First Week of School

I had a great first week of school with my new class!  I am really enjoying this group.  They are very sweet, obedient, and attentive, and that makes me one happy teacher!

 

This week, the children learned a lot of procedures.  I went over everything they need to know about how our classroom is supposed to run.  We learned day-to-day procedures, Crisis Management procedures (i.e. fire drills, tornado drills, code issues, etc.), and their favorite--rainy day recess procedures!  I don't want to wait until the first rainy day recess to have to explain what we do.  I showed the students our classroom board games and explained how to play them.  Then, I allowed small groups to play for about 10-15 minutes:    

The students learned how to play Clue, Sequence (States and Capitals), UpWords, and UNO.  They already knew how to play Connect Four.  Now, when our first rainy day recess happens, it won't be as hectic as it has been in the past (hopefully!).

Right now in geography, we are learning map skills.  I wanted to see how much the students already knew about the continents and oceans, so I introduced an activity called "Rip the World."  I wrote about this activity last year, so CLICK HERE for the details.  It's a fun and quick assessment. 

This year, I gave the students 10 minutes to complete the activity.  They had to label the continents, oceans, and the Equator and Prime Meridian. 

We also reviewed the states and capitals this week.  The students loved this video that I showed: 

Another thing we all loved--MATH!  We started a new math program this year--we are switching from Saxon to Math in Focus (Singapore Math).  My students really enjoy the manipulatives (both hands-on and digital). 

They also get individual dry erase boards to show their work on and this is so much better than pencil/paper dont'cha know?!  Over the summer, I had someone cut 1ft by 1ft square boards for me and they work very well.  

In writing, I shared that I want the students' writing to really "POP" this year.  I introduced figurative language, and we focused on onomatopoeia words.  To introduce the lesson, I gave each child a package of Pop Rocks:  

Finally, here's a fun video about figurative language:CLICK HERE (because the video couldn't be embedded).