First Week of School in Review!

Back to school is in full swing!

This past week was all about getting used to routines, learning to listen and follow the rules, and just having fun.

My first graders worked on a little craftivity called

 Words that Describe...

Each child shared a word that described themselves and I wrote them on the board. Then, they chose six of their favorite words and wrote them in the boxes. They also drew a picture of themselves in the frame. I always do this activity during the first week of school because it's easy to do, fun for the children, and they look so pretty hanging up in the classroom.

Right click the photos and click open link in new tab to make the photos larger.

I have a similar activity in my teaching store for free. 

You can check it out here.

We spent a lot of time learning the Whole Brain Teaching Classroom Rules. Saying the rules, along with the gestures, has really been such fun. The booklet below was sent home so the children can teach their family the rules, as well. I am only using four of the five rules. Looks like I neglected to snap a picture of rule 3! LOL! You can find this booklet here.

We also began assembling our Journeys Interactive Notebook. We decorated and glued on the cover and started adding the sight word pages. Each week, the children will highlight the words to know for the week.

I read one of my favorite books!

Afterwards, the children completed their first book review.

I modeled how to do this and the whole class wrote the same sentence. I don't want you to think my first graders are writing this well, on their own, already!

We'll be doing lots of book reviews. I have book reviews for every season, holiday, and theme you can think of. You can find the one above here.

All in all, it was a great first week of school for my first graders. Since I taught them last year, as kindergartners, we are already very comfortable with each other and they quickly caught on to the first grade rules and procedures.

Kindergarten was a whole different ballgame! 

They will need a few more weeks of training before I show you anything truly productive! LOL!

Here is a fun name writing activity we did.

We also started the Aa page in our alphabet/handwriting book. 

I didn't snap any pictures though.

We brainstormed words that began with Aa and I modeled how to write capital A. I ran out of time before we got to practice writing lower case a. It's very easy to run out of time with kindergarten! But, they did enjoy it, so we'll finish it up on Monday.

Super Improvers Wall

I am joining some of my blogging buddies in a Back to School Blog Hop!

Here's a great tip on Whole Brain Teaching, to help you breeze through back to school preparation!

I love Whole Brain Teaching and each year, I introduce more and more of their strategies to my students. If you aren't too familiar with Whole Brain Teaching, I urge you to check out their website and see what all the hoopla is about.

This year, I plan on utilizing the Super Improvers Wall. 

The purpose of the Super Improvers Wall is so that the children can play an important role in goal setting, so they are self motivated and fully committed to reaching for their goals every single day. The more effort they put into it, the higher they will get on the Super Improvers Wall.

The way it works is, about once a day, if you see your students working hard to reach their individualized goal(s), they earn a star sticker on their labeled, colored star. The color of the star matches the level they are on. Once they earn 10 star stickers, they move up a level and you give them a new star that matches the color of that level. It should take almost all year for the children to get to the top of the chart.

Since I don't have my display up yet, I made this pretend display. You can see that my very small, imaginary class of 6 children, have their name on a star that matches the level they are on. For example, Al is a beginner and Kim is an MVP. I will put a foil star on their colored star each day that they put forth the effort it takes to strive to reach their goal(s). As mentioned earlier, once they earn 10 star stickers, they advance to the next level.

You may be thinking that you have some students who are already perfect and it will be hard for them to come up with goals. Well, the bottom line is, no one is perfect, and there is always something they can improve upon. 

Let me give you a good example of how no one is perfect!

Meet Buddy!

At first glance, he seems perfect. Cute and cuddly, right? 

Well, look again! See that fuzzy pink slipper? That is not Buddy's toy. That is my slipper! Buddy is not perfect after all. He has an affinity for stealing slippers. He doesn't chew them or ruin them. He just stalks people and when he sees they took off a slipper, he waits until no one is looking and swipes it. He brings it to his bed or crate and either hides it under the pillows or just goes to sleep with it. 

At times, he has 2, 3, or even more slippers in his bed.

And when you ask him why he took them, he gives you this look...

And it's hard to get mad at him when you see that sweet face!

But, the bottom line is, although he doesn't ruin the slippers, it's wrong to steal them. He needs to put forth some effort and try hard to curb his appetite for slippers. So, that is his goal. "I will not steal slippers."

Each day that I see him ignore a slipper, I will give him lots of praise, belly rubs, and a star!

Now look at Buddy! After earning some stars, he is able to sit next to a slipper without the urge to steal it. The Super Improvers Wall is doing it's job! Buddy is motivated to get to the next level so he can get a new star a treat!

I am super proud of Buddy!

His slipper stealing days are (almost) long gone!

But, even better, he is SUPER proud of himself for reaching his goal. 

Just look at that winning smile!

You can read more about how to utilize the Super Improvers Wall here. If you download my Super Improvers Wall, you can read more about how I plan on using it. I'm sure there are many different ways you can use it successfully in your classroom.

Included in the download of the Super Improvers Wall, are these posters of the 5 Whole Brain Teaching Classroom Rules.

I also made printable student books so the children can share the rules with their family!

*I included a set of posters and booklets without rule 3, as I do not use that rule in my classroom.

Click here to read all about how to teach these rules to the children using gestures. 

Fun, fun, fun!

I hope you enjoyed my back to school tip!

Click the image below to hop to the next blog!

Nicole has an awesome organizing tip for you!

My Teacher Always Says Linky

Tis the season to link up! Today, I am linking up with Tammy, from Forever in First, and letting you all know some of the things I say over and over again to my students.

Here they are...

At the end of the day, when we are ready to pack up and I do my final clip up of the day, we play the quiet game. I say the above to start the game. If the children talk during the quiet game, then they don't get their star for the day. The leader of the day puts the stars in the chart. When this task is done, the leader tells the class the quiet game is over. I love a nice, quiet, calm pack up! And so do my students.

Whenever a child tells me that so and so said this or did that, I say the above, as long as it isn't anything too terrible. I want the children to learn to ignore these little annoyances and not let every little thing bother them. If it's good enough for me, it's good enough for them!

I am a huge fan of Whole Brain Teaching, and I made up a few of my own ways to get the attention of my class. This is one of my favorites because they say it back to me. Of course, they say, "Yes, dear, yes!" I love to be called dear! And I always say it in a sweet voice, as do they. Sometimes, I substitute sweet for the word dear.

This is another of my made up Whole Brain Teaching mantras. Whenever I need my students to write their name and the date on their papers, I say, "name, name, name." And they say, "date, date, date." When they are done writing it, they stay silent when I say it again. This way, I can tell how many kids I'm waiting for. When I say it and no one answers me, I know I can proceed.

And, there you have it. My many mantras! 

Why don't you link up too?

You know you want to!