School Daze

Today was Nicholas' first day of school! He did very well. We turned up early so that he could put all his supplies in his desk and we could speak with his teacher.

In the morning they said the pledge and then formed a circle and greeted each other. It was really nice as they went around the circle and shook hands with each other and said "Good morning, Nicholas". Then they covered phonics of words and they are working on tricky sounds right now. We wrote down all the main two letter sounds they are working on so we can go over them at night with him.

The phonics part was a bit confusing for him as currently we have only worked on the sound of one letter at a time and sounding out words with simple sounds. But they are working on words which have one sound made up of two letters (like ch, sh, st, etc). So we need to work on that with him. He got a bit frustrated as they did not have any writing books (books are on order) and he had to use a dry erase board. Nicholas is a perfectionist when it comes to writing and it really frustrated him to have smudges.

Then they played a game where they formed a circle and the teacher would say a word and each student would in turn say the phonetic of the letter of the word. When finished the next person would say "sparkle" and the next person would have to sit down. The last person standing would win. The kids got a kick out of it! Nicholas caught on quick.

Today they had computer lab and got to make a picture using various shapes.

Then the kids went for lunch and to recess. When we came back from lunch they started on shapes and using wooden shapes to fill in a larger outline. Nicholas loved doing this. Today they started learning civics and also his teacher showed the students on a map where Ukraine is.

Then they had another recess and finished the day in PE. He had a blast at PE! :o)

He was excited tonight at dinner to go back to school again tomorrow. We reviewed a few things with him tonight so that he is a bit more comfortable tomorrow. The ESL teach will be there tomorrow to test Nicholas so they can have an idea where he is right now.

On Friday he has his first field trip. His class is going to the Denver Children's Museum. Mike and I may go along as well. They already have enough chaperone's so we may just drive a car behind the buses so we can hang out at the museum and help Nicholas out with anything that's confusing.

I have so many teachers in my family - and I must tell you all how much you guys ROCK!! Mike and I are worn out tonight and we were just helping in the classroom with the questions and grading some papers. It is amazing how many questions 1st graders can come up with! :o)