Back to School Activities for the First Week

Tired of doing the same old thing the first week of school? Need something new, fun, and interactive? This pack includes everything you need to get your year started off right. With an emoji-themed pack, it's sure to get your students' attention!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

Included in this pack:

• Back to School Book (10 pages for the students to fill out)
• Find the Friend (Getting to know you game)
• Yay or Nay (Reviewing expectations with game and writing)
• Emoji Me (Craftivity)
• Summer Feelings (Writing)
• Fave Board Game (Getting to know you game)
• Bell Ringer (Coloring page)
• 1st Day Gift (Printable tag to go with crazy straws)
• Bookmarks
• Photo Booth Letters
• All the Feels Bulletin Board (writing and bulletin board)

All of this is included for you AND MORE! 

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

Back to School Essentials

Hi Peeps!
Are you approaching "back-to-school" mode? I'm in it full-swing over here in my neck of the woods. My school year starts up in just a couple short weeks!

I wanted to share with you some essential ideas and tools that I use each and every year to make heading back to school a little easier.

From management, parent communication, establishing behavior routines and expectations through curriculum and planning musts, to first weeks' essentials - I'm yapping about it all!

Hop on over to my post and grab some ideas for Back to School Essentials!

Dear Teacher, You're ready

Hello! It's Vera from The Tutu Teacher!

I wanted to share with you a post I wrote on my own blog.  As we get ready to go back to school, meet our new students, plan with our peers, come home exhausted, tired, and worn out....we sometimes need to remember to lift each other up.  Support each other.  Check in with the new teacher down the hall and be sure she's/he's ok.  Leave a nice note for a teacher on your team.  Get yourself some ice cream or a new pair of shoes!

Dear Teacher,

It's time to go back to school.

You're ready.

But if you're not, let me know how I can help.

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Instagram and I stopped on a post by thekindergals about not being able to pour from an empty cup. Basically, we can't give to others what we don't have within ourselves and how important it is for us to take time for ourselves and recharge.  

Well, I just LOVED that message...and then I started reading the comments.

I read a comment from one teacher who was experiencing an overwhelming school year.  She said that when she goes on social media she was bombarded with images and messages that told her she needed to be happy. Always happy. Everyday. And she just felt horrible.

And my heart hurt for her.

Do I believe in being positive?
Absolutely.

I am a positive thinking person and I think that there is almost always a way to solve a problem.

But at the same time, I think it's ok for people to feel overwhelmed.
It's ok for us to feel like we have reached our limits and we need a break.
It's ok to love the heck out of your weekends.
Enjoy your time with your family and friends.
Enjoy time with yourself.
REFILL YOUR CUP.

And then, go to school recharged and enjoy your time with your kids because sometimes...many times... we are all they have.

So I posted this question on Instagram and Facebook:

And the response was powerful. 

Teachers seemed to agree that yes, we can love our jobs, while loving our weekend and time away from the classroom.  Teachers encouraged each other to take a break, make time for themselves, and be positive.
They said, be human.

So what's the big deal?
What is this constant back and forth about?
Why are there, Pro Monday and Pro Sunday posts?
Why does it feel as if teachers who post about needing a break are shamed for their feelings?
Why does it feel like people who love Mondays are constantly defending themselves?
Why, at a time when teachers are overwhelmed by so many stressors (classroom, school, government), are we shaming each other?


Why isn't the message:

Why is the message of "Loving Monday" more powerful than "Enjoying Sunday"?
They are both important.
They both matter.

And here's my truth.

I enjoy every moment of my weekend.
I enjoy every moment of my time with my students.

I am a good teacher.

I am a great teacher.
And you are too.
And I hope you will remember that.
Remember it next Sunday when you're enjoying the remainders of the day with your family.
Remember it Monday morning when you greet your students.

You are amazing.

Ice Breakers for the Elementary Classroom

Hey Blog Hoppers! It's Christy and Tammy from Fluttering Through First Grade. The first days of school are chock full of everything from backpacks to bathroom breaks. But, somewhere in between the controlled classroom chaos, it is imperative we find ways to build a classroom community. We want all of our students to feel comfortable in their own time, but we find providing our class with activities that allow them to get to know one another in the beginning of the school year are a must!

Truth be told...

But when it comes to our students, ice breakers in the classroom are the COOLEST! 

Here are a few of our favorite easy Ice Breakers for the Elementary Classroom. 

Circle Up ~ Split your class into 2 equal groups. If you have an odd number of students, no worries. Either join the fun to even it up or put the extra student in one of the circles and have them make a group of 3 as they move around. One group forms an outer circle facing in and the other group forms and inner circle facing out, so the circles are face to face. Like this...

Stop and take some time to explain directions and take a few practice runs with the little ones on how to move around the circle before you actually play. The inner circle "cements their feet to the floor." The outer circle, "Moves one click of the clock", which means one person. With our first graders, it takes about 3 practice moves and then they've got it! Once they move one person, they stop and chat. We give them get to know you topics like, "Tell each other what you like about school?" or "What is your most favorite dessert?". We also created this Class Conversations poster to help us think of ideas fast! 

You can download it for free here. Keep having students move around the circle as time allows. To keep things fair, we switch movers and foot cementers part way through. :) It's a quick and easy way to get your class chatting, so Circle Up!

Name Swap ~ You'll need a class set of name cards for this one. We usually either write each student's name on a sentence strip or type them up. We keep the set handy all year. When the kids are at recess, drop another student's name on their desk, chair, floor spot or hand them out as they walk back in the door. They will giggle because, "THIS is not their name, Teacher!" Tell them you messed up and ask them to help you by finding the rightful owner. Once they do, have them stop and talk for a few using the class conversations poster above. 

Back to Back ~ Put students in pairs and have them stand with the front person's back to their partner's front who should be behind them (like they are standing in line). Give the class questions that can be answered with numbers only. 

How many people are in your family?

How many pets do you have?

What time do you go to bed?

What time do you get up in the morning?

How many sisters do you have?

How many brothers do you have?

How many times have you been to the Zoo?

The student standing behind writes their number on their partner's back with their finger. The partner turns around and tells them the number they think they wrote on their back. The writer confirms or clarifies and tells their partner a little more about their answer. 

Gummy Bear Share ~ Grab a big bag of gummy bears (We used Haribo brand.) and give 1-5 to each student, depending upon time allowed and the age of your class. Assign each colored bear they choose a certain conversation topic or use our cheat sheet free Gummy Bear Share download here. Either sit whole class, partner up, or make small groups to share your gummy bears. Then of course the best part, gobble up the gummies!

  

Meet Me ~ One of our favorite getting to know you activities are our Back to School Meet Me activities. They give our students more in depth opportunities to meet and greet their new class while practicing their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Find a Friend is always a hit. For our first graders, we have to break it down row by row and spread it out over a week's time. We do one row a day for five days. It's a perfect daily activity that they get the hang of quickly.

Our first homework assignment helps us get to know our new class and allows our students to shine. They each take home a Meet Me Mystery Bag on the first day of school to fill with specific items for sharing. We spend 5 days sharing a few bags a day and allowing students to get to know their new classmates. Then as a culminating activity, we write about our mystery bag items and create a class Meet Me bulletin board. 

You can take a closer peek at this back to school resource by clicking the image below. 

Looking for a few more tips for back to school? Head on over to our blog for our 

Top 10 Tips for Your Best Year Ever! 

How do you help your students break the ice? We'd love to know!

Back to School Gifts!

Hey y'all! I'm Michelle Hudgeons from Smitten With First. This will be my 7th year of teaching. I have taught Pre-K, Third, and First. Out of all of those, first grade is my absolute favorite. When I am not in the classroom, I am spending every moment I can with those two cuties you see below. They make my heart all kinds of big! 

When the girls at Blog Hoppin' asked me to join them I just about did 5,000ish flips down my driveway! Thank goodness we live out in the country where not that many people had to witness that! Whew.

Ok, let's get to it shall we?! I have a few back to school freebies for you all.

I am always trying to change up my back to school gifts that I give my team each year. I try to keep it very simple and cheap because we all know how much money we spend during those summer months. Lots! Can I get an amen?!? This year, I went with gum. Our grade level work room has a "choose joy" theme, so I made these tags that say "CHEWS Joy". I also made a few that say "Here's to a POPPING good year".

 Fonts by KG Fonts and DaFonts

 You can download both tags here. These tags by Sweet Metel Moments are perfect if you are looking for gum tags that your child can give to their teacher. 

When my daughter was in Kindergarten two years ago we made this pink basket for her teacher. 

She wanted to do the same thing for her teacher this year, so we grabbed a few pink items at Target and put them in a basket to let her teacher know that she is "tickled pink".    

 Fonts by MTF Fonts and DaFonts

You can download the tags here. 

This year our school is doing "Fired Up for Learning" with dragons  and a medieval times theme. I like to have some type of a treat for my kiddos to take back home with them from Meet the Teacher, so after finding this idea of using jelly beans for dragon eggs, I made these tags to staple to Ziplock bags. 

I also found this idea of using Doritos for dragon scales on Life is a Party. I will probably put these in our main workroom for all the teachers to have as a treat on the night of Meet the Teacher. These could also be a fun parent gift. Who doesn't love to eat chips?!  

 Fonts by Cara Carroll and MTF Fonts

Dragon clip art by Creative Clips 

You can download these tags here. 

Today is the first day back for teachers. I'm excited to get back to it, but I sure will miss wearing pajamas and no make up all day. Our students start back next Monday. How about you? When do your students start back?

First Day of School Activities!

We started school here in Indiana last week. Our first three days went so well! I'm excited for the year ahead. Here are a couple of first day activities that helped us get off to a good start.

 After reading a lot about classroom management this summer I knew I wanted to have students write a class pledge/promise together that we could all refer to as we go through the year. Having a statement that we all write together and feel responsible for is powerful. All the students got involved in the writing and everyone knows exactly what is expected in our classroom. I had our promise poster printed from Vista Print this summer, it worked out perfectly. It's laminated so I can write on it and wipe it off at the end of the year. Here's what we came up with!

I was so impressed with the response, I'm looking forward to adding this to my classroom management plan every year. I especially liked  "ask forgiveness when needed."

When students came in on the first day they had a copy of their name in bubble letters on their desks. They colored their names as I took attendance and helped those who didn't bring supplies on back to school night.

Then they glued their names to colored card stock and they went on the door next to our class pledge poster. I love how colorful and bright it is, and it's a great reminder all year what our expectations are.

The second thing that we do to make sure everyone knows our expectations is Amy Lemons School Rules booklet. There is a page for each of our classroom expectations, we write the expectation, draw a picture of what it looks like in the classroom, and finally write in their own words what they will do to show they will follow that expectation in the classroom. 

I did this with my class last year and I loved it. I know everyone knows the expectations, and understands how to follow them. It's also easy to see who isn't understanding and have a conversation with them as well. The last page of the booklet has a contract for students to sign and date saying they understand the expectations. I sent these home so parents could see them as well. I got lots of positive comments.

These are my two favorite ways to get the year started right. What do you do to help your students build classroom community and learn expectations? I'd love to hear your ideas! 

Back to School FREE Printables

Hi, it's Erica Bohrer from Erica's Ed-Ventures here with some free back to school printables.  I hope you like the freebies I have compiled for you.  Happy hopping and happy back to school!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to School Bulletin Board and Door Ideas

Hi Friends! This is Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching. Some of you have all ready returned back to school and others are really close to kicking off another great school year.

I wanted to share a picture post full of back to school bulletin board and door decorations that might inspire you or something you can stick in your pocket for later in the year or even next year!

This First Grade is Sweet was a door I made for my classroom several years ago. The ice cream cutouts were from the Dollar Tree. I printed the names and glued the ice cream beside each name. Then, I drew a cloud shape around each one. Laminated then cut.

This Out of the World bulletin board was one of my favorites. And I almost did it again this year but at the last minute I changed my mine. The rocket is made from yellow posterboard. The zebra and purple paper are all scrapbooking paper. The orange is tissue paper.

This was the door that went along with the Out of this World bulletin board.

Here is another simple back to school bulletin board. The bunting banner is made from scrapbooking paper. The letter are from cardstock and I just hung tulle in each corner.

And, here is the matching door to go with the last picture. You will also notice that I can make black paper and zebra go with ANYTHING. I am currently using it again this year!

Oh, how I love this bubble gum machine. After I took it down from the bulletin board it hung in our classroom all year long. So colorful! The knob is silver glitter.  Looking back.. I am NOT a fan of those small letters on the bulletin board BUT… you live in learn! This is a super old picture!

I have this bulletin board on the inside of my classroom and I usually try and put something simple on it until I can get some student work up on display. Those frogs are from Carson Dellosa I am pretty sure!

Way back when I started teaching (16 years ago).. I did a Chicka Chicka board almost each year. I cut these letters with my Cricut and then students glued little square pieces of paper all over. I actually LOVE this idea and would love to do it again. But.. my Cricut is not hooked up and I hate the thought of hand cutting each of those big letters out by hand.

Smile! You are in First Grade. And, let’s take note that I have purple paper up rather than black and multicolor zebra border rather than black and white. I was living on the wild side this year! This alligator is made from green posterboard. He’s a cutie!

My mom made this bulletin board one year. She works at my school too!. This is our main hall bulletin board and it is really large. It might not look big but it is twice the size of my hall bulletin board.

This is my inside board again that I put something on it until I can get student work up. The apple is made from cardboard covered with red and white polka dot wrapping paper.

This is last years hall bulletin board.Those pom-poms made it all year and have now found a home on my calendar board. I get asked all the time what font this is for the letters and honestly.. I have NO CLUE! I just print out each letter on a piece of paper and print on colored cardstock. So each letter is around 8.5x11”.

Here is the door that went with the pom-pom board. Those crayons are from Mel at Graphics from the Pond. There is a really good chance I might use them again this year!

 

Here are some goodies from my talented friends….

This one is from Julie from Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten. I believe those names are from Deanna Jump’s name unit. This board is perfect for open house to show off some student cuteness!

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This superhero board is from Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher . Superheros are SUPER popular for classroom themes. I really like this black silhouette superguy!

This bulletin board and door is from Katie at Little Warriors. Katie’s orange and black classroom is always super cute to see!

This 10 Ways to Be Awesome is from Natalie at What the Teacher Wants. It’s for sale in her store too!!! This one is great for all ages!

Amy from Step Into Second Grade did this precious Superheros board. Love the colors on this one! Amy amazes me everytime she posts a picture of one of her boards. They always are really eye-catching.

Stephanie at Falling Into First made this Everyone is Smart board. Hop on over to her blog to see more close up pics and read about it!

Erica at Erica’s Ed-Ventures can fix you up with quick door or bulletin board ideas from her store. If you want something you can buy and do quickly and be really cute.. go check this post out.

And Mel has this precious Welcome pack you can put together to make a quick back to school door or decoration too! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE those colorful polkadot welcome letters!