Hey Friends,
If you were wondering where the Top 5 Freebies were yesterday, the first week of school had me beat, so they’ll be returning next week.
I have to tell you. I absolutely LOVE my new school, and I LOVE second grade! My students are fantastic, and I think it’s going to be an awesome year. 🙂
This week was a two day week, so we did a lot of typical beginning of the year things. Here are a couple of my favorites.
First, we made talked about goals. I have done this every year, and my kids always do a fantastic job. I read The Little Engine that Could and then each of my kiddos wrote out what their goal was.
I love this activity because a lot of kids haven’t heard this classic story. I have them predict if the train will or will not help each time, and they start to see the pattern. I also love to discuss how the little engine was small and weak but gave it’s all and could do it. 🙂
I didn’t take a picture of their goals, but a few were fantastic. I had one student who said that he wanted to “read 100 books and count to 1000” and another who said that he wanted to “be the best listener in the whole class” (love it! ;)). One little girl wrote that she wanted to “be kind to everyone” in addition to a few academic goals. There are perfect to display for back-to-school night. Parents always love to see their kiddo’s goals.
The next activity that we did was to create our classroom expectations together and then everyone signs them, even me. I always have the same 5 rules, but I let my students “come up” with them. We also discuss WHY they’re important.
This is actually from my first year. It’s kind of a mess (haha) but you get the idea. And yes, this messy version stayed on my wall ALL year because it had all of my kiddos signatures below.
The last activity I want to share with you comes with a freebie! 🙂
I absolutely LOVE the book Wemberly Worried, probably because I’m the inspiration for Wemberly (okay maybe not, but it wouldn’t surprise me). If you’ve never read it, it’s a MUST read.
Basically, this story is about a sweet little mouse who worried about every little thing. When it’s time to start school, she worried even more, but when she gets to school, she makes a friend and realizes it’s all okay. So, we read this together, and as we were reading, they had to write down 3 things Wemberly worried about. Then, they paired and shared what they wrote.
Next, I gave them these writing papers and had them write about the three things Wemberly worried about and then some things they worried about when school started. (I had a few kids who insisted they didn’t worry about anything, so instead I had them write “I didn’t worry when school started. Instead I felt _____ because _____” and it worked just fine.) They then glued them onto large construction paper, like the picture below, and I will put these up for back to school night also.
Click the picture to grab your freebie.
And last but not least, in two days, we’ve built up our Daily 5 Read to Self stamina to 5 minutes! Woohoo!
So there are just a few of my first few day activities. I hope you can use some of them. We had a great week, and now I will be spending today making sure everything is ready for next week.
Before I go, have you checked out the awesome Kindergarten bundle on educents yet? 24 resources worth $138, but YOU can get it for 29.99, but only for another 6 days! Make sure to check it out by clicking on of the pictures below. These are just a few of the items included.
Until next time,
