My State of Emoji

These first few days of school are by far some of my favorites of the entire school year. I love that we are able to devote the majority of the first three days of school to relationship building. Relationships with and between students are critical for learning and make coming to school a lot more enjoyable.

Among many team building and class building activities over the last two days, fourth grade made emojis to express how they feel about fourth grade so far. I was pleasantly surprised by how many students expressed happy and even relieved emojis. However, some expressed that they were still a little nervous. I anticipated some students to still be a little hesitant; it is only the second day of school. I made sure to reassure these students and all my students that it is ok to feel nervous and that I was definitely feeling a little nervous, as well, in anticipation of the start of a new school year.

My hope is that in the next few weeks I can ease my students’ nerves as they get to know their peers and me. I’ll be working to help my students become more aware of their feelings and how they react in different situations throughout the year.