Our First Day of SAGE!

What a fun group of students!  They seemed very excited when they came bounding off the bus.  I was looking forward to beginning our year together! It is a tiny group with only four students and all of them are new to the program. (This is very typical for the start of school as these little guys have hardly been in school long enough to be noticed, tested and identified. By November their numbers will have grown enough to keep me running in circles!)

When the students arrived, we took a quick tour of the school and discussed our general building expectations.  (The great thing is, school rules tend to be much the same so they can feel comfortable with the consistency and I can expect them to be accountable for their behavior and choices.)  We reviewed arrival procedures and spent some time sharing about our summer and our interests with a Skittles activity.  Some of us stayed in the Kansas City area going to Oceans and Worlds of Fun, Powel Gardens, the Kansas City Zoo and other area attractions.  We were all busy reading books such as Junie B. Jones, Max and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Others were vacationing in Florida and visiting family and friends in Chicago.  Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their summer break.

Next, the students grabbed their big magnifying glass and put on their "thinking cap" to play detective.  Their job was to look at items from my purse to see what they could discover about me. We passed around my purse and everyone retrieved an item from the contents and tried to analyze it to see what they could learn from it. Zacarias chose my wallet and carefully examined the contents.  He found four wrinkled dollar bills and Maddison accurately noted I wasn't very rich.  (LOL)  From my driver's license, he discovered my middle name, Anne, and my license number. He discovered I like to go to Panera from my Panera VIP card and assumed I must like to play games because I have a Game Stop Power Up card.  In this case, he was wrong as that card is my son's.  Jaynah pulled my iPhone from the purse.  She was quick to figure out how to move through the contents.  She was particularly interested in my photo gallery.  She decided my son, Logan, was pretty silly from some animated images of him.  She found a picture of my niece making funny faces and mistakenly thought it was my daughter at first.  A little deeper into the pictures she spotted Courtney and noted that she had just gotten her driver's license!  She also giggled over my personal taste in music after looking through my iTunes playlist. (I still strongly defend my 80's roots!)  Maddison found a bag of throat lozenges and everyone guessed I cough a lot.  They were close.  My allergies are flaring up and I'm getting a sore throat.  We had fun and I decided they are pretty good detectives!

Next, we reviewed the parts of the computer and the related vocabulary words on our Smart Board.  We also practiced how to find our way around the network.  When we got to the computer lab, the students were able to locate their personal folders on the shared drive with little or no help!  Bravo to them!  They learned to add and name a new folder inside for future photos. Then they opened and named a blank Microsoft Word document. They typed their full name and grade and then learned to format the font for size, style (bold, underline & Italics) and color. Our thirty minute lab times fly by quickly! I am looking forward to expanding our technology skills this year, beginning our discussions on being safe and responsible on the Internet and starting down the path to becoming twenty-first century learners.

After a very chilly recess and lunch, they started their individualized work. The students completed an analytical thinking worksheet as a part of our critical thinking program. They also began the Math Rules problem solving program.

Next, we began an affective project where the students will share some of their aspirations and dreams for their future.  They drew a picture of what they would like to be when they grow up.  Their self-portraits are really cute!  Next week, they will continue working on this project and begin their written explanation of their goals.  We hope to have this completed by our October 6th Open House.

We ended our day discussing what it means to have a blog and to be a blogger.  The students watched the brief video on our home page to learn more.  Finally, we looked over the the parts of our blog and how to navigate around the site.  We also discussed ways in which they will be able to contribute to our class blog.  We have many exciting and challenging tasks in our future this year!

We hope you will follow our adventures here.  Feel free to share your thoughts by posting comments.  You are also welcome to email me with questions and/or concerns.   Please sign your child's Take Home Folder and encourage them to return it on our next SAGE day.
 
Have a wonderful week!