Five For Friday - First Week Back To School!

Whew!! What is it about the first week? I am SO TIRED. I can’t even describe to you the feeling, but if you are a teacher reading this, you know. I don’t have to try. I am soooo glad it’s Friday! Time to share my week with the Doodlebugs Linky!

Wednesday was our first day. I like to do a lot of procedures, team/community building, and just FUN STUFF on the first day- no routine really the first day. I did this activity last year, and had to do it again this year. It’s a great way to show the kiddos why I differentiate in the classroom…but also for them to share something about themselves with the class, and it ends up being pretty funny!

I have the students think of a time they got hurt in their life, and share it with the class… but no matter where they got hurt, or to what extreme, I give them a band-aid on their elbow.

“I flipped over my handlebars and scraped up my face.”

“Oh no! You’re face? That’s terrible! Well, let me see your elbow!” {apply band-aid}

By the 8th person, they were all laughing, saying, “let me see your elbow” with me, even though they had no clue why. 🙂 It was good that they all said it WITH me, because it will drive the point home later…

After everyone had a band-aid, I asked the students who had a “boo-boo” that the band-aid would have actually helped to come up to the front of the room. The 5 you see in the picture came up. I asked the class if the band-aid I gave the others helped. Of course, they said no. So then I asked, well what if I gave everyone the same activity to do, even if they didn’t need the practice, or the help? They said that wouldn’t be good!! I told them if they asked me why so-and-so was doing this activity but they had to do that activity, I would tell them to let me see their elbow. 🙂 I think they totally got it!

I like to have my students help establish my class rules and norms. To prepare them for this, one of the books I read is Do Unto Otters. I read this to them yesterday.

It’s also on BookFlix which is really fun, but I forgot until after I read it. 🙁 Anyways, we talk about “the golden rule” and what it means after reading it, and then they tell me ways we can “do unto others.”

I follow it the next day (today) with the book, The Golden Rule. This is a really neat book that shares the golden rule in various religions and cultures. My school is VERY diverse, so it’s a great way to also talk about how there are lots of differences in our room, but that doesn’t mean we can’t believe the same thing.

From here, we create our class norms. I encourage them to think about what they want their classroom to be- the climate and community more than the “rules.” I haven’t finished creating our poster, so I’ll have to share it another day, but they did a great job coming up with their norms!

Another activity we did today was called, “Save Fred!” Click the link to see the “long version.” The short version: students must get a gummy lifesaver from under a cup and put it around a gummy worm without touching the worm or the gummy saver with their fingers. They may only use 4 paper clips (and mine were in groups of 4, so each person had one). The “cup” is the worm’s boat that has been knocked over by a big gust of wind- so the desk is the “sea” and Fred the Worm cannot fall into the sea more than once or he drowns. They had a lot of fun!! My class wasn’t as successful as other classes- only 3 of my 6 groups were able to do it… and now I can tell you who will NEVER work together in a group again! LOL!!

Just as promised in this post, my first hall display is super cute!! I bought some over-sized glasses at the dollar store and took pictures of my kids in them, starting on Meet Your Teacher Day (last Friday) and then I got the rest the first day. The students set goals for themselves for their 4th grade year and wrote them on the sunglasses, then cut out the blank side and put their picture behind it. 🙂