Day 1: Interactive Notebooks (Language Arts journal, as it’s becoming known to my students). I started out having my students write Table of Contents on the first page of their notebooks. Although I downloaded the amazing Interactive Student Notebook pack from A Teacher’s Treasure, I didn’t really feel like using up some of my precious white paper supply on printing off 170 copies of the table of contents in the pack. Paper is extremely limited in our school this year due to budget issues, so I’m having my students do as much as possible one their own paper. Even if I don’t end up printing off the templates for the students from the pack, it has tons of great ideas that I will definitely be using. That alone made the pack totally worth its $15 price tag. I’m all for giving back to teachers for great products, and this is worth every penny. I wish, sometimes, I was an elementary teacher so I’d have fewer students and I COULD print off each and every single page. Class notes and personal reflections go hand in hand to create in depth and engaging interactive notebooks. Anyway, after we used the first page to write our table of contents, we did the questions in the Start Math Class Out on the Right Foot (but of course, adapted for L.A.). The students enjoyed these questions, and we had fun discussing them with their neighbors and the class as a whole. Passing out textbooks, completing the ToC, and answering the Introduction questions took up about 45 minutes, so plan a whole class period around this.  And now, a few shots of the process on Day 1. This photo is all of my ISNs. I set up an ISN for each of my classes. One of the posts I read on ISNs recommended you do the notebook along with your students. This serves several purposes. First, it allows you to be a model for the students as to what they should be doing. Second, it keeps a permanent example of an ISN for the students to refer to later. Third, it is great when students are absent to grab your ISN and catch up on missed work. This photo is how we set up our table of contents. Very simple. We just had some discussion about adding to it as we add things to our journal and to make sure you write page numbers on the bottom of each page.  The next few photos are from the questions that we answered together from the post I linked. The photos in orange ink are the ones I did with my inclusion students. Instead of writing down five things, we wrote down three. The blue ink is from my other classes’ books.        So there we go! Kicking off Language Arts journals right!
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Day 1: Interactive Notebooks (Language Arts journal, as it’s becoming known to my students).

I started out having my students write Table of Contents on the first page of their notebooks. Although I downloaded the amazing Interactive Student Notebook pack from A Teacher’s Treasure, I didn’t really feel like using up some of my precious white paper supply on printing off 170 copies of the table of contents in the pack. Paper is extremely limited in our school this year due to budget issues, so I’m having my students do as much as possible one their own paper. Even if I don’t end up printing off the templates for the students from the pack, it has tons of great ideas that I will definitely be using. That alone made the pack totally worth its $15 price tag. I’m all for giving back to teachers for great products, and this is worth every penny. I wish, sometimes, I was an elementary teacher so I’d have fewer students and I COULD print off each and every single page. Class notes and personal reflections go hand in hand to create in depth and engaging interactive notebooks.

Anyway, after we used the first page to write our table of contents, we did the questions in the Start Math Class Out on the Right Foot (but of course, adapted for L.A.). The students enjoyed these questions, and we had fun discussing them with their neighbors and the class as a whole. Passing out textbooks, completing the ToC, and answering the Introduction questions took up about 45 minutes, so plan a whole class period around this. 

And now, a few shots of the process on Day 1.

This photo is all of my ISNs. I set up an ISN for each of my classes. One of the posts I read on ISNs recommended you do the notebook along with your students. This serves several purposes. First, it allows you to be a model for the students as to what they should be doing. Second, it keeps a permanent example of an ISN for the students to refer to later. Third, it is great when students are absent to grab your ISN and catch up on missed work.

This photo is how we set up our table of contents. Very simple. We just had some discussion about adding to it as we add things to our journal and to make sure you write page numbers on the bottom of each page. 

The next few photos are from the questions that we answered together from the post I linked. The photos in orange ink are the ones I did with my inclusion students. Instead of writing down five things, we wrote down three. The blue ink is from my other classes’ books. 

     

So there we go! Kicking off Language Arts journals right!

How’s it going, y’all?

So. Day 4 1/2 done. I fully intend to start posting lessons for my Language Arts followers but everything is kinda in limbo in 6th grade right now. We are having to hold our enrollment until Friday and then EVERYTHING changes on Monday. The classes, the sizing, even the length of the class period. So, I’m not doing much honestly. I started Rules and Procedures yesterday, and will continue them through tomorrow, ending in a small quiz.

Monday: Rules (we have 6) so we made a 6 tab foldable. It took most of the hour lol. The students are not very good at foldables yet! We also stapled the 6x9 clasp envelope (P.S. Feel free to follow my classroom ideas board on pinterest!) into the back of the composition book. The bellringer consisted of the following questions:

1. I enjoy…

2. My teachers might describe me as…

3. My parents might describe me as…

4. My friends might describe me as…

5. My greatest academic challenge is…

Tuesday: Procedures. No foldable, just lots of discussion. It took most of the hour to get through them. I gave them a break midway through with a game they loved, Gorilla, Man, Gun. We have a conversation before we start about while a gun is used in the game, we will never play again, along with other consequences, if they mention it outside of playing the game. You might swap the gun to something else if it might be a problem in your school or with that group of students. 

Bellringer Questions:

1. Write a sentence about one thing you enjoyed about school last year.

2. Write a sentence about one thing you disliked about school last year.

3. Write a sentence about one thing you are looking forward to this year.

4. Write a sentence about one thing you are worried about this year.

5. Write a sentence of your goal for the year.

Tomorrow, I’ll link up my rules and procedures PPT. It’s very basic though, because what’s on the ppt is just a reminder to myself of what we need to discuss.

When is everyone else starting school?

Survived 1 1/2 days!

The first few days of school are always so crazy! I wanted to run through what I’ve been doing the first few days of school.

Yesterday was a 1/2 day, where we keep our homeroom students the three hours they are in school. This is a day full of paperwork, going over the handbook, and picking up school supplies.

As students enter the room, they had to draw from a bag with slips of paper with four parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. My desks are arranged in 8 groups of four desks. Each group had an example of each part of speech. Students had to find their seat based on the part of speech they drew. I normally always assign seats, but had seen another teacher do this with multiplication tables and I thought it was a fun idea. It also is a fun informal assessment to see what their prior knowledge of parts of speech is (the answer: not enough to make me gloss over parts of speech!). 

On each seat was a word search that I created from Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker. It was just a simple word search with Language Arts vocabulary.  This gives them something to work on while other students come in, get the paperwork situated, and find their seats. All we did besides the word search was to go over each piece of paperwork and the student handbook. 

Now, onto the first full day. I have six classes, 55 minutes per class. As students entered, they did a Back to School crossword from EdHelper. While I’m not a big fan of worksheets, I think the $20 membership is worth it just to have access to their database of materials. After that, I shared a PPT about me. I think students like to get to know their teachers just as much as we like to get to know them.

Finally, I took up the supplies from each class that will be staying in my room, like one of their composition books and a folder.

And then 55 minutes was up! WHEW!

classroomcollective: Have each student take out a sheet of notebook paper and write three interesting, but not widely known facts about him or herself. Then have the students crumple up their papers into balls and have a “snowball” fight. After about half a minute or so (or as long as you can stand it), have each student find a snowball, which by now are all over your classroom. After uncrumpling the paper, each student must try to find the student whose snowball he or she retrieved. 
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classroomcollective:

Have each student take out a sheet of notebook paper and write three interesting, but not widely known facts about him or herself. Then have the students crumple up their papers into balls and have a “snowball” fight. After about half a minute or so (or as long as you can stand it), have each student find a snowball, which by now are all over your classroom. After uncrumpling the paper, each student must try to find the student whose snowball he or she retrieved. 

First Day Bingo

This is a First Day Bingo document I created to play around the first day of school. Or more realistically, the second, The first day at my school is full of filling out forms! No time for fun games. The students have to go around the room and get someone to sign their name to a square. My rule, because I have 30 students per class, is no more than two of the same name on their card! This gets them interacting with everyone.

Here are some tips for making the first days go smoothly:

  1. Have your name and subject outside your classroom, and a roster. Students want to know they are in the right place before entering the room.
  2. Have assigned seating. Kids are nervous. They are scared about coming in to your room for the first time. It’s even more nerve wracking if they have to make a decision about where to sit.
  3. Assigned seating also helps you quickly see who’s missing, and helps eliminate students being in the wrong place. Students dread that ominous teacher screaming out roll call, only to learn their name isn’t on the roster and being sent out.
  4. Have an activity for students to work on while they are waiting. Even if it’s something simple like a word search, something to occupy them while you get other stuff done is a good idea. This way, the class is managed the second they come in.
  5. Gallon sized ziploc bags are on our supply list, so students inevitably bring these the first day. If this is not on your list (and it needs to be, and I will explain later why!), go buy enough for your class for at least that day. All forms that students need to take home with them needs to go in these ziploc bags. I also write their name on their bag. If a student is absent, I make up a bag with their name on a post-it (so I can re-use the bag if the student doesn’t show). 
  6. Speaking of supplies, figure out where you’re going to store all the supplies students bring on their first day. I picked up some cheap banker’s boxes from Wal-Mart, one for each supply on the list. Items are stored in the boxes, the item written on the outside, and stored for the time being. Students write their name on all their supplies, and toss into the appropriate box. Later, after lockers are assigned, they have two options: they can keep the supplies in the boxes or transfer to their lockers.

Hopefully those are enough tips to get you started thinking about your first day of school!

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