My name is Mark Roucka and I am a PE teacher at Lincoln Junior High School in Naperville, IL. “Head, Shoulders, Knees, Cone” is an activity I have done numerous times with my classes and received a number of positive … Read More
Cooperative learning. Find out what it's all about and get some great resources to help you use this strategy well in your classroom.
Ready to "cook up" a great first day of school? It's easy with this recipe for a successful start to the school year! PREP: ➤ Think about how you will set the tone for your classroom on the first day of school. ➤ Plan to keep students engaged and active. ➤ Prepare to build a positive rapport with students from the first instant that they become a part of the classroom community. INGREDIENTS: ➤ Warm-Up Activity ➤ Get-to-Know-You Activity ➤ Game that gets students out of their seats ➤ Get-to-Know-the-Teacher Activity ➤ Writing Prompt ➤ Extension Activity Once you've gathered your ingredients, you can get "cooking!" (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE RECIPE!) PROCEDURE: STEP 1: Begin with a warm-up activity. Place an activity on students' desks that they can complete independently. You might try a simple survey or poster. An All About Me poster is a quick way to learn about students. You can even gather them together for an awesome classroom display. Or, a survey is a wonderful way to collect information about students. You might include questions about where students like to sit, their favorite way to learn, and activities that they enjoy so that you can start connecting with students. Another awesome warm-up activity is an "All About You" name tag. Students answer questions about themselves while coloring in a name tag based on their responses. Then, students can place the name tag on their desks to help you learn your students' names. This activity is particularly awesome if you have multiple sets of students. You can collect the name tags and re-distribute them each day during each class while you learn names. Oh, and as a bonus, you can gather them together and leave them with substitute teachers throughout the year! If you'd like to check out ready-made Back to School Warm-Ups, just click here for the poster, here for the survey, and here for the name tags. STEP 2: Mix in a get-to-know-you activity. Give students a chance to share about themselves and learn about their classmates with an engaging get-to-know-you activity. One of my favorites is a doodle-inspired mini-book. Students transform a single sheet of paper into a doodley mini-book all about themselves. After students make the mini-book it's fun to hang them on a clothesline. Then, as students finish their work during the first days of school, you can encourage fast-finishers to grab a classmate's mini-book and learn about him or her. Check out the doodle mini-book HERE. Or, you could have students create this 3-D About Me Activity. Students create an infographic-style book about themselves. After answering some simple questions, they do a little cutting and gluing to create a 3-D "About Me" display. These are especially fun because students can set them on their desks and then everyone can tour around the classroom and learn about their peers. (These are awesome for Open House too!) Learn more HERE. STEP 3: Scatter in an activity that gets students moving. Since students crave opportunities to get up and out of their seats, plan to get your class moving on the first day of school. You might have students complete a scavenger hunt or even play a learning game that requires students to move around. I'm a huge fan of this simple get-to-know-you activity that gets students moving (and you can download it for FREE here.) First, students make paper airplanes. They write their name and 3 interview questions on the wings. Then, students line up shoulder-to-shoulder and launch the planes. Next, they pick up a classmate's plane, find him or her, and ask the interview questions. You can repeat the airplane launch as often as you'd like! Find everything you need to do this activity in this FREEBIE. If you'd like to combine movement and learning on the first day of school, then you and your students will love this Back to School Doodle Infographic. First students fill in the infographic with facts about school. There are 21 facts and you can hide them around the room to get students moving. Then, they put together the infographic to make a fun and doodle-y poster! Check it out HERE. STEP 4: Sprinkle in a chance for students to get-to-know-you (their teacher). On the first day of school, students are very curious about you. They want to learn about you, so you'll want to be sure to share about yourself. You can give a simple biography of yourself, or you might try these easy and engaging activities: Create a teacher interview question along with 4 or 5 prize cards for each student in your class. Then, tape the questions and the prize cards under students' seats before class begins. During class, explain to students that they all have something under their chairs. It might be a question and it might be a prize. If they get a prize card, have students keep it quiet. Then, call on students. They can either read a question for you to answer or reveal that they won a prize. If they won, you might give them a pencil, piece of candy, or a homework pass. You can find all my favorite questions HERE. Or, you might have students complete a "Teacher Guess" about you. First, they predict the answers to questions about you. Then, as you reveal the answers, they earn points for every correct prediction. It's a fun activity that students truly enjoy! You can check it out HERE. STEP 5: Add a fun writing prompt to your back to school activities. A writing prompt is a great way to gather a baseline for students' writing on the first day of school. You might give students a simple prompt about their summer or goals for the new school year. However, I love to add a fun creative writing prompt into the mix. For example, with this writing prompt students select a setting, character, problem, and 3 random objects. Then, they need to work them all into a story. It's fun, engaging, and a great way to see where your students are starting the school year. Find this writing prompt HERE or check out this collection of 10 creative writing activities. STEP 6: Top it off with a review of tomorrow's warm-up. Set students up for success during your next day of school by quickly reviewing what they will need to do when they arrive to class. If you're planning to have students work through warm-ups like these This or That ELA warm-ups where students choose to do the "this" or the "that" activity, then you might quickly review what will be waiting on their desks when they arrive. Taking the time to preview tomorrow's warm-up is a great way to set expectations for students! If you're looking for some daily warm-ups, you might want to check out these This or That ELA warm-ups or these This or That Writing warm-ups! STEP 7: Don't forget to have an extension activity just in case your lesson ends early. I love playing games like "Move If You..." which you can find for FREE HERE. While you may never get to the extension activity, it's a lifesaver if you need it! TIPS: When you're following this recipe for a great first day of school, you might want to: ➤ Greet students at the door and answer these questions for students right away: ➨ Where do I sit? ➨ Am I in the right classroom? ➨ What should I be doing right now? ➤ Also, be prepared to manage students' behavior on the first day of school. Ensure that you have a positive classroom management system in place and ready to use if you need it! Well, there you have it, my recipe for a great first day of school. Be sure to download all the ideas with links AND the FREE airplane activity HERE! CHECK THIS OUT! I've put together a 100+ page guide for back to school for teachers. It includes tips, tools, and printables for classroom décor, classroom organization, lesson planning, community building, and planning the first day of school. It's absolutely FREE! Just click here to sign up. When you sign up, you'll get access to 6 mini-courses that cover everything Back to School including classroom design, organization, curriculum planning, and ways to build a positive classroom community. There's also a TON of exclusive freebies, bonuses, and videos! If you'd like to learn more and sign up, just click HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary Beth P.S. If you'd like MORE free resources for your classroom, be sure to join the Brain Waves Instruction club!
I teach students about art, creativity, and visual problem solving at Carthage Junior High. My wife is also an art teacher, and my three kids are all into their own arts, music, drama, imaginary unicorn development!
Ashlee from Grace and Grit is sharing her wisdom and encouragement on homeschooling teens during the junior high and high school years.
Do you need junior high tips? Junior High is looming and you are 1 part excited and 2 parts scared. Your delightful little is now a lanky, gawky and possibly awkward teen. But, never fear, this is a wonderfully, exciting time in a young person’s life to homeschool as they move from child to young […]
Lots of versions of this project, here is what my students are doing: These directions come from art-paper-scissors blog . Chuck Close P...
Learn the frequency and duration of middle school subjects in a Charlotte Mason education, and update for today.Continue Reading
Speaking of things from our childhood , does anyone remember the awesome folding techniques that we used to employ when writing silly notes ...
Fantastic Back to School Science activity! Take an informal assessment of what your new school year students know about science while giving them a chance to color and let them tell you about them! Created with 6th grade scope and sequence in mind, ideal for upper elementary and junior high studen...
Ready, set, POSE! I use my iPhone to take photos of my students. I usually do this on a day during which they are intently engaged with another lesson, and pull one or two students at a time into t…
Many families are writing to ask which resources they should use for each grade. We believe in family-centered homeschooling, choosing as few resources as possible, and combining grades so that we can savor homeschooling instead of stressing over it. We want you to have plenty of time...
Every year in my first year classes (12 year olds) I touch on the principles of perspective, at least in its one point form. We do a little art history, take a look at Masaccio and Mantegna. We mak…
Brain breaks for high school students are a powerful tool to equip teenage students in battling anxiety, stress, and overwhelm.
Departmentalizing across grade levels CAN be done!Visit us for more:
Need help scheduling your homeschool? Use our 7th grade homeschool schedule and lesson plans for the 2017-2018 school year as a guide for your homeschool.
LOTS of FREE Printable worksheets for kids to practice math, literacy, science, & history with kids of all ages from 123Homeschool4Me.
This affordable Modular Sculpture Art Lesson is great for sculpting beginners It is easy to understand while teaching 3D fundamentals.
Keep your student organized this school year with the free printable Student Planner that's customizable for kids in all grades.
Jack & Jones Junior JORSANTORINI GRAPHIC JNR - Hoodie - black voor € 28,85 (2024-08-31). Gratis verzending voor de meeste bestellingen*
One of my favorite parts of teaching is crafting an inviting learning environment. For me, that means mathematical posters galore.
Pear Deck flips the traditional lecture by actively engaging students in real-time. Ask questions. Students answer. Want to use Pear Deck in your class?
A perfect activity for encouraging temwork in the STEM lab or a regular classroom. All you need is string and a little imagination!
Active Students? Try Scoot! The game, Scoot, can be played a number of ways for a variety of reasons. Here are the basics of the game, a few suggestions, and a freebie!
Take Note! {Note Taking in the Primary Classroom} 9 comments Note Taking, Popular Posts, Social Studies, Writing Note taking. It's a skill we've all used in our lifetime. I probably didn't start taking notes until junior high, but it was definitely a skill that I developed and used up until the day I graduated from college. In fact, I still take notes. This past year, I introduced note taking to my second graders. Say what? Don't worry, I didn't lecture my second graders and expect them to sit intently at their desks as they took copious notes on the subject matter at hand. Promise. Last year, everyone on staff was asked to come up with a few teaching goals. One of my goals was to foster student stamina within a whole group setting and one of the identified ways in which to do this was to incorporate note taking into my repertoire. At first, I was like, "Uh, how am I supposed to teach these kids how to take notes? I'm still hounding them to write a complete sentence!" But, then it dawned on me, I could do both! Plus, the more I thought about it, note taking is an awesome learning strategy! It fosters concentration and understanding. When we write things out by hand, our brains store the information more easily, so note taking leads to remembering. What does note taking in second grade look like? Here's a sampling of one second grader's notes. She did a pretty good job of writing complete sentences, most of the time. I told you, I'm always hounding my students to write complete sentences (insert winky smiley face). This was from one of our very fist note taking sessions dating back to November. When do your students take notes? I typically use note taking during a nonfiction read aloud pertaining to a unit of study and/or during a content related video. Note taking usually makes an appearance during my social studies and science time since most of my units are language arts based. What does the process look like? It goes a bit like this: The students gather on the carpet with their materials (the carpet area is my favorite teaching space). I read several pages in a nonfiction book. I pause and tell the students to write down one important thing they learned from the reading up to that point in time (in the form of a complete sentence); they use bullets to separate their ideas. I let a few students share their notes with the whole group. I read a few more pages and repeat. If we are watching a video, I do the same thing. I pause the video every so often and give the students time to write down something they learned, and then let a few students share their notes before resuming play. What do you do with the notes? Typically, I compile the students' notes onto a class anchor chart (or two). Note: I don't always write their notes as complete sentences on my charts. This is usually due to time constraints, paper size, and/or it may not be conducive to the assignment I give them once the chart is completed. Then, I have the students use the shared notes to write an informative paragraph (one reason I don't always write complete sentences on the anchor chart) or complete a graphic organizer (can/have/are, fact/opinion, and so on). While I mainly used this skill during Social Studies time, it can be used whenever and however you like, that's the beauty of note taking! What materials do my students need to take notes? Last year, the students did most of their note taking on mini whiteboards (as shown at beginning of this post), but that was not the greatest tool to use. The ink smears and many of the students write way too big most of the time. This year, note taking will make a return visit to my classroom, but instead of using those messy, super small boards we will use one of these generic note taking forms that I created. There are two different versions so I can start with the one that I think will best meet the needs of next year's kiddos. I may even copy the form double sided, just in case! You can grab a copy of these forms by clicking {here}. I hope you can use them. So, the burning question is, do your primary students take notes? Share It:
Are you sold on learning stations in the secondary classroom, but just don’t know where to start? If so, you’re in the right spot! If you’re still skeptical of learning stations in the high school…
This project produced “out of this world” results! (OK, Bad pun, I know!) We began this lesson with 3 days of Galaxy Painting using watercolors. The techniques I taught the kids were loosely titled…
Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen & these Michelangelo Art Projects for Kids are perfect for the kids to learn about him!
Do you know what makes my students really, really, really happy? Nothing makes my students happier than a big bucket of fabric! If you have a bucket of fabric you have unlimited costumes and imagination! I have been having kids make plays or videos for all of my 18 years but I never saw the power of the fabric bucket till I went to my new school. The fabric bucket does not belong to me but is actually shared among teachers and used for Hammurabi plays, Greek God skits, and vocabulary videos. I have the biggest classroom so I get physical ownership of it and I am lucky! The fabric is old sheets, drapes, sashes, and rope. It has turned my kids into Babylonians, women on the Oregon Trail, and the red fabric can be wrapped to become a Redcoat. When I mention the use of the bucket the kiddos start frothing at the mouth so I often have to hold off on costumes until plays and videos are written and rehearsed. Once they get their hands on it, though, they become giggly little kids again and that makes me happy. Middle school kids should be excited about pretend play. It means they are still kids. Get yourself a bucket a bucket of fabric and watch your students become creative!!!
When planning your next trip, it's essential to consider the best ways to cut down on hidden travel costs and find the best rates available. In our comprehensive guide on how to cut down the
The Book of Centuries isn't just a Charlotte Mason timeline. Learn exactly what it is, how to make one, and how to use one. (Includes FREE PRINTABLE copy)
