First Day of School

The kids were so excited for school to start.  The night before clothes had been laid out, lunches had been made and backpacks were set out in the hall all filled with new school supplies.   On Monday morning, the kids popped out of bed, got dressed and had everything done before 7:00 am.  Ryan and Katie, the MIDDLE SCHOOLERS, (8th Grade and 6th grade) left for the bus at 7:15 after a few quick pictures.  Katie is pretty darn excited to be in Middle School.

 

Classic Ryan with his little ‘gun’ shooting move.

Then Emily, Megan, Luke, Matthew and I piled into the van and took off for the Elementary School.   All the teachers and kids were in front of the school.  We found Emily’s 3rd grade teacher holding up a big sign on a stick with her name on it.  Emily hopped to the back of the line and gave me a smile.  Megan’s teacher had already walked into the gym with the first few classes.  When we entered the gym the Army Band was playing on the stage, excited kids talked to each other as they filed it and parents started to fill in around the outside.  It was pretty exciting.  From the back I watched as Megan walked to the front, found her first grade teacher and proudly handed her the bag of cookies.  Then I saw Mrs. Dysinger smile, bend down and give her a big hug.   With the band playing and the excitement in the air, I got a little emotional just imagining how happy Megan was at that moment. 

We’ve been doing Back to School Cookies for three years now.  The tag says: “Dear Mrs. Dysinger  I hope your school year is just like these cookies… so incredibly delicious you hardly notice the crumby parts.  Love Megan and family”}

Megan was adamant about wearing this dress to school the first day.

I stayed to listen to the principal give some opening remarks, the commander of the base speak about being the hero of your own story this year and listened as the band started up once more and the classes were dismissed.  Luke, Matthew and I waved one more time before leaving the school.

 

Traditional ‘FIRST DAY’ Cookies and Milk Report…

 

Ryan – 8th Grade – Heidelberg Middle School  -- Go Panthers!

Schedule:

• Advisory
• Elective Day 1 – German 1 – Mrs. Jackson (High School Credit – lasts all year long)
• Elective Day 2 – Business Enterprise – Ms. Moore  (next semester he’ll have PE instead)
• Algebra 1 – Ms. Jaynes (High School Credit)
• Language Arts – Mrs. Thomas (in our ward)
• Lunch and Recess
• Science – Mr. Short (who is very tall)
• US History – Mr. Clemens (in our ward)

I didn’t type Ryan’s ‘play by play’ but he had a pretty ok first day of school.   He’s bummed several of his friends aren’t in some of his classes, but he’s pretty happy with his teachers and excited about this year.

Katie – 6th Grade – Heidelberg Middle School

Schedule:

• Advisory
• Math and Science – Mr. Lion
• Elective Day 1 – Spanish Conversation – Ms. Olivairs
• Elective Day 2 – German Conversation – Mrs. Jackson  (these electives last one quarter and then she’ll get new ones… Drama, Home Ec, PE, Art Etc.  In sixth grade they all take all of them (unless they are in band.)  It’s funny that she got both of her language classes this quarter.)
• Lunch and 15 minute Recess
• Language Arts and Reading – Ms. Mckedy
• Social Studies and Study Skills – Ms. Anderson

Katie’s journaling:  “When I got off the bus  I went over and found Kai, Alexis, Mercedes, Emily and Rebecca.  Then we went over to the list of papers that told us what our advisor teacher was and what classroom.   My advisory teacher is Ms. Moore.  I didn’t get to practice my lock at all in fifth grade so I was kind of nervous but she gave it to us and showed us how to use them and I understood very quickly and tried a couple of times and got it.  It’s so fun to do it.  We’re the only advisory class downstairs.  I’m in 6B.  Mercades is in 6B too…. and Kai.  I get a top locker!!  There was enough room for everyone in advisory to get a top locker.  Kai’s locker is right next to me.  Ms. Moore gave us our planners and schedules.  It is SOOO cool.  ---  Right after Advisory I have mathematics and science with Mr. Lion for Core 1 and Core 2.  He seems pretty awesome.   He gave us all our books and told us rules and stuff.  ---  Then we had our Elective for Day 1 which is Spanish Conversation with Ms. Olivairs.  (She’s also Ryan’s Advisory Teacher)  She seems really fun.  ---  Tomorrow for my Elective for Day 2 is German with Mrs. Jackson.  ---  Then I have Lunch.  On Day 1 it’s at 11:30 and on Day 2 it’s at 11:36.  After lunch I have a 15 minute recess.  We played tag, passed a ball around and talked with all my friends.  ---  After lunch and recess we went to Core 3 and Core 4 which are Language Arts and Reading with Ms. Mckedy… who is my favorite teacher so far.  We’re going to be reading part of Old Yeller.  She talked about rules and books and then we read.    ---  Finally we went to Core 5 and Core 6 which is Social Studies and Study Skills with Ms. Anderson.  Our last class of the day.  She called attendance, gave us rules and we’re doing this poster where we write our name in bubble letters and then write things about ourselves by our name.

After class I found Ryan by his locker which is in the hallway right next to mine.  Then we walked to the bus together and talked about our schedules and teachers.

Emily – 3rd Grade – Patrick Henry Elementary School

Emily’s journaling: I’m in third grade now.  My teacher’s name is Ms. Strawn.  She is new to this school and she came to Germany from Japan.    First we just lined up against the wall next to our class room and she told us some stuff.  She asked us our names and she gave us numbers.  That’s our number for the whole year.  My number is 9.  We have 19 people in our class.  We put our backpacks on the hooks that matched our numbers and then we put our lunchboxes away. We got to pick a shape out of a bag… mine was a big black rectangle.  Inside the classroom the desks had the shapes on the right corner and we had to pick a desk that had the same shape we pulled out.   Jayden is the only boy, across from me.  Chiara sits diagonally from me.  And the person who sits beside me is another girl and I forget her name.    For the whole day she was mostly telling us our routine.   She seems nice and is really funny.   We have lunch at 11:55.   At lunch I was mostly surrounded by boys.  I didn’t like that.  I gave Ms. Strawn some cookies and she was really surprised.

At recess I went to the back table for a long time to finish my lunch, then Sierra and I went up the ladder and down the slide a bunch of times because we didn’t know what else to do.

Megan – 1st Grade – Patrick Henry Elementary School

Megan’s journaling: I’m in first grade now.  My teacher is very nice.  Her name is Ms. Dysinger. I sat down at my table and then she gave us these journals and she had a choice A and a choice B.  The choice A was write your name on the paper 5 times and choice B was write your name and last name 5 times.  She has a mystery box and we had to guess what was inside and there was uniblocks inside.  We finally guessed it and she said ‘made something with your team or by yourself.  My team made a castle.   The kids that sit at my table are Brooke, Makayla and me.  No boys.  I’m happy there was no boys.   Lunch was awesome.  I sat by David and he bothered me.  He’s mean and he bothers me… everywhere I go, in line, at lunch.  But ya, lunch was good.  So good.  I had a sandwich and cheese crackers and a Capri Sun and grapes and cheesy Pringles for lunch.  I made it.   Then we went to Recess.  Joshua and David chased me, and Kristen, and Jenna.  I liked it.   They didn’t get me.  I let them get me once because one of them was about to whine.  And then we went back to our classroom and we said what we liked in school so far.  And then we went to Ms. Roloffs class.  She’s our art teacher.  She made us draw our faces and then we went back to our class.  And then I went home on the bus with Emily.  And on the bus David was bothering me.  Ya, so that was annoying.