First Day of School

I survived... the first day of school! Wow, I always forget how much talking is required during the first week of school with explaining class guidelines and procedures. I even use a microphone, and my voice was still tired by the end of the day. Maybe I just got too excited, and couldn't handle talking quietly :).

Remember these? I posted these letters that my kiddos wrote for the incoming second grade class at the end of last school year. This morning, they were waiting on the desks of my new students, along with a summer memory page. They were able to read the letter and work on the page this morning while we were getting supplies labeled and put away. Once we were all cleaned up, I was able to use these two activities as an icebreaker. We talked about their summer (because you know you can't get anything done until they have shared about all the fun they had), and they were able to share things that they looked forward to in second grade because they had read the letters.

This year, one of my teammates had the idea of having a photo booth on the first day of school. I did not have so much of a "booth", but I did make a fun frame and set aside an area with leis and giant sunglasses. I bought the picture frame at a thrift store, printed out letters in a fun font on card stock, and then traced them on to foam in my classroom colors: orange, lime green, red, and teal blue. Once I get the pictures printed, they will go up on the "Second Grade Smiles" board in the front of the classroom.

I couldn't resist having my teammate take a picture of me with the frame. I am excited that this is now my seventh first day of school, if that makes sense! It seems like I just started teaching; time sure does fly!

You might be wondering why I have a picture of two and a half brownies in a tray on my blog post. This is all that is left after my "following directions brownie activity". Here is how it goes: I displayed a simple brownie recipe and told the students that we were going to make brownies, but I "forgot" a lot of the ingredients. We substitute flowers for flour, and soda for baking soda, along with a lot of other things. It made a gross looking, gooey mess. I put them outside in the sun to "bake" and right before lunch, we realized that they had not made brownies. My students recognized that I had not followed the directions on the recipe, so in turn I got yucky brownies. We talked about how that applies to our school work when we forget to read the directions before starting. We want yummy brownie papers, not yucky brownie work. Luckily, I had some brownies already made, and my students were stoked to eat some brownies on the first day of school. I will keep referring to this activity throughout the year whenever students forget to follow directions on an assignment. It is such a great illustration that really connects with them.

If you started school this week, I hope that the rest of the week goes smoothly. Enjoy meeting your new students and figuring out how to engage them in learning!