Are You Ready for Back to School?
A lot of teachers are unsure about what to do during the first week of school. Back to school can be a scary thing…even to veteran teachers. As standards, parents, expectations, and students change from year to year, it can be nerve-wracking to the point that you are so anxious the night before you can’t sleep! In my experience, I feel a lot better knowing that my classroom is ready, my lesson plans are ready, my activities are copied and ready to go, because the last thing you want on the first week of school is to still be decorating, copying, and running around crazy because you don’t have everything finished!
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you some of my mentor texts, anchor charts, craftivities, interactive notebooks, science investigations, and graphing activities that I do for back to school. Maybe this post will help you get some ideas so you’re not so anxious…well, maybe just a little! LOL
First Day of School:
Set the stage for the entire year. The second the students walk in, greet them with a hug or a handshake. I teach them my safe greetings as they come in and they get to choose which one they want to do together. Here is a picture of my safe greetings:
If you’re interested in my safe greeting resource, click here
Smile and be excited! Even though you’re nervous, try not to show it. The parents are nervous too! You’re going to have their child for many, many hours this year and they want to be reassured that you are the best fit for them.
On my student’s desks, I have a blank piece of white construction paper, a small tub of play-do, and their name tag. I tell the students to build something that resembles an activity or vacation they experienced over the summer. After they build their object, then they are going to color a picture using 8 crayons. I tell them this because it helps to give them a longer task to work on so I can meet and greet parents and students who are coming in late. This activity takes a good 20 minutes. Its just enough time for me to get everyone in, take pictures, greet parents and take everyone to their desk. Here is a pic of my desks on the first day of school:
Rules and Procedures:
I make a PowerPoint of all my classroom rules, procedures, and expectations. I sit all the students on the carpet and we go over all the rules. This might take 2-3 sittings, but it is so worth it. I put pictures on my PowerPoint of my class from last year so they can see what it looks like. We practice these routines:
1.) Sitting on the carpet: criss-cross applesauce
2.) Sitting in our desks: with tummies up
3.) Putting our backpack on our chair with both straps down
4.) Exchanging pencils from the pencil pails
5.) Raising our hand to speak and not blurting out
6.) Mr. Clicker Attention Getter: the students all look at me when I click Mr. Clicker- so they freeze and stop talking. We practice this about 100 times the first week!
7.) Counting down from 10: all tummies are pushed in and the students have their thumbs up ready to listen.
8.) Organizing their community tubs and what’s inside of them.
9.) Using the restroom and flushing and washing our hands.
10.) Pushing our chairs in when we get up.
11.) Walking quietly to line up, with our wings and bubbles.
12.) Walking in the hallway quietly for secret walker.
13.) Earning bonus bucks for the treasure box.
14.) Saying “Thank you” when called on.
15.) Farm Contest: what is looks like and sounds like
If you’re interested in reading about my Behavior Management Tips and Tricks, click here. It will explain about my Desk Contest.
Or, if you’re interested in seeing my Behavior Management resource, click here.
These are just a few of the rules and procedures we discuss. Now, on to the academic and fun part! I think it would be easier for me to show you activities, mentor texts, and craftivities for each subject.
Reading Activities:
Let’s start with reading!
I like doing a Kevin Henkes Author Study at the beginning of the year. I have his picture and photos of books in my Author Study center. In the colored bins, I have all of his books and book buddies.
If you’re interested in checking out some of my Kevin Henkes linking literature resources, click here for Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, and click here for Chrysanthemum. Click here for Wemberly Worried.
If you’re interested in checking out my Kevin Henkes Author Study resource, click here. Other books that are in the resource are: Chester’s Way, Julius the Baby of the World and Owen. Here are some examples of writing craftivities that we do with Kevin Henkes:
Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse
Chrysanthemum
Wemberly Worried
Here are some interactive anchor charts and interactive notebooks that I use for reading:
How Do We Treat Books?
What is Your Schema?
Text to Self Connection
I Can’t is Buried
If you’re interested in checking out my interactive notebooks and anchor charts resource, click here
Kissing Hand Craftivity
If you’re interested in checking out my linking literature resource for The Kissing Hand, click here. We talk about how our emotions were the same as Chester Raccoon, and then we make this craftivity:
Learning Our Initials with The Letters Are Lost
Writing Activities:
Writing Mentor Texts
Here are some interactive anchor charts and interactive notebooks that I use for Writing:
Write From Your Heart
Student Dictionary for Writer’s Workshop
If you’re interested in the writing/spelling dictionary, click here
If you’re interested in checking out my Writer’s Workshop resource, click here.
Poetry Activities:
Focus Poetry:
Who doesn’t love poetry! Here’s a back to school poem called Special Me. I have poetry interactive notebooks with a weekly poem. We read the poem whole group as a shared reading, then we go over parts of speech and punctuation. The students get to glue in the poem and illustrate their mental image.
If you’re interested in checking out my focus poetry bundle, it has weekly poems for every month and holiday. Click here for the bundle. You can also purchase the fall and spring resources separately. Here is an example of my poetry center. This is where I display all of my weekly poems. The bundle also has these poems in large font to make your posters.
Math Activities:
Math Mentor Texts
Math Interactive Anchor Charts and Interactive Notebooks.
What are Mathematicians?
Click here for the Gumball Graphing Craftivity
Click here for the Button Graph Craftivity
Click here for my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom graphing craftivity.
If you’re interested in my math interactive notebooks and anchor charts, click here
If you’re interested in my graphing math unit with teddy bear counters, building blocks, buttons, letters, fingerprints, eyes, hair, names, and snap cubes, click here!
All About Me Activities:
All About Me Mentor Texts
All About Me Craftivities
If you’re interested in this family tree resource, click here
A Rainbow of My Own
Super Cute Bulletin Board!
If you’re interested in A Rainbow of My Own resource, click here
The Little Engine That Could
If you’re interested in The Little Engine that Could resource, click here. This resource is perfect for teaching optimism and growth mindset!
Science Activities:
Science Mentor Text
If you’re interested in check out my science interactive notebooks and anchor charts, click here
First Day of School Science Experiment: The Blooming Flower
All you need is the flower and a bowl of water. That’s it! Super easy to prepare!
This experiment will excite your students on the first day of school! Simply cut out a white flower (don’t color it) and fold up the petals. Then have your students predict what will happen to the flower? Will it sink? Float? Will it collapse? Show your students the scientific method vocabulary cards and model a hypothesis. Then place the flower inside a bowl of water still folded up and watch the magic happen! The petals will unfold and turn into an open flower! Your students will get so excited about science that they will want to do more! I also send home a flower for my students to experiment and teach their parents. They LOVE this!
If you’re interested in check out my Blooming Flower resource, click here
If you’re interested in checking out my Fahrenheit Friday BUNDLE with science experiments and investigations for the whole year, click here
And there you have it! I know it seems like a lot, but you know what they say…its better to plan too much than to plan too little. I hope you got some great ideas for the first week of school and I hope everyone has a fantastic school year! Please comment below and follow my blog! Happy Teaching!
Love, Kara
P.S.) If you’re interested in checking out my Farmhouse Decorated classroom- click here!
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