A few favorite things

Last week I had my students fill out a sheet of their favorite things. These are a few that made me smile.

book:  Anne from Green Gables

       dictionary

holiday: Christmas Eve

         Black Friday

sports team: USA  

(Obviously this is a summer Olympics year.)

season: Math 

(Rejoice, math teachers! Math is apparently a season. And a favorite one at that.)

food: clams

      shrimp 

(When I was in third grade, I don't think I even knew you could eat clams or shrimp. Which is probably why I don't like them now.)

hobby: the beach 

(I never thought of counting the beach as my hobby, but I think I will!)

set the table, clean the dish washer, feed the cats 

(Her mom must love this!)

sitting around 

(I never thought I'd see a third grade boy whose favorite hobby is sitting around.)

And now for two of my favorite things from the week so far: 

Folded up and handed to me this morning 

Piles

If my word for the beginning of the week was checklists (Checklists and Pinterest projects), my word for the end of the week is piles. After school yesterday I stared at my piles for awhile, not knowing where to start.

So I took a big pile home with me.

Despite the piles and exhaustion, it's been a good first week with the kids! They have so much energy and so many words to say (well, at least some of them). As I was thinking about my seating chart, this image came to mind:

I'm pretty sure that's what some of my kids are thinking.

I'm so blessed to work with such supportive families and parents. I already received a couple of gift cards for food, many encouraging notes, and a few handmade treasures. :)

Yesterday at lunch time, one boy said to me, "You're supposed to say, 'Who needs milk?' and then they raise their hands." It's good to know someone is here to help me if I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Checklists and Pinterest projects

There's no denying it; school begins tomorrow! I've told people that since this is my seventh year teaching, I'm pretty much good to go with my checklist of to-do items for the beginning of the year. Essentially, I'm a pro at this by now. Or so I thought. I forgot just how long that checklist is, and then on top of that, I always find new Pinterest projects that I decide my classroom has to have in order for it to function properly. (Case in point:)

Today I couldn't stand the messiness of my haggard-looking list any longer, so I made a new one. When I looked at my clean, neat, newly-typed, but, once again, long list, I remembered what my summer self forgets - a teacher's work is never done, and there's always a to-do list somewhere.

But even though all my items are not checked off, my classroom is beautiful, and I am excited to meet my 26 new third graders tomorrow morning!