Five for Friday {Back to School Edition}

TGIF, y'all!  We made it!!!  The first week of school with kiddos was a great success!  So I'm linking up with Kacey to show you a little of what we've been up to:

One of the things that's improved my teaching the most is being a mom to my two sweet boys.  I look at things from a different perspective as a teacher now and I really try to form a positive relationship with my students and their families right away.  So on the first day of school, I had each kiddo hold a little sign while I took a first day picture.   Then that night I emailed each parent a little note and attached the picture to the email.  It was such a great way to open the lines of communication from the start!

To try and help to get to know one another, we did several activities from my Back to School Blacklines pack.  They really loved this clipboard craft, especially because with the help of a binder clip, you can really open and close the top of the clipboard.  I picked this one to show you because you have to check out the lips on that bus driver, haha!

We read this book and talked in depth about how our mouths can sometimes be like volcanoes and "erupt" (super cute book if you've never read it!)  Then we made these little volcanoes and the students wrote one strategy that they could use when they feel like they want to "erupt" or interrupt.  This is a great lesson for kids of all ages!

   

We also spent quite a bit of time getting our Interactive Notebooks together.  I am planning to try to do Interactive Notebooks for all subjects so I requested that my kiddos bring in five subject notebooks.  We tore out two of the dividers to make a large section for ELA, a large section for Math, and then a section for Science and Social Studies together (I do alot of projects in these subjects so I don't think we'll need as much space).  I let the students decorate the front of their notebooks with stickers.  (And heard from many while they were decorating that I was the best teacher ever.  Who knew it just took some stickers?).  Then we added some Post-it tabs to the dividers to help them easily find each section.  Later we will use Post-it flags to hold our spots in each section.  Then we numbered the pages in each section and got to work.  We started by gluing some mini posters of the Math Practice Standards that my county provided into our notebooks and we talked about each standard and what it looks like.

Finally, it wouldn't be the first week without a funny story!  After going over several routines and procedures, I had my students do Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up to find a partner.  Then they were given directions to tell their partners one thing that they have learned about our classroom's rules/procedures so far.  When all partners were finished talking, I asked a few kids to share with the class.  One little girl looked right at me and simply said, "I learned that Mrs. Smith don't play!"  She went on to explain that when I was talking no one else better talk.  Well, I think that pretty much sums up my week friends, LOL! 

I hope you all have a restful weekend!