First day of School

Our baby has stated school!
The first 3 paragraphs deal with orientation and the school. You might want to skip this and delve right into the pictures. English only. I mostly want to get pictures posted.

Orientation
We had orientation yesterday. We learned who her teacher and classmates are going to be. I am very happy. There is a new K teacher in the school, and the other one has a ton of experience and we got the "old" one, yay! (I have no idea of the other one). It is also very cool because she has a tank fish with salmon in her room. The kindergarteners (niños de preprimaria) have a salmon unit and they eventually release the salmon. Arantxa is with her friend from preschool, and the girls were happy to be with each other.

Pablo and I took her to the classroom for an hour while we were explained more of the day to day functioning of the school. A ton of information to process! The Spanish teacher quickly identified us and came to talk to me. She said she was excited to have Arantxa in her classroom (from what I gather they don't have any other native Spanish speakers in the school, but I might be wrong). She said she had already prepared some things for her, and that if Ax wanted to help in class she could; but if she didn't it was OK also. She asked me whether she was reading or not and the same for writing. she then said, she would be working on some writing with her. I love how the "reading" question can be asked naturally, and both a yes and a no answer received the same way. Nice! My hopes are not too high for that (Spanish class), but I am glad she approached us.

I loved the lower elementary head (K-3). I have talked to her in the past and I think she does a great job. She eats lunch with kids every day and is therefore current on what they are talking about and can address issues before they are too big. She reassured us that we can call and ask questions any time: from concerns about whether they are eating lunch or not, to issues in the playground, academics, etc. She also made us all laugh when she said that most kids don't eat at school, that in her 20+ years teaching she has accepted that as a fact. She will return a kid back to the cafeteria line if the plate does not have protein or has too many cookies (so if parents do not have a problem with kids eating only cookies for lunch, then they should let her know).

Here she is exploring her classroom. Notice how they have the "BOB" books for those that are JUST beginning to read as well as chapter books. I have to look for more advanced chapter books, but she still will have access to those in the library.

FIRST DAY
She woke up early and by herself and got dressed right away.


Then, she helped me prepare smoothies as a special first day treat.



I had written the school's acronym in the glasses (melted white chocolate tinted green). She loved the idea.


We left the house a couple minutes later than planned, but still within range of what I considered optimal. It went really smoothly. We got there in time to look for parking (very tricky in a school on top of a hill within a residential area with lots of old homes with one car garages). We'll start carpooling tomorrow.

Here she is walking up the hill.


Lorena was very excited to be part of it. She was upset when we told her she would not go to orientation (but stayed super happy playing with Galia (1) and possibly talking Rocío's ear off), she said she "also wanted to know Arantxa's teacher name". The obligatory picture with the sign. Oh, and you can't miss Lorena being cautiously calm about being next to a big dog. She did great! Way to go Lorena!


In front of her classroom with the bear in the door. How lucky is our bear loving girl!!! The other K class doesn't have the bear, although both classes start with MAMMALS, so she got to bring a stuffed bear to school! She appears to have very good school Karma.


While she was in school (only half day for the first three days), Lorena and I hung out in U Village (nice outdoor shopping mall). I must confess that I could not resist this, so I ended up getting her Corduroy (book and plush). It is such a classic story that she has read and re-read many times from the library.


Here she comes, so excited, walking down to meet us!

Her only complaint was that the teacher still has not told them the loft rules, so she can't climb the stair to get there and read. She explained a lot of the lingo to me (jobs, they have "after snack recess" and "afternoon recess", etc.). She is super excited and SO ready for this!