First Day of School 2013

I'd say the first day of school was a success.  I had a great day with my new class!  I was so impressed with their behavior--I've never had a group of students SO well-behaved on the first day.  Can you believe I didn't even introduce my behavior management plan?!  I'm going to do that Monday.  I just didn't have to mention it yesterday! 

Oh yes, yesterday.  We did something a little different this year.  Our first day of school was on Friday.  I LOVED this idea!  I am always so exhausted after the first day of school, so it was nice to have a weekend to recuperate.  The first day is mostly about procedures anyway, so I feel that the Friday-start-day is wonderful. 

For the first week and a half, I really hit hard on procedures.  Like I said in my last post, I follow the suggestions in Harry Wong's book, The First Days of School, to a tee.  I not only explain procedures to my students, but I have them rehearse the procedures as well.  I think this was a new concept for some of my kiddos.  A few of them commented that they had never "practiced" procedures before; teachers in the past have just told them what to do.  For example, I explained how I want my students to walk down the hall (stay on the right side; hands by your side; straight line; no talking) and then I said, "Okay, let's rehearse."  We lined up and actually practiced walking down the hallway like I had explained.  When they followed the procedure correctly, I praised them and said, "Yes!  Now that's how I expect you to walk down the hallway at all times."  If a child did not follow the procedure correctly, I'd simply remind them of what I expected.  We did this for everything that I introduced: what to do when you come into the classroom, how to hand papers in, what to do if the teacher steps out of the room, how the teacher will quiet the class, etc.  To read more about my procedures, CLICK HERE.

When I shared with the class that I was going to teach them how to properly wash their hands, they all looked at me like I was crazy!  I explained how proper hand washing is important and then we began a little experiment.  (I think I got this idea from Pinterest.)  I passed around a piece of bread and had everyone touch it with their dirty hands.  We put it in a Ziploc bag and labeled it.  Then I had the students use Germ-X and passed around another slice of bread.  Again, we placed it in a labeled bag.  Finally, we went into the kitchen and I showed them how to wash their hands.  Many of them didn't realize that you're not supposed to touch the faucet with your clean hands after you wash them.  You should dry your hands completely and then turn off the faucet with a paper towel.  They also didn't know to wash your wrists and under your nails.  Once everyone's hands were clean, we passed around one last slice of bread and placed it in a labeled bag:

My students guessed what would happen to the bread.  We will have to wait a few days and see...

To break up the monotony of learning procedures, I led the students in a couple of Brain Breaks.  I have an entire Brain Break notebook that I put together and I also use videos, but on the first day I simply shared some Silly Songs with them.  I lead the Silly Songs myself even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket.  These kids better get used to me singing because I do it all the time! 

Eventually, I was able to introduce our math unit.  Our first chapter is on whole numbers up to one million.  I wanted to get an idea of the students' number sense, so I gave everyone a "secret number" written on a folded index card and told them not to show their number to anyone.  Some of the numbers were negative and then I had others listed all the way up to billions.  I rigged up a "number line" at the front of the room using yarn and two chairs and had the students come up three at a time and place their number in the correct spot:

The students did a great job and we had a good discussion about negative numbers and comparing/ordering numbers.

 

This year, I am assigning an "All About Me" Math Poster as a way for the students to introduce themselves.  I usually do an "All About Me" bag and they bring in items to represent what they like to do, etc.  Here's my model for the math poster:

Aside from math, I was able to teach a geography lesson on map projections.  I use an orange to demonstrate how it is impossible to take something round and flatten it out without there being any distortions.  To read more about this activity, click here.

The students had a great time with this!

To wrap up the day, I ended with a Hershey Kiss game.  I got this from my principal during my first year of teaching.  Have the students begin in a seated position and then have them stand up or sit down if they can relate to a statement you make.  For example, "Stand up if you are an FSU fan," "Sit down if you are an only child," etc.  The last statement should be something like, "Stand up/sit down if you received a kiss this morning."  Most 5th graders will NOT want to admit this, so I say, "Aw!  Everyone should get a kiss on the first day of school!" and pull out a bag of Hershey's Kisses. 

 

I think all my students left happy on the first day.  :)

Orientation and Classroom Reveal

Today our school had Orientation and I was able to meet all but one of my students.  Tomorrow is the first day of school and I'm so excited!  I've heard great things about this group and I can't wait to get to know them. 

 

In this post I'll quickly share what my classroom looks like and then I'll have to get back to reading The First Days of School by Harry Wong.  I just love that book!  I read it every year before going back to school.

 

About a week and a half ago, I went back to my classroom and discovered it looking like this:



After many hours of work, this is what it looked like first thing this morning:

The yellow and blue balloons (our school colors) were put up just for fun; they were attached to a yummy snack of S'mores Trail Mix that I made for my students.  I put Golden Grahams cereal, mini marshmallows, and Hershey's chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag.  So good!  I printed the cute labels from Janis Noble's blog.    

I personalized a message for each child on a postcard and placed it on top of the general info for 5th grade.

 

I created a brochure of information for the parents because (if they are like me) they don't want to read through pages and pages of information--especially if they have more than one child.  I wanted to keep things short and sweet.  Here's my brochure that I made through Vista Print:

Okay, back to the classroom reveal.  In the corner just to the left as you walk in my room, you'll see this:

I love how my Dum-Dum sucker bouquet turned out:

On their birthday, the students will be able to choose a birthday balloon (attached to a silly straw) and select a couple of suckers.  They will also get to wear a birthday shirt (which I created through Vista Print):

If they don't want to wear the shirt, it can be placed on their chair:

Moving along...we are starting a new math program this year called Math in Focus (Singapore Math) and we will be using Every Day Counts Calendar Math to go along with it.  Here's my bulletin board for the month of August:

To the right of that is a student computer and the cubbies:

I edited labels from Kristen Doyle's TPT store and stuck them to my containers to keep things more organized:

I rearranged my room only slightly from last year--here's a small area where students can read:

Looking at the front of the room:

And facing the last wall (sorry if the balloons are distracting):

I did get a small book display this year so I can put informational texts there that relate to our units of study:

Finally, facing my classroom door:

 

I love the countertop space I have with this long bookcase.  For Orientation, I set out sign-up sheets for volunteers and I also placed "Helping Hands" along the edges.  These are things from my classroom wish list; I printed out items that I want/need and listed the approximate cost as well as where the item(s) could be purchased.  Parents could take a hand, if they wanted, and fulfill the wish list item.

Well, that's my classroom.  Gotta get back to reading now.  I'll let you know how the first day of school goes.



Summer 2013 and Back-to-School Planning

Tomorrow, I will be going back to school!  My first day is August 7th, but the students' first day isn't until August 16th.  Our in-service is over a week long!  I'm excited to go back.  I don't yet know who will be in my class, but I do know most of the kiddos coming into 5th.  I requested a 4th grade roster before I left for summer and have been praying over all the student names on the list.

So besides putting a lot of prayer into this upcoming school year, what else have I been doing this summer?  Honestly, I worked a lot over the summer on school stuff.  Our school has an accreditation team visit to prepare for and all the teachers have been required to complete a million hours of paperwork.  Seriously.  We are having to recreate all of our units and complete something called a Unit Template; each one took me around one and a half hours to finish.  I did about 40 Unit Templates, even though there are close to 100 total.  Two other people are helping out with 5th grade's Unit Templates.  That was my focus during the month of June.

Once July came, I was able to take a few trips and spend some time with family and friends.  My husband and I took a vacation to the Florida Keys.  We stayed in Key Largo, but traveled down to Key West and everywhere in between.  We celebrated our 5th anniversary on our last day in the Keys.  We spent the week snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, and sight-seeing; it was a great trip!

Once we returned from the Keys, we spent a couple of days visiting with family in Orange Beach, Alabama.  Finally, I went to Mississippi for a week to visit my family.  After three weeks of traveling, it was good to get back home.

Over the past couple weeks, I have been working on a few Pinterest projects for my classroom.

I created an "All About the Teacher" book:

I bought the editable version from Brooke Hilderbrand's Teachers Pay Teachers store, which you can access by clicking HERE.  She has great stuff! 

I added Pom-Poms to my dry erase markers to create attached erasers for my students to use with their individual dry erase boards:

I bought a touch light from Dollar Tree and added stickers that read, "NO QUESTIONS."  When I'm working with a group (or conferencing with an individual student) and the light is on, we may not be interrupted.

I bought a bell (I've gone my entire teaching career with no bell.  I find them annoying, but I have a specific plan for how I will use this one in my classroom).  The store only had red.  I didn't like the red color so I painted it:

I created a "1st Day of School" photo frame since I always take pictures of my students on the first day.  I found an old large frame that had been stashed in our office closet, took out the glass and picture, painted it, and used Christine Maxwell's space decorations on the edges. 

This is perfect décor since the highlight of 5th grade is our Space Camp trip!  Visit Mrs. Maxwell's TPT store by clicking HERE. 

I made Birthday Balloons attached to silly straws:

I created a class set of whisper phones with PVC pipe from The Home Depot.  I've never used these with 5th grade, but so many of my students from last year were intrigued with the one whisper phone I had in my classroom (saved from when I tutored younger readers) that I decided to make a set available for students who may want to use them in reading groups.

Add some decorative Duct Tape to bump up the cuteness factor and we're good to go:

I'm in the middle of three other projects--a Dum-Dum Sucker Bouquet, an "I Didn't Do My Homework" binder to hold students accountable, and "Helping Hands" to display my classroom wish list for Open House.  Below are pictures of these projects from Pinterest; I'll post mine once I finish:

I've also been working on a non-Pinterest project.  I bought The Complete Book of Presidents & States, which I thought would be great for my classroom. 

In it I found a sticker page of all the states and their abbreviations.  I decided I would use this page to create a state identification challenge for my students...I think I'll call it "State Scramble" or something.  I used white-out to cover the abbreviations (after copying the page, of course), then I numbered the states with a Sharpie.  The students' task will be to correctly identify the numbered states.  It's quite tricky because the states aren't shown to scale; for example, Rhode Island looks larger than Arkansas!  The students will really need to know the shapes.  How many bonus points should I give the first student who identifies them all correctly?  ;)

I was able to go to school last week and check out my classroom.  I wanted to get my game-plan together on how to clean up the mess from summer.  I also wanted to go ahead and get my Back-to-School bulletin board out of the way.  I will tell ya--I hate putting up bulletin boards.  I don't know if it's because I put too many up as a child or what.  In 5th AND 6th grade, I was the official "Bulletin Board Putter Upper" for my teachers...and I loved it.  Not anymore.  Last year, I had a little guy who really enjoyed helping me decorate the bulletin board.  After his first offer to help, I was like, "Hey!  Would you like to put up the next one...on your own?"  Yes!  He did a fantastic job!  I simply showed him a picture of what I wanted (I've taken pics of all my boards and put them on file to help jog my memory) and he put it up.  At the end of the year I asked him, "What am I going to do next year without my Bulletin Board Assistant?!"  Man, I miss that kid!

Anyway, I had the idea to display letters that my 5th grade students from last year wrote to the 5th graders this year.  I would simply post "WELCOME" on the board and that would be that for the first week of school.  Kids could read the letters at their leisure, or the letters could be a great conversation piece at Orientation, the day before school.  I had great plans!  I used thumb tacks to sort of position everything and it looked awful!  It was information overload and I just could not deal!  So...I think I have an idea for a different Back-to-School board and I won't have to change the background or border.  I'll have to reveal it once it's done.  The letters, though, will still be read by the students and I'll even provide a link if you'd like to have your students write to the next class in the future. 

You should be able to edit it as needed--CLICK HERE.  As always, the font (and size) is distorted.  I'm not sure why that happens when I post these Google Docs.  Oh well. 

Finally, I was able to catch up on some reading and check out 5th grade literature that I hadn't read before.  I've got some great read alouds for this year!

As you can see, I had a busy, yet fun, summer.  I was able to get a lot of work done and still had some time to relax.  I had a wonderful break, but I'm ready to get back into my classroom!