With a few visits to the school over the holidays, my classroom is ready for the first day back. I'm looking forward to using some New Year's Activities (toasts and resolutions) and implementing some new bulletin boards, centres and more.
There is nothing like starting the New Year with some new ideas.
Unfortunately, here in Windsor Ontario, the weather did not cooperate with what I had in mind for the first day back. No school buses were running today. I had 6 students show up in the morning. 6 out of 20 is not enough for me to run through all the activities planned. The good news is most of the classes had the same amount of students, so we partnered up and took advantage of the low numbers to spend some much needed time in the new technology centre.
Here is a look at some of the changes that were made to the classroom over the holidays. Can't wait to start using them. So many are thanks to the hard working teachers on teacher pay teacher!
Here is our Bump It UP board. We will begin the new year with focusing on our STRENGTHS and bumping up the level of our work. We will be revisiting past work and making it richer and bolder.
Every student has a strength they can use to improve their work. For some, it is word choice, or spelling, some students have great ideas, or choose incredible transition words, others have outstanding printing, or wonderful sentence fluency. Whatever their strengths are, we are going to acknowledge and celebrate them. I am hoping that focusing on the students strengths they will be able to rely on each other for some peer editing. I'm hoping they are able to go to the students who strengths might be their weakness and learn from each other.
Drama is something new that we are starting this first week back. The Drama in a Jar package activities is where we will begin. You can get this package here.
So if the buses run tomorrow we will be having fun with our New Year's Resolutions, and making a toast to the new year. This will be done with real toast, just the way I like them, with cinnamon and sugar. :)
Followed up by a writing activity.
The students will be using the latest freebie from TPT a New Year's resolution tree. They will learn about things we can do to improve on ourselves. This freebie was offered on Sunday with Teacher Pay Teacher. If your not a member it is free to join and every Sunday they send you a newsletter with a featured teacher, and lots of free activities. It is worth it to join!!!!!
There is nothing like starting the New Year with some new ideas.
Unfortunately, here in Windsor Ontario, the weather did not cooperate with what I had in mind for the first day back. No school buses were running today. I had 6 students show up in the morning. 6 out of 20 is not enough for me to run through all the activities planned. The good news is most of the classes had the same amount of students, so we partnered up and took advantage of the low numbers to spend some much needed time in the new technology centre.
Here is a look at some of the changes that were made to the classroom over the holidays. Can't wait to start using them. So many are thanks to the hard working teachers on teacher pay teacher!
Here is our Bump It UP board. We will begin the new year with focusing on our STRENGTHS and bumping up the level of our work. We will be revisiting past work and making it richer and bolder.
The muscle arms are for the students to write their strength's on.
Every student has a strength they can use to improve their work. For some, it is word choice, or spelling, some students have great ideas, or choose incredible transition words, others have outstanding printing, or wonderful sentence fluency. Whatever their strengths are, we are going to acknowledge and celebrate them. I am hoping that focusing on the students strengths they will be able to rely on each other for some peer editing. I'm hoping they are able to go to the students who strengths might be their weakness and learn from each other.
Drama is something new that we are starting this first week back. The Drama in a Jar package activities is where we will begin. You can get this package here.
So if the buses run tomorrow we will be having fun with our New Year's Resolutions, and making a toast to the new year. This will be done with real toast, just the way I like them, with cinnamon and sugar. :)
Followed up by a writing activity.
The students will be using the latest freebie from TPT a New Year's resolution tree. They will learn about things we can do to improve on ourselves. This freebie was offered on Sunday with Teacher Pay Teacher. If your not a member it is free to join and every Sunday they send you a newsletter with a featured teacher, and lots of free activities. It is worth it to join!!!!!
Another great find were these winter Frosty and Friends centre activities I purchased last year from Cara Carroll.
Finally, I want to share something that isn't new but I love and use all the time. When I walk around the room taking notes of the students work, I love using this idea on a clip board. Easy to do, and I can just keep replacing the cards. Hope you find it as useful as I do.
Have a great first week back. I am hoping tomorrow is not another snow day!
Although it is nice to get work done, I miss the fun with my students :)
Thank you
Christine
Here in Kingston, On, we had no buses and I had 6/22 students! Happy New Year!
ReplyDelete-Lisa
Grade 4 Buzz
Makes for a longer day for sure. What do you do with less than half of a class???? Have a great week, Lisa. :)
ReplyDeleteChristine