Holy tamoly, First Week of School craziness! The good kind of crazy though. I think there is no better word for the first week of school than craziness. It absolutely fits the bill! I'm glad you are joining me for another 5 for Friday linky with Doodle Bugs Teaching!
1. The First Day of School was absolutely wonderful! For those who don't know and because I am still working on this whole blog thing, I teach two fifth grade classes. (I know my site needs lots of improvement, but I'm doing pieces at a time and didn't want to wait to share!) We typically switch half way through the day, but for this first day of school my other two teammates and I decided to keep our homerooms all day. There are so many school wide procedures that need to be reviewed and we wanted to focus on building a strong relationship with our homeroom kiddos. I didn't give my kiddos name tags right away, but rather put their planner where I wanted them to sit. I plan on giving them permanent seats for the start of next week, hoping that I will have a better understanding of their behaviors and needs by that time. We read First Day Jitters together, completed a reading survey, had a lot of carpet discussion to get to know one another, and took pictures for our Who Am I game that you can find in my TPT store.
2. Any Amazon delivery is fun, even more so when it is books you are going to share with your class! They loved both Duncan the Story Dragon by Amanda Driscoll and "ish" by Peter H. Reynolds. I used to the Duncan story to discuss the importance of giving the book we are reading a chance, give it 30 pages or so before deciding it is no good. When reading about Duncan with my kiddos I was really impressed with the inferences they made because it gets to a section were a bull is going to chase Duncan and they realized he was going to because Duncan's book was red like the flags used in rodeo rings. My reading coach read "ish" aloud to my class to discuss the importance of being yourself and we also tied it into the importance of having a growth mindset.
3. I know you have seen these types of questions floating around on Pinterest, this is about my third year using them. I have seen them on Mrs. Robinson's Classroom Blog and Confessions of a Teaching Junkie . I'm sure they are on a lot more blogs because these questions truly are the best way to start out the school year. The questions get the kiddos thinking and discussing with one another. I used mine for morning walk in work, so that I didn't have to think too much on planning that out just yet. Here's how my questions went for the week:
4. I took a lesson from Dave Burgess' "Teach Like a Pirate" book and used Play-doh. If you have not read Burgess' book, you should. I would consider it a teacher MUST read. It is perfect for rereading on the challenging, difficult days when you need a little inspiration and want to make the next day better. We used the Play-doh on the second day of school when we rotated our three classes for thirty minutes. Okay so really the Play-doh was the brand I found at the Dollar Tree, which was surprisingly not stinky at all. I expected to be and was surprised. I had the kiddos create something that represented them and they came up with some creative things, one kiddo made a stethescope because she wants to be a vet and others made a football because they liked to play. We took 30 seconds and talked about each thing they made and I learned so much about them in that small amount of time!
5. When you have a crazy, busy week of back to school treat yourself! My favorite place to go? Starbucks! There may have been some shopping purchases on this day too, but a sweet treat is a must! Where is your favorite place to go???
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