New Student Excitement!

Well friends, today was a very exciting day in 2nd grade! We welcomed our 2nd new student of the year. I wanted to share some of the ideas we came up with to help make him feel welcome at Cedar Hills!

- Photo Story: A couple weeks prior to his first day, my cooperating teacher and I snapped some shots of the kiddos hard a work as well as some of the classroom. We put these together and created a Photo Story. (If you are unfamiliar with Photo Story YOU NEED TO BE! This is such a great tool that has hundreds of instructional uses!) The text in the photo story said phrases like, "Welcome to your new classroom!" "We can't wait to meet you!" "Classmates hard at work." We added some cheezy, fun music and emailed it off to be viewed. Prior to his first day he already had a chance to see where he was going, see some of his classmates, and know that he was welcomed and we were eager to meet him.

- With both of our new students we "assigned" them a buddy to help them through lunch, recess, specials, etc. EVERY kiddo wants this job!

- I invited to students to come sit on the carpet in a circle. I had them share their thoughts on their first day of school (scared, nervous, excited). I then shared, that in honor of our new friend, we would read a story called My First Day of School. I think another great book would be First Day Jitters. They all love read aloud so much that the new student doesn't feel singled out. They were all excited to listen to the story. :)

- We then went around and shared our name as well as 2 as interesting facts about ourselves. (Had I thought this would be an issue I would have set guidelines and offer suggestions such as favorite food, hobbies, talents, etc.)

Well friends, that's all I have. Learning Fair tomorrow night! Can't wait!
Squeezes and smooches, Miss Lathrop