Close Reading Turned Social Story :o)

Sweetest moments...  I have a cute little class. They are BABIES. When I call them "littles", it really describes them. Lots of growing up to do! Good! My favorite kind of class! Such a huge contrast from the precocious smarties I had last year! I find myself backing WAY up. Beginning at the beginning is what they need.
I decided to try one of my Back to School Close Reads, the one titled " School".
It happened. It was the moment we fell in love.
 The  PDF was on the smart board and we were reading/re-reading. We were talking about words we might not know or understand. One little guy said "What is tare?".  It took me a minute, but... oh. Care. "What is care?".  I explained that it means the teacher cares about you (making a heart with my hands placed over my heart).

The look on his face. His eyes. The little sweet smile.   "Oh. He said. "You yuv us."
"Yes. I love you."

(And your adorable, developmental speech errors!! Then my heart melted, we exchanged googly eyes at each other and the rest is history.)

Which then led to lots of other gestures and discussion of other social parts of adjusting to school, like the time away from home being short and how our parents are so proud of us. Our little close read turned into a dear social story that solidified our class bond, and we have been referring back to it for several days now. I could never have planned for it. I love it when I am teaching and happy moments such as this catch me by surprise, and the next time I teach it I can try to turn that happy accident into something I do on purpose. ;O)
I think this is the start of something good......

Close Reading in Kindergarten & First Grade Back to School Bundle