One week down

As I reflect on the first week of a new school year, the first thought that comes to mind is, It's only been a week?!  From what I've heard, I think it's safe to say all the teachers are feeling the same way. However, when I asked my students this morning if it has seemed like a long week to them, a few timidly, partially raised their hands, and the rest looked at me with baffled expressions. So I think that's a good sign that it didn't seem long to them. And although it's been exhausting, I am thrilled to spend my days with all these new little people. I'm really enjoying getting to know them. In fact, in some cases I'm having flashbacks to six years ago. Two of the girls are sisters of girls I had in my first year class (who are now 8th graders!), and I have to stop myself from calling them by the wrong names.

There have been a few special memories from the week which make me smile.

On the first day of school, one girl signed out a dictionary from our classroom library to take home. The next day one of the boys did the same. I didn't realize dictionaries are popular reading material in third grade.

I had the students fill out a sheet telling me their favorites. One boy's favorite food is "shuger." (Mine too!) Another boy's favorite sports team is "Fightin' Phils."

On another paper, I had them tell me about their summer, and they were able to draw a picture themselves. Here are a few samples of my little artists:

And my favorite:

I can relate. For her mother's sake, I have to say that she has never come to school looking like that!

As always, I love to read my third graders' writing. Today they were supposed to write a sentence about cows. Most sentences were something along the lines of:
Cows eat grass. 
Cows are black and white. 

But a few students were more creative:
Cows and bulls are different because bulls are boys and cows are girls. 
I saw a cow giving birth coming home from church. 

I'm looking forward to lots of good times and stories in third grade this year!