First Day of School!

The big day finally arrived--my first day with the pupils!  (I'm trying to remember to use the word "pupils" not "students" as I normally do, as here "students" refers to university learners, not primary school learners.)  I have the biggest class I  have ever had in my entire career, 30 little darlings!  So far they really are a lovely class.  We had a fun day singing, writing, playing, learning poems and chants and learning the rules of the classroom.  We read about "Pete the Cat" rocking in his new school shoes and toured the school following clues Pete left us until we finally found him back in our own classroom!  They were so excited to find him!  The kids here had never heard of "Pete the Cat" books, which are favorites of my California classes, so it was fun to introduce these books to them for the first time.  The children all wrote about what they wanted to learn in Year 1 and we posted them on a bulletin board featuring our friend, Pete the Cat, where he proclaimed "It's all good!" as he so often does. The children all know the refrains from the first Pete book now, and it was fun to see that at free time some of them chose to write about Pete and included these refrains in their writing.  Visitors to our classroom were impressed that we already have learned a class poem, as we recited it to everyone who stopped by.  The feedback I have from the parents so far is that they are pleased to see their children come home so excited about school.  That was the first day.  I hope the next 194 go as well!