I posted HERE about Reese’s first day of School in her preschool at our church. In that post, I showed how she cried when I came to pick her up. After about 3 days of crying at drop off, she started waving bye bye and smiling before leaving. Then about a month in she started doing a hysterical happy whine/cry whenever I came to pick her up. After that it was pure happiness and excitement when I picked her up. We started sending her 4 days a week to get her used to it, and to see how it all went. The plan was to only have her go 2 or 3 days a week, but she loved School. On the day she wouldn’t be going, she would ask for School, and her friends. She got to play with lots of kids her own age, do music class, eat lunch at school, do a craft everyday, and play on the playground or in the gym depending on the weather at least once sometimes twice a day. There were also school programs where Reese knew all of the songs and hand motions, but refused to do them in front of others, a traveling petting zoo, end of school party with chalk and popsicles, birthday celebrations, and field trips, but those were for the older kids. We feel so fortunate that Reese was able to go to a school like this with such great teachers and staff. She loved it and grew so much while attending there. I wanted to share some of the pictures that her teachers posted throughout the year so you can see what she was able to do.
Reese’s First Day of School Picture
Reese’s First Day of the Second Semester
Reese’s Last Day of School Picture
In her school, during lunch, they started out at chairs like these that clip onto the table.
Here is Reese playing with bubbles.
Playing with her friend Ava who also goes to our church. They are both more introverted, and we were told that they enjoyed playing together. Well, as much as one year olds play together. 🙂
Eating her lunch from her Bentgo Kids Lunch box. I used it the whole year and loved it.
Being silly with her Burpy Bib.(Best burp cloth/Bib out there in my opinion.)
Looking adorable.
Playing with friends. Reese loves getting the mail with Papa every day after he is home from work, so maybe she also likes getting mail at other times too.
Playing on the playground outside.
An impromptu picnic in the classroom.
Reading lots of books. Nine times out of ten when I came to pick her up, she was sitting near one of her teachers getting a book read to her or reading one herself.
Sliding down one of the slides on the playground.
During colder weather, the kids would do recess in the gym.
They also did lots of coloring. The teachers told us when they first brought out paper and crayons that Reese was the only one to really know what to do. We had paper over our coffee table with crayons for months for Reese to color with.
The teachers did 2-3 crafts with the kids each week that they would bring home. I loved seeing how proud Reese was about each one. She loved showing it to Grant and me, and would make sure to show us how she had made it. Whether it was with finger prints, hand prints, foot prints, etc.
Then they graduated to real chairs.
The teachers had fun with camera filters before some big game that was happening.
More gym play.
Accidentally being a twin with one of her classmates.
Reese has a love of forts and houses. We always find her cooped up in them.
During their music class.
On Birthdays, the parents sometimes brought in a sweet treat. Here they are all with a munchkin or donut hole each.
I guess after eating, they wipe down their area. I wish I had known this earlier as it is a practice I want to start her doing at home too.
There was an Easter Egg Hunt where all of the parents that could came and helped out the littles.
In her Music class, they also did Yoga with some of the songs.
Here is Reese doing Yoga. If you ask her about it, she will do a few different poses and it is hilarious.
They also had a petting zoo come and visit her school.
They brought bunnies, a pot belly pig, and a pony.
I know Reese doesn’t look thrilled, but she LOVED it. I didn’t realize that they had had a petting zoo come, and couldn’t figure out why Reese was talking about all of these animal when I came to pick her up until her teacher explained it to me. Her teachers said it took her a while to want to pet any of them, but that is just Reese. She is very cautious in nature.
Getting a story read by her teacher.
On the playground on her second birthday in her Die Maus shirt that I made for her.
On her Birthday, she requested cupcakes with Reese’s Pieces in them, but I was afraid the icing would be too messy. So I made chocolate cookies with Reese’s Pieces in them.
Here are her classmates with her birthday cookies.
At the end of the year they had a party with chalk.
And popsicles.
Cooling off with the AC unit after recess.
Here school also had school pictures done in the fall and in the spring. We only did the fall ones, and then we had a bunch of amazing photos to choose from. We ended up only buying on photo, but the others looked soo good. I don’t know how Spoiled Rotten Photography got such great pictures out of Reese!
This is the photo we bought from them!
At the end of School, I made a tote bag for each of Reese’s Teachers. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but I had time and fabric.
I had the ribbon already which I had bought years ago at Michaels, and printed off THESE free tags.
These bags were reversible, here is the inside of the bags. I used THIS free pattern.
Then we wrote the teachers Thank you cards with some “art work” for them from Reese.
Then I included an EOS lip balm, with this FREE printable. So in the end I spent a total of $9 for all of the teacher gifts.
Reese had a great year, and we had a great summer at home. Soon I will do a blog post about the cute artwork she made in school as well as her first day of her new school year!
