First Day Fun with Modeling Me!

It's the first day of school.

What are your goals for the day? 

For me, building relationships and establishing a classroom community is key to my lesson planning. 

I like to spend time getting to know my new students on a personal level. 

Plus, I want kids to make connections with kids.

We will be spending the next 10+ months together and will become a family of learners. 

What we do these first weeks together will help form a foundation of respect and acceptance. 

One way we can find out more about each others' likes and interests is through a first day activity called "Modeling Me".  

In this activity, students are given a bit of playdoh and get to model it into different shapes that tell something about themselves. 

Many kids feel anxious and worried on their first day in a new classroom. 

The act of manipulating the clay is also relaxing and calming...kind of like using a stress ball. 

I will "model" what to do with the clay first. 

I usually model it into the faces of my own two children and tell them a little about my family. 

Or I will model it into an airplane and tell students about my love of travel. 

Kids are really interested in their teachers!

Then I give them theirs and let them have at it. 

In the past, some kids modeled the clay into foods they like.....this student loves pizza.

Others use the playdoh and model it into their pet.

You could stop the activity right there and just have kids walk about viewing each others' creations. Or have them form a sharing circle to show and tell what they created. 

I often take it a step further and have them draw what they made and write a sentence or two about it. 

This student loves elephants and is drawing and writing about it.

We found out that this student loves football and plays for a team.

We have a gymnast in our classroom family!

I love this first week activity because it is both engaging and enlightening. 

I am sharing this "Modeling Me!" page in my TPT store. 

I'm making it a FREE resource because we all know that by this time in the summer teachers have spent their last dime on setting up their classrooms.

Just click the link below to grab a copy of this and other first day activities. 

Modeling Me First Day Activity

I'll be back to share more ideas and would love to have you join this community of teachers helping teachers!  Follow me on this blog, instagram and TPT!

Have a great first day with your new family!!

First Week of School: Teaching Rules through Poetry!

Ready or not...here they come!

School opens in 2 days in my county. 

I've been busy prepping my classroom and thinking through first week lessons. 

It seems each new year brings with it new blessings but also new challenges. 

Our classrooms are filled with students facing difficult and challenging life circumstances which in turn can greatly impact their behavior and thus their learning. 

So, I've decided to spend more time in the beginning of the year focusing on creating a well managed classroom environment. 

For me that means spending more time explicitly teaching my kids the what and why's of school rules.  They need to know what the rules are and why they are important. 

Then my plan is to enforce these rules fairly and consistently with positive and negative consequences. 

This will take time in the beginning, but I feel it is necessary and worth it. 

At the same time, I am itching to start teaching! 

So what I have decided to do is integrate the teaching of rules into my language arts block. 

I'm doing this with poetry which can help my students get practice with rhyming words and fluency development. I've written a poem on the topic of school rules and will use this one during the first weeks of school. 

I usually introduce a new poem through a whole group activity called, "Guess the Covered Word". 

Kids see this as a fun game, I see it as a way to get them to practice rhyming words and using context clues

Here's how it goes,
I display the first stanza of a poem but one of the words is covered. 

Students use dry erase boards and markers to write what that missing word might be. 

I call out some of the words students are showing and we "cross check" by reading it in the line to see if it makes sense.  In doing this, I am modeling how to "monitor" for meaning....a good reader strategy!

Dry Erase Paddles

Erasers

I then uncover the word and we practice chorally reading the stanza together. 

Then we proceed to the next stanza following the same steps.



We start with easy words, like the word "play" in the poem above.
Then I will challenge them more by covering up some of the words inside the lines so that they can not rely on using a rhyme to help them. 

Kids absolutely love "Guess the Covered Word"!

This poem will then get handed out for students to read again in a buddy reading station. 

I will work in opportunities for students to read it multiple times throughout the week.
Here is this poem copied in book form.
I will staple the books and kids can reread and color in the pages.
Adding an original page of their own.
Kids will also use these as a take home book to read aloud to parents.
Now parents and kids are both aware of our rules!
No excuses to misbehave, right?



It can go in my writing station yet another day so that kids read it again but this time must respond in writing as well.

They build fluency with each reading.

To reinforce the topic of rules, I have also created a board game for my kids to play.




I will cut out the cards and place all pieces in a bag so it is ready to go.
The game is super simple.
Kids will roll a dice to see how many spaces they will move.
Before moving, they will pick a card from the deck.
They read and discuss the behavior with their partner.
If the card states a positive behavior, they move that many spaces forwards.
If the card states a negative behavior, they move that many spaces backwards.

I think kids will have fun with this and it will also give them an opportunity to get to know some of their new friends in a game playing situation.

I can walk about and monitor reinforce good partner play behaviors.

As an additional partner practice activity, I created some puzzles that focus on rules.
I just printed out the page and cut it into different pieces and threw it in a baggie...all while watching Netflix....teacher life, right?

I will hand out baggies to partners and they can put together and then rotate to another one.
I'm going to have them read WHAT rule they got and then have a conversation about WHY the rule is important.



I can't wait to try this out with my new kids this year!

I am sharing all these in a set on my TPT store for any other teachers out there who think they need to spend some time on importance of rules and appropriate behavior.
Click the link below to check it out!



Teaching Rules Poetry Pack

Wish me luck on my first week back!
Would love to hear your ideas on creating a well managed classroom.
Please share by commenting below or email me at youngdor8@gmail.com!