Today marks the end of term 1, week 1, and tomorrow is week 2 in my year. I know that in 11 weeks time this term will be over and I will be off on holiday.
The beginning of the year is always a strange time of anticipation. Wondering what your class will be like, will they get along, will they become a unit, or will they be one of those classes that never quite had the right mix. As a teacher you plan in activities to make everyone feel welcome, activities that make everyone feel a part of the class. Negotiating the class rules, and rewards, creating something to put on the walls together so everyone has made their mark on desolate walls, and the endless conversations around expectations in class, and out.
It's not actually a time of year I feel overly excited about, it's a little more like trepidation, I much prefer the term 2-4 time of comfortable understanding that a class comes to. But whether I like it or not, new classes come. So 2 days in term 1 and my class have begun the process of getting to know each other and making our personal mark on the classroom. Everything is ticking along with how I wanted to start the year...But I have one problem- the class group is beginning to form bonds, the routines are being learnt, the children have taken the lead in designing the classroom climate for the rest of the year - yet 3 children haven't started school yet. These children haven't been a part of setting up our room, they didn't take part in creating the class ethos, they are already behind in building bonds with their classmates...
What do we do, after that fact, to help these children feel as much a part of the class as everyone else now feels?
