David {and a mouse} go to school.

Personally, I have to be scheduled even in the first week back.  Friday was our first day with all of the kindergarteners {after having only a few each day during staggered entry} and it was loosey goosey.  I'm sure they enjoyed it but I went home stressed out and disappointed.

Now, after just 3 days of schedule, routine and high expectations, I am happy, stressing less and looking forward to the rest of the year with anticipation.  If you're feeling like your kids are off the chain it might not be because your activities are too hard.  Instead of backing off and talking about rules for longer, try giving them just a bit more.  It's hard to act up when you're busy.  ;)

Here are a few book & follow-up activities we've used already this week:

{David Goes to School}
Mrs. Lee has a super cute David craft to display with her rules.  I didn't use the terms peacemakers and peacebreakers because those aren't terms I use and I wanted to stay consistent.  But how could you NOT love his cute face?!  {you can get her original template at her TPT store}  Then I found Jackie's class book template on Ready Set Read to Me and decided it would be a perfect piece of "writing" to hang with our Davids!  I love that her pages say "Yes ______" to put a positive focus on the things we can do in class.

I kept giggling as I hung these up.  They are so. dang. cute!!!  {fyi I posted Common Core objective K.W.2 Use a combination drawing, dictating & writing to compose explanatory texts since we were explaining how we should act in the classroom.}

{If you take a Mouse to School}
This is a super easy activity to do even with pre-writing kinders.  Cut out big brown cookies.  {yes, that's what those are.}  ;)  I used the die cut machine to make big circles in 4 different colors.  Pass out one at a time and instruct the kids to draw a picture of whatever that color represents. Adapt it to anything you want to know.

Bonus: serve Chips Ahoy rainbow chip cookies for a snack.  ;)

If you want to take it a step further...make a book specific to your school!  ie: If You Take a Mouse to Sunshine Elementary School.  Use the following pages to create your book or writing for display.

If you're lucky enough to have a mousey like me, take his picture with all of your special area teachers, secretaries, the principal, custodians, etc.  My kids loved seeing him in the various places!  That is a super fun bonus but definitely not required for the writing.

Happy Back to School friends!!