Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Back to School: Second Grade & Kindergarten

Jackson and Avery went back to school on Thursday, August 15th. Jackson started 2nd Grade and Avery started Kindergarten!!! I can't even believe it. 

Two nights before school started, they had their "Meet the Teacher" night. Jackson ended up getting the teacher he was hoping for, Mrs. Burns, and we were so excited. He also has several friends in his class this year so that always makes it more fun.
 

They did Kindergarten a little bit differently this year. They called it "Switcheroo" and basically what they did was, for the first 7 days of school, Avery had a homeroom class that she started out in each day, but throughout the day they switched up the kids into different classrooms with different teachers and different friends to see how everyone would fit best in what class. It's a way to place the child where they think they'd best succeed. It worked out well I thought and Avery seemed to adjust great! This is something they do in a few other districts in our area and it's been working well for them. So for the "meet the teacher" night for Avery, she was able to meet all 5 of the Kindergarten teachers and check out all of their classrooms. Avery's home room teacher during "switcheroo" was Mrs. Turner, who is a new teacher to our school this year. She's from Georgia and has been teaching Kindergarten for a few years there and then moved here over the Summer.


 The night before school, we went through the nighttime routine with baths/showers, packing lunches, storytime and prayers for a great first day of school. They each had a special book to read to get them ready for the next day. :-)


 The next morning I had a special little breakfast for them. They love cinnamon rolls so I made them those and decorated the table for their first day of school. 


 Then we got ready for school and headed down to the bus stop.

(Avery's first day of school outfit was from Orange Poppy Boutique and I found Jackson's second grade shirt on Amazon here.)





Jackson and Avery in the bus line with their best buddies Andy and Ellie.



Avery was SO excited to ride the bus for the first time. She's been wanting to ride the bus with Jackson, Andy and Ellie for so long and was so excited to finally get to. The first thing she said that morning was, "I finally get to ride the bus for the first time!"


Once they were off on the bus, I did a couple things around the house and then met them up at school to walk them to their classrooms on the first day. I did the same thing on Jackson's first day of Kindergarten. :-)


Avery can't sit next to Ellie on the bus because you have to sit according to grades and Ellie is a grade above Avery, but as soon as they got off the bus, they gave each other a big hug like they hadn't seen each other in weeks. It was too cute!

 Ellie and Avery walking to their classrooms.

 After getting to school and getting to her classroom, each child had play-doh at their spot. :-) Avery LOVES play-doh so she was excited. She did so well on her first day and didn't seem nervous at all.

Both kids had a great first full week of school last week! Here's a couple pictures from school throughout the week.


Then last Friday, each of the kindergartners had a piece of paper in their take home binders saying which teacher they were placed with for the year and they had scratch-offs to reveal pictures of all the friends that would be in their class with them. It was so much fun to scratch off each picture. Avery ended up getting her home-room teacher Mrs. Turner and she was SO excited about this because she really liked her for those first 7 days. So yesterday was kind of like Avery's real first day of Kindergarten and they allowed us to walk the kids to their classrooms that day to take pictures with their teachers, etc. Here's Avery with her teacher Mrs. Turner.