Back to School in the New Year

Happy New Year!!

We are heading back to school next week after a nice, long winter break and I wanted to share what I do during the first week back to ensure a successful new year:

 
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  1. Confetti Welcome

Nothing says, “WELCOME! I MISSED YOU! HAPPY NEW YEAR!” like a splash of confetti as you enter the classroom on the first day back to school in January. Here’s what I do to set this scene:

  1. I use astro bright paper and chop it into small squares to use as confetti.

  2. I play “It’s a Good Time” by The Deekompressors and plug in our classroom disco light .

2. review Classroom routines

Arguably the most important part of your first week back to school is reviewing classroom routines and procedures with your kids. December is typically the month that routines go out the window so picking up the pieces in January and reestablishing procedures will make all the difference in the second half of the school year. Here is what we do:

  1. We learn new call-and-responses to keep things fresh.

  2. We play “Trash-ketball” (a basketball game) to review all the most important classroom procedures.

  3. Students apply for new classroom jobs because I can’t do it all myself!

 
 

3. Set gOALS: Looking forward

 
 

We take the time to reflect on last year and set goals for the year ahead. We have three activities we complete the first week back:

  1. New Year Resolution Horns and Hats: We review what resolutions are and how to set realistic goals in this simple writing activity. It also makes a super easy bulletin board!

  2. New Year Character Trait Light Bulb Craft & Activity: We review character traits and students share how they will demonstrate certain character traits in the new year.

  3. Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset Activity: This is the perfect time to discuss the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset and helps kids start the year off on the right foot.

 
 

welcome back and happy teaching!

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Engaging Halloween Activities for the Classroom

Cue the crazy! Halloween is such an exciting time but as a teacher it can be a daunting week. Below are my top 10 Halloween activities to keep things engaging for students in the classroom:

 
 

10. Halloween Themed Call & Responses

Sometimes, things get a little loud around Halloween ;) Get your students to quickly focus their attention on you with these fun halloween themed call & responses.

 
 

9. Construct a Haunted House

Everyone loves a hands-on-projects! This activity includes math and arts-n-crafts in one engaging package. Kids will solve addition and subtraction problems to earn pumpkins (currency) which they can then spend on construction materials to build their haunted houses.

 
 

8. Crime Scene Inferencing Activity

Terrify the students with an elaborate crime scene in the classroom! Kids will have to use the evidence from the crime scene, their thoughts and background knowledge to infer and draw conclusions about what happened at the crime scene.

 
 

7. Grammar House of Horror

Is there anything more terrifying than poor grammar? In this activity students will practice identifying tricky homophones, sentence types and subjects/predicates.

 
 

6. Magic Math Potions

Channel your inner potion master, decorate the classroom like a Harry Potter dungeon and have students create their own magical math potions! Students will conceal their potion ingredient amounts with math. Variables, order of operations, or subtraction— choose your poison ;)

 
 

5. Spin-a-Spooky-Story

Decorate the classroom like an enchanted forest and invite students to bring in their favorite lawn chair! Spin some spooky stories around a fake little camp fire! Set the mood with dim lights, black lights and some haunted forest music!

 
 

4. Bat-sketball

A mix of math, bats, and basketball sounds like a great lesson! In this activity, students will solve subtraction problems for a chance to play bat-sketball and earn points.

 
 

3. Monster Multiplication

Ready for a multiplication monster mash party? Students will practice their multiplication skills while getting to play pin the witch’s hat on the monster.

 
 

2. Build-a-Word-Problem Halloween Themed

Word problems can be tricky so breaking down the structure of certain types of word problems can be incredibly helpful for students. Once they have mastered the structure, students can build their own Halloween themed word problems and share them with their friends.

 
 

1. Halloween Stations

Keep the chaos in check on Halloween this year by rotating students through 6 engaging stations!

 
 

Back to School

Here we go again…

Like it or not, the first day of school is rapidly approaching! A few days ago, @GiftedTeacher305 started a great IGTV series on engaging back to school lessons. I had the opportunity to share two of my favorite first day of school activities. You can find my video on IG @SpaidsInTheClassroom but I thought I would share them here too.

First Day of School Challenge

There is nothing my 4th graders like more than a “challenge”! So we start off right away with this easy-to-print packet. Students work their way through various tasks: a word search, multiplication facts and a writing prompt. Each task leads to a clue that will tell students what to do next.

 
 

It takes me about 5 minutes to prepare for our very first lesson in 4th grade (#winning)! I print these packets on colorful Astro Bright paper and hand them out as students walk in the door! This activity takes about an hour— I play music and students leisurely complete the work. The beauty of having this independent challenge at the beginning of the day is that it leaves me free to get to know each student and watch how students interact with each other.

Get to Know Me

After the back to school challenge we play a get to know me game of musical chairs or pass the parcel. I love these two old-fashioned birthday party games and use them a lot throughout the year to make task cards more exciting.

 
 

These games are super quick and easy. Either print out these ready-made task cards or jot down a few of your own get-to-know-you questions.

Let me know if you try either of these activities and have a great first week back to school!