I survived!

I am so glad that I made it through the first day of school alive!  It was a long, exhausting day, but all of my students ate lunch and made it home! (I think...)  I had great intentions of taking lots of pictures so I could post them, but there was too much going on and I never had a chance to even go near my camera.  

The day started out with all 21 of my students coming in (many with parents attached) unpacking supplies and drawing a picture of themselves and writing their name.  It was so quiet in my room, I was sure there weren't any kids in there!! I couldn't believe how lucky I was to get such a great, hardworking, quiet class.  Well, Haha!  Later I found out they were just being shy!  Then we went to a flag ceremony, where we talked about the flags and what they were for.  After the flag ceremony we attempted to tour the school...but of course as Mrs. Crawford (me) is new to the school, I don't know where everything is....but we did okay.  The worst part of the school tour was when we went into the lunchroom to practice lunching and I didn't know what to do.  I even told them the wrong tables to sit at. Oh well...  After botching the school tour, we had another assembly to go to.   This one was about, well, I'm not really sure...  You see, the most important thing about the first day of school is getting the kids home the right way.  I have had two failed experiences with that and so I was very nervous.  I had a boy who I didn't know how he got home, so I left the assembly to call his mother.  When I finally got her on the phone, she couldn't understand what I was saying and just said "yes" to everything.  Needless to say I was getting very worried about getting this boy home from school.  When I got back to the assembly, I realized that he had been wearing a yellow bus tag all along!! Dummy me!  Oh well, better to worry for nothing, than to not worry and be wrong.  After the assembly, we went outside, ate lunch and had a bathroom break.  (We made it through lunch okay and managed to find the correct tables to sit at.)  We went over the rules, behavior plan, jobs, etc. and played a name game with some jelly beans!  Then we did a short lesson for reading (yes, on the first day).  After that we talked about how to pack up and made sure I knew how everyone was getting home.  

Then the chaos started!

I didn't know what all the bells meant so I didn't know when to leave and then we realized it was raining...  Now this wouldn't be a problem except for my classroom is outside in a trailer.  So I got my umbrella and we went down the hall to the gym, where we were to meet for the buses.  The buses weren't there and it was raining and then some came and it rained harder.  It was not a happy time.  I think my shoes and pants are possibly ruined, but oh well!

BUT.... my kids are cute and sweet and the parents are great (so far!) So all in all, it wasn't a bad day, just a long, crazy one.  I think its going to be a good year for everyone!  I promise to post pictures of my classroom and students soon, when I have time to use my camera!