Kindergarten Rocks!

Our big boy started Kindergarten this year. It's a month into school now and still a little hard to believe. This is a big transition for all of us - full day, every day, being very on time, drop-off lines, new kids, big school, cafeteria, etc. As usual with Luke, he has taken it all in stride. He was so very excited on his first morning, as you can see in all of these pictures.

It seems that Grace was quite excited as well!

 

The night before, as I was putting him to bed, I asked Luke about some of his current favorite things. He's going to love being reminded about a few of these someday:

• Color - Blue
• Food - None. (Which is probably true.) Then, when prompted for more: For breakfast, homemade waffles. For lunch, peanut butter and jelly. For dinner, grilled cheese.
• Movie - Wreck It Ralph
• Song - "Gangnam Style" by Psy or "I Don't Care" by Icona Pop
• Book - The Boxcar Children or Kindergarten Rocks
• Animal - Cheetah (he suggested I ask that one)
• What he wants to be when he grows up - Scientist

All three of us took him to school that first morning. It was certainly quite a production with all the parents taking pictures. Luke's school, Briarwood Elementary, has four full day and one half day kindergarten. I think it is right around 105 kindergartners total. That seems gigantic to me.

This was the photo opp spot that was the most hilarious. Truly there was a very deep line of families waiting their turns for this bench with the sign.

He walked right into his room and happily sat at his table. Not everyone in his class did the same, but many did. His teacher's name is Mrs. Barnes and she has a farm theme to start the year.

Grace wanted in on the action too. She already sings the Briarwood song and talks about going there someday. I'm a little worried she may think she rules the school by the time she gets there in three years.

 

 

He was coloring away even with all the other kids and parents (taking photos) hanging around. He sits at a table with 5 other kids. (Well, 4 now because one got moved to his own desk for discipline already.) He likes the girls at his table a lot.

I am the head room mother for his room and have enjoyed meeting many of the parents already. Briarwood is known for its parent involvement and we are seeing that to be true. Mrs. Barnes asked me a few weeks ago to work with kids one day a week for an hour. I am doing that every Tuesday morning while G is in school. She gives me a folder with a task/game and a list of kids and I call them out in the hall to work with me. Luke is disappointed that I don't ever call him so it's hard to explain without saying much that these kids need a little bit extra help. I am more amazed than ever at the work teachers do every day...the wide range of knowledge and ability I see within these kids is pretty unbelievable. You have some who don't know their letters to some who can read.

I did very well emotionally all morning until we left the room. I didn't cry, but I got pretty teary watching how confident he was. I was overwhelmed with pride. I told a friend later that it was hard to be anything but happy and proud when watching him because he is all I wanted him to be by the time he reached kindergarten. Matt, Grace, and I then went to the school courtyard with many other kindergarten parents for the "Boo-Hoo Coffee" put on by the PTA. Matt and I liked talking to some of the other families and Grace enjoyed the doughnuts. 

One of my best friends had us over for lunch with the girls to take our minds off the big first day. All three moms who were there are close and our boys all went to preschool together but are now at three separate elementary schools. We had a great time talking about our mornings and letting the girls play.

Luke had a fabulous first day! He got to pick a dinner to have at home the night before his first day (crockpot beef with broccoli and crescent rolls) and got to pick a restaurant for the evening of hid first day. He chose the 810 Zone and Grace took this pretty decent picture of the boys from across the table.

My cousin sent me this pic on the second day. Her boyfriend is a twin and his twin brother's girlfriend (did you follow that?!) teaches the half day kindergarten class. She helped in the lunchroom the first few days of school and took this pic of Luke. I like knowing that she checks in on him sometimes. (Side note - they all came to our KU football tailgate a few weeks ago. He told me later her couldn't believe how cool it was that Ms. Lustig came to our tailgate! I thought that was so cute.)

The first two weeks of school all of the kindergarten classes had color days where they were all encouraged to wear a certain color that day. Well, purple day rolled around and we just don't have much purple in this house. So, we did our best. Luke wore this KU t-shirt and that if anyone asked, red and blue make purple.

So far Luke has excelled in his first month of school. One day in his second full week he came running up to me as I picked him up and said, "Mommy, I got a "Lifeskill" I was the first one in my class!" Of course, I had no idea what that meant, but Mrs. Barnes came over to tell me about the Briarwood-wide program called "Lifeskills." Basically any teacher or staff member who sees a student demonstrating good citizenship can award one. Mrs. Barnes gave Luke one that day because she noticed him pushing in the chairs of all of his tablemates as they were going to the carpet for an activity. She wrote up his award and then he got to walk it to the office all by himself. He said he put it in a big treasure box. Then at the end of each day, Dr. Peach, the princpal, reads the names of the students who received a Lifeskill that day.

 

Then last week he ran out and told me that he was late coming out because he got to sing on the intercom. Apparently his class was very good in PE that day and the PE teacher helps with the announcements some days. She had the whole class sing this little sing-songy phrase and said she was going to pick the two who sang the loudest and with the biggest smiles. Luke and his tablemate Ellie were chosen and got to sing on the school-wide announcements. We are so very proud of our big kindergarten boy!