A couple of years ago I shared this picture over here and wrote about my first week plans. I have one post for
Teamwork and Growth Mindset activities, and another post for first week
Mentor Texts. Check out those links if you want. :)
I wanted to share how this has morphed into my current plan for the first week. Most of it is still the same, but I have changed a bit too. This isn't everything, but these are my goals for the days that first week.
First Day of School:
*First Day Powerpoint: On the first day my brain is usually scattered with a lot of things to go over, and sometimes I forget the simplest thing... like recess. A few years ago I made up a powerpoint with everything on it. I'll share about it more in another post. Then I just click through the day. Sometimes I don't even share the slides with the kids, it's just my checklist so I cover what I need to cover.
*Read Aloud (am): The Important Book and hand art project. They trace their hands and then decorate the paper with whatever colors, words, and pictures that describe them, then they cut them out. These get hung around our window for the year, reminding them about how participation is important.
*Independent Work: Letter to me - Kids share what they already know about 5th grade, what they want me to know about them, and what they are looking forward to.
*After lunch read aloud (pm): Juice Box Bully and taking the pledge - they sign their names around the pledge and it makes an instant poster for our class. I like keeping the visual up all year.
*Brainstorm rules for our classroom - what are most important? I have a bunch of memes in that first day powerpoint that I share before we brainstorm.
*Class Motto - Work Hard, Be Kind. We have a class discussion and then we brainstorm on another poster that is then hung up.
*Independent Work: Student Survey link - Last year I put a student survey into Survey Monkey - asked about their favorites - books, ice cream flavors, home life, hobbies, sports, etc.
2nd Day:
*Morning Meeting - What are 4 wishes you would make? We also go over what our typical morning meeting will entail.
*Read Aloud - Rock Paper Scissors and discussion about teamwork
*Independent Work:
I am Poem and then volunteers share. I collect from everyone whether they share or not.
*STEM Engineering Activity: They need a piece of paper and scissors, then work with teammates to figure out how to recreate the picture. I use this
website to help with the lesson.
*I Like My Neighbor Who Game: We get up and moving, learning about each other. Chairs in a circle around edges of room, one chair missing. Whoever without a chair says, "I like my neighbor who __ (example: is wearing tie shoes)" and only those kids would switch seats. Then the new person would come up with another unifying factor - has a sibling, likes to read, is in 5th grade... and they keep playing. They LOVE this game, and they love it when their teacher plays too. This is what kept us sane last year during distance learning, we played it a lot the last 5 minutes of each day, turning on cameras to show unity.
*
Math 4th grade review: I have task cards that I stick around the room, and we practice the Scoot rules. Kids create a grid on their copy paper, and they scoot around to the different cards, answering math questions from last year. They write their name on the paper, and we go over it afterward so they can check their work, then they turn in their papers so I can get a glance at what they remember. It's not anything official, but it does help with learning procedures and expectations.
*Independent Work: District ELA Pretest
3rd Day:
*Meeting - How can we show kindness to others?
*Toilet Paper Time! - Pass around rolls of TP and they take how much they think they will need. This gets silly... After everyone has their amount, they need to share a fact about themselves for each square of TP. You can do this whole class or in small groups - usually I do small groups due to time, then everyone shares one fact they learned about their table mates. It leads to a nice discussion about group work - that discussions need to have everyone contributing, but that one person shouldn't hog the entire conversation.
*Set up our ELA notebook - Reading vs. Writing: We label the tops of some pages in our notebook. In the Reading section we write the different strategies and skills on the top of a page, so we can fill them in when we are reviewing.
*Reading: We start reading Frindle and go over Setting and Character.
*Mentor Sentence: The
Golden Rule - we start our first Mentor Sentence (from
Jessica Ivey) and fill in the notebook.
*Summary Writing: We go over expectations for summaries and add them in our notebook.
*Math Book Look Through - What do you notice? Does it look like fourth grade? What's the same?
*Independent Work: District Math Pretest
*Game: Would you Rather. I have the set of cards from the game in my classroom, and I also picked up a couple of TPT powerpoint slides for even more options - one from
Hollie Griffith and one from
DiGiGoods. Past years' classes have loved this game. It's fun to have them get up and the kids have to move from one side of the classroom to the other depending on their answer.
4th Day:
*Morning Meeting - What is your favorite fall activity?
Reading Materials (Wonders) Look Through - What do you notice? What will we use? What are the expectations? What is the same as 4th grade?
*Math Notebook: Set up math notebook with affirmations on the first couple of pages, then create a multiplication table inside.
*First Math Lesson and continue Frindle
*Cactus Lesson: Growth Mindset - I have artificial cacti around my entire room as reminders of this lesson. We read about cacti and connect them to growth mindset.
Fancy Free in 4th has a great lesson I use, and then we brainstorm goals for the year.
*Paper Chain Growth Mindset Challenge: Kids work in teams to take a single paper and make the longest chain possible. This works on discussion and it is a team competition, all in good fun.
5th Day of 5th Grade:
*Partner Walks and Reflections: On Friday mornings the kids come in and I use Class Dojo to make partners. Partners switch from week to week for the kids to mix up. We have a lawn right outside our room that I instruct the kids to walk around as they talk over their reflections for this week.
What is something you are proud of?
What is something you learned?
What is a goal for next week?
They can both have a chance to share in one lap. It takes about 5 minutes. Then they come in and we go over it together.
*Essential Question Grid: On my whiteboard we have a chart of Essential Questions, I Can statements, and I Know I Can Because... Fridays are the day we go over the I Know I Cans. Table groups discuss, and then they share out. Sometimes I have the kids write on post its individually, sometimes as a group. But this is when we fill it in.
*
Back to School Escape Room: Another teamwork challenge with 4 different tasks to tackle. This is new this year, but I'm super excited to see them do it.
*Book Tasting!!! During recess, lunch, or PE (whenever there is time), I set up our Book Tasting. All the materials came from
Joanne Miller. We go over our favorite genres, and then I give them time to look through my books. Last year with distance we did it all through our anthology, this next year I don't know yet if they will be able to touch the same materials. But somehow we will be doing it.
*40 Book Challenge and Class Library Grand Opening - We go over the challenge for the year, I introduce Book Talks, Book Beads, and the goals. We create a class graph of favorite genres, and I let them choose 3 books to have at their desk at all times. Reading is our go to when there is any waiting involved.
*SS Book Look Through - What do you notice? What are expectations for the SS Notebook?
*Independent Work: Letter to Self - What do they want to accomplish this year? They write it down and get it back at the end of the year. What promises can they make to themselves?
*Fun Friday: Yep, first week everyone better be able to participate. We go over options if they have everything done. Lots of STEM stuff. Still waiting to hear what they will be allowed to do this year. What they are allowed to do together, vs have to do alone? What materials they are allowed to touch? We'll see...
Okay - this is a general outline of my first week. We usually also have an assembly with admin, have to go pick up our textbooks, and practice procedures a ton. I hope that we are allowed to start House groups again too, where we mix up the entire grade level into groups we call Houses. We usually kick that off the first week too, those every other week meetings are when we go over our Social Emotional curriculum.
Hope it helps someone!
