Check it out.  Here is a video about Gorillas from the explore.org site:

The activity starts out with a read aloud of the book, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. The Kissing Hand is about a young raccoon named Chester who does not want to go to school but would rather stay at home with his mother. His mother tells her son that she has a wonderful secret that will make his time at school “warm and cozy” just like his days at home. The secret involves Chester’s mother kissing his palm and telling him to press his hand to his cheek whenever he is sad or lonely and Chester quickly learns the power of that kiss. This wonderful story can help sooth the nerves of our young students during their first day of school.

After reading the book you can have a discussion with the class about being nervous for the first day of school… this is a good time to let them in on a little secret which is that teachers are nervous too!

After the class discussion there are fun art activities you can do as well. I’ve seen a few ideas but the one I like best is having the children make a handprint in red and then on another piece of paper draw a picture of their family. Then you staple to the two together and have them glue a heart in the middle of the hand. This is a great present for their families after the first day of school. Another cute idea is to have hand shaped cookies made and let students put Hershey’s kisses in the palm. Of course please make sure your school allows you to serve students food and make sure there are no allergies!

I’m going to check out the one in Anaheim, CA the first weekend in August so I will report back on how it is… I’m excited though!

http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/events/warehouse/

First Book Recommendation…

Inside Mrs. B.’s Classroom : Courage, Hope, and Learning on Chicago’s South Side by Leslie Baldacci.

This true story follows the tales of Mrs. B as she makes a huge career change and leaves her job at the Chicago Sun-Times to join a “Teach for America” like program in urban Chicago. Mrs. Baldacci is given a teaching position at a challenging public school and is given little to no training before entering the classroom.

The book documents her first two years of teaching and the trials, tribulations, and triumphs she experiences in the classroom. As a new teacher who will soon be working at a low-income urban school that probably faces some of the same challenges as the school described in the book I was inspired by her tales and her courageous outlook on teaching. I highly recommend this book to a new teacher, a veteran teacher or anyone interested in the teaching profession!

As I find books that I think will be interesting or useful for new or veteran teachers I will share them here. I am always on the look out for good books that will help me along the way as I become a new teacher so if anyone else has any great books please share with us!

I had a great time getting some art supplies for my class and I only spent about $60 total on all the stuff I got (detailed below). Now, they are generic brands but kids don’t know if the crayons are Crayola or not so I figured what the heck, as long as they color it works for me.

I took a picture of everything I got, I guess it doesn’t look like as much once I crammed it all into the storage container (also from Big Lots) but after looking up prices of similar name brand items I definitely think I got a great deal!

20 pairs of scissors

20 boxes of crayons (24 pack)

10 packs of colored pencils

20 water color packs

10 bottles of regular glue

15 glue sticks

2 containers of colored chalk

1 plastic storage container

It's actually really fun to shop for school supplies again!