First Week Lesson Plans

My first week almost always looks the same as past years.  A little tweak here and there, but mainly the same concepts - building a class community through a bunch of team building activities, learning about student work habits and personalities, and of course a lot of practice of routines, rules, and expectations.

Please don't judge my handwriting... :) Here are my main go to activities/read alouds for my 4th grade classroom.  Many of these ideas can be used in multiple grade levels. 

Read Alouds:

*Have You Filled a Bucket (My intro. into our rules)

*First Day Jitters (Mentor Text for First Week)

*G is for Golden 

(CA History Intro.)

*7 Habits of Happy Kids (I read one habit per day the first 2 weeks of school, then we brainstorm how we can model that behavior.)

Team Building Activities

*Save Fred (teamwork with a partner - involves gummy worms, peach rings, paper clips, and plastic cups)

*Puzzle Races (teamwork with a small group using small boxes of puzzles)

*Fourth Day of Fourth Grade (teamwork with a small group, centers practice)

Math Activities

*Find Someone Who

*Math About Me

*Practice MATH Workshop Routine

(Not full speed, practice rules/expectations, one station per day)

M= Math Facts

A = At Seat

T = Teacher Time (I save this until later on)

H = Hands On 

Writing Activities

*Welcome Booklet (Great filler for those first days of school)

*Set Up our Grammar Notebook

(Mentor Sentences, Word of the Day, Parts of Speech)

*I am Poem (I hang these up as an easy bulletin board for BTSN)

*Heart Map (What do they love?  Great look into what's important to them, and then we put into our classwork folder for quick write options)

*Start Mentor Sentences

Reading Activities

*Set up our Reading Notebook

(Genres, Strategies, Themes)

*Start my version of Daily 5

(IPICK lesson, What does Read to Self look like, What does Read to Someone look like)

It's a busy week, but a memorable one.  :)  I hope this helped someone.  In case you haven't heard, today and tomorrow there is a TPT Best Year Ever Teacher Appreciation Sale going on.  My store is also on sale, including all the bundles, and you can get an additional 10% off with the code BESTYEAR.  :)

Have a great day!