Jumping into the new year!

On the weekend,  I swim in the ocean.  I love the swelly, blue-green salt water and the chill in the misty morning air.  It is an amazing way to start the day.  As much as I love it, I am always a little bit nervous right before I jump in. I stand at the waters edge with butterflies in my stomach.  Will the water be really cold?  Will I see any dolphin or seals?  What direction is the current traveling?   Slowly I get my toes wet, then I go in up to my knees and before I know it I am swimming through the first wave, then down the coast.

As I was swimming today I was thinking about how starting the school year is a lot like going out into the ocean.  Most of us, on the first day of school are a little nervous because we don't know what to expect.  But as the first few days pass, we meet our teacher and make new friends, we learn rules and routines and begin to work together as a class. Yesterday was our 15th day of school.  In class we talked about what we can do better today compared to the first day of school.  We have memorized poems, played math games, we are working on our reading stamina, we started working in our math books and writing in our journals.   Next week we will start reading in our literature books, map our community and get our first homework packet. 

Our class has jumped in and we are diving through the surf :-)