. Maybe even a little less crazy. But probably not.

And just because I thought it was fitting, here is a photo of a double rainbow that appeared at the end of our day.