I CAN. NOT. BELIEVE. IT. IS. AUGUST!!! I'm excited to go back into my classroom, set it up, and plan lessons. I'm excited to meet my new students, too. What rattles my cage is having being on a schedule once August 19th arrives! I love summer mostly because I can do whatever is on my To-Do list at my own pace. Believe me, I am going to take full advantage of that these last few days of summer break. :)
So yesterday I decided to revise our lesson plans we use for the first three days of school. I was able to get into that focused, relaxed, motivated mode, and it was invigorating. I looked back at some of my favorite teacher sites I tagged this summer on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
The first site I reviewed was Not So Wimpy Third Grade Teacher. The author of this website is Jamie Sears. She has a wonderful Facebook group, TpT store, blog, and Instagram site. Her first day of school ideas are great. I have incorporated some of her activities to freshen up my own. We always like to add new ideas to our lesson so we don't get bored. My favorite idea on this site was reading aloud Words and Your Heart, by Kate Jane Neal. I bought this book last February to use for Valentine's Day writing, but it fits perfectly here. To go along with the read aloud, Jamie does the toothpaste activity. A fifth grade teacher friend of mine used to do this activity. I love it, but Anne and I have never used it with our class, so this is the year. It is a great SEL hands-on activity. Check it out. Jamie even gives you the templates for the toothpaste responses.
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| You can find all of this and more on this site. |
We are going to again read Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to be Who You Are, by Maria Dismondy. Anne and I have the students make a heart because it symbolizes so many of the messages in that book. There are repeated phrases in the book that include the word heart. Great connection between books, themes and symbolism.
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| Love this book. We read it for the first time last year. |
The next site is The Thinker Builder. The author of this site is Michael Friermood. He has several first day of school activities that get students up and moving. His "All About Me" Rollups seem so cool. I read about this after I had finished our plans, but you better believe I am going to incorporate this during our first three days of school. If we run out of time, then we will do it the following week. It's too cool to miss. He also created a spin on the traditional "People Search" called "Maze of New Friends." I love his blog and his TpT store. Check them out!
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| So excited to try this. It sounds cool and I think the boys will like it. |
Ok, I'm off to look over my plans, revise and add in some new cool ideas from the amazing teachers I just mentioned. Enjoy the last of your summer break.
Anne comes back from vacation tomorrow. She will look over our plans and make revisions if she thinks they need some. Maybe we will post those plans.
Kim
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