Back to School Tips and Tricks

                     My First Week of School Tips and Tricks

               Are You Ready to Start Another Year?

A lot of teachers are unsure about what to do during the first week of school. It can be a scary thing...even to veteran teachers. As standards, parents, expectations, and students change from year to year, it can be nerve-wracking to the point that you are so anxious the night before you can't sleep! In my experience, I feel a lot better knowing that my classroom is ready, my lesson plans are ready, my activities are copied and ready to go, because the last thing you want on the first week of school is to still be decorating, copying, and running around crazy because you don't have everything finished! 

In this blog post, I'm going to share with you some of my mentor texts, anchor charts, craftivities, interactive notebooks, science investigations, and graphing activities that I do during the first week. Maybe this post will help you get some ideas so you're not so anxious...well, maybe just a little! LOL

FIRST DAY of SCHOOL:
Set the stage for the entire year. The second the students walk in, greet them with a hug or a handshake. I teach them my safe greetings as they come in and they get to choose which one they want to do together. Here is a picture of my safe greetings: 

If you're interested in my safe greeting resource, click here 

Smile and be excited! Even though you're nervous, try not to show it. The parents are nervous too! You're going to have their child for many, many hours this year and they want to be reassured that you are the best fit for them.

On my student's desks, I have a blank piece of white construction paper, a small tub of play-do, and their name tag. I tell the students to build something that resembles an activity or vacation they experienced over the summer. After they build their object, then they are going to color a picture using 8 crayons. I tell them this because it helps to give them a longer task to work on so I can meet and greet parents and students who are coming in late. This activity takes a good 20 minutes. Its just enough time for me to get everyone in, take pictures, greet parents and take everyone to their desk.  Here is a pic of my desks on the first day of school: 

I make a PowerPoint of all my classroom rules, procedures, and expectations. I sit all the students on the carpet and we go over all the rules. This might take 2-3 sittings, but it is so worth it. I put pictures on my PowerPoint of my class from last year so they can see what it looks like.  We practice these routines:

1.) Sitting on the carpet: criss-cross applesauce
2.) Sitting in our desks: with tummies up
3.) Putting our backpack on our chair with both straps down
4.) Exchanging pencils from the pencil pails
5.) Raising our hand to speak and not blurting out
6.) Mr. Clicker Attention Getter: the students all look at me when I click Mr. Clicker- so they freeze and stop talking. We practice this about 100 times the first week! 

7.) Counting down from 10: all tummies are pushed in and the students have their thumbs up ready to listen. 
8.) Organizing their community tubs and what's inside of them.
9.) Using the restroom and flushing and washing our hands.
10.) Pushing our chairs in when we get up.
11.) Walking quietly to line up, with our wings and bubbles.
12.) Walking in the hallway quietly for secret walker.
13.) Earning bonus bucks for the treasure box.
14.) Saying "Thank you" when called on.
15.) Farm Contest: what is looks like and sounds like

If you're interested in reading about my Behavior Management Tips and Tricks, click here. It will explain about my Desk Contest.

Or, if you're interested in seeing my Behavior Management resource, click here.

These are just a few of the rules and procedures we discuss. Now, on to the academic and fun part! I think it would be easier for me to show you activities, mentor texts, and craftivities for each subject. Let's start with reading! 

I like doing a Kevin Henkes Author Study at the beginning of the year. I have his picture and photos of books in my Author Study center. In the colored bins, I have all of his books and book buddies.

If you're interested in checking out some of my Kevin Henkes linking literature resources, click here for Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and click here for Chrysanthemum. Click here for Wemberly Worried. 

If you're interested in checking out my Kevin Henkes Author Study resource, click here. Other books that are in the resource are: Chester's Way, Julius the Baby of the World and Owen. Here are some examples of writing craftivities that we do with Kevin Henkes:                                            

                                Lily's Purple Plastic Purse

                                                    Chrysanthemum

                                                    Wemberly Worried

Here are some interactive anchor charts and interactive notebooks that I use for reading:

                                   How Do We Treat Books? 

                                                    

                                                       What is Your Schema? 

                                                

                                                                  Text to Self Connection

                                                       I Can't is Buried

If you're interested in checking out my interactive notebooks and anchor charts resource, click here

                                                       Kissing Hand Craftivity

If you're interested in checking out my linking literature resource for The Kissing Hand, click here. We talk about how our emotions were the same as Chester Raccoon, and then we make this craftivity: 

                     Learning Our Initials with The Letters Are Lost

                                        

                                    Writing Mentor Texts

Here are some interactive anchor charts and interactive notebooks that I use for Writing: 

                                    Write From Your Heart

                                         What is a Dictionary? 

                      Student Dictionary for Writer's Workshop

If you're interested in the writing/spelling dictionary, click here

If you're interested in checking out my Writer's Workshop resource, click here.

 

Focus Poetry: 

Who doesn't love poetry! Here's a back to school poem called Special Me. 

I have poetry interactive notebooks with a weekly poem. We read the poem whole group as a shared reading, then we go over parts of speech and punctuation. The students get to glue in the poem and illustrate their mental image. 

If you're interested in checking out my focus poetry bundle, it has weekly poems for every month and holiday. Click here for the bundle. You can also purchase the fall and spring resource separately. Here is an example of my poetry center. This is where I display all of my weekly poems. The bundle also has these poems in large font to make your posters. 

                                                     Math Mentor Texts

                 Math Interactive Anchor Charts and Interactive Notebooks. 

                                   What are Mathematicians? 

                Click here for the Gumball Graphing Craftivity 

                    Click here for the Button Graph Craftivity 

       Click here for my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom graphing                craftivity.

If you're interested in my math interactive notebooks and anchor charts, click here

If you're interested in my graphing math unit with teddy bear counters, building blocks, buttons, letters, fingerprints, eyes, hair, names, and snap cubes, click here!

                               All About Me Mentor Texts

                                    All About Me Craftivities

                                 Me and My Family Tree

If you're interested in this family tree resource, click here

                                   A Rainbow of My Own

                                Super Cute Bulletin Board! 

If you're interested in A Rainbow of My Own resource, click here

                        The Little Engine That Could 

If you're interested in The Little Engine that Could resource, click here. This resource is perfect for teaching optimism and growth mindset! 

                                     Science Mentor Text 

If you're interested in check out my science interactive notebooks and anchor charts, click here

First Day of School Science Experiment: The Blooming Flower 

    All you need is the flower and a bowl of water. That's it! Super          easy to prepare! 

                              

This experiment will excite your students on the first day of school! Simply cut out a white flower (don't color it) and fold up the petals. Then have your students predict what will happen to the flower? Will it sink? Float? Will it collapse? Show your students the scientific method vocabulary cards and model a hypothesis. Then place the flower inside a bowl of water still folded up and watch the magic happen! The petals will unfold and turn into an open flower! Your students will get so excited about science that they will want to do more! I also send home a flower for my students to experiment and teach their parents. They LOVE this! 

If you're interested in check out my Blooming Flower resource, click here

If you're interested in checking out my Fahrenheit Friday BUNDLE with science experiments and investigations for the whole year, click here

And there you have it! I know it seems like a lot, but you know what they say...its better to plan too much than to plan too little. I hope you got some great ideas for the first week of school and I hope everyone has a fantastic school year! Please comment below and follow my blog! Happy Teaching!

                                              Love, Kara 

                                      Welcome to Mrs. Rickman's Farmhouse!!!

If you've ever wanted to have a Farmhouse theme in your classroom check out this blog post! You can have a fun and calming Farmhouse theme using teal and sunflowers and your students will LOVE it! Keep reading if you want to know more about how I set up my farmhouse classroom. 

I picked a farmhouse theme with teal and sunflowers because I really love how it looks and I enjoy all the farm animals and colors. At the beginning of the year I read some farm mentor texts to kick off the farmhouse theme and we make a bulletin board farm. We read The Big Red Barn and then each student picks a farm animal to make out of construction paper squares. Here's how it turned out. I think it turned out pretty cute!

If you're interested in checking out my resource for The Big Red Barn, click here. It includes the animals that you see in the picture, plus interactive notebooks, vocabulary cards, writing templates and more! 

As you look into my window of my room, I have a banner with Mrs. Rickman's Roost. I also bought all of my Farmhouse decor from Hobby Lobby. 

Isn't it adorable? It was so fun to put together. I hot glued small sunflowers onto the banner after laminating the parts. 

Here is the sunflower wreath that hangs on my door. I bought all the ribbon and flowers from Wal-Mart, then took all the materials to our local flower shop to assemble. I painted the "R" teal with yellow polk-a-dots. So fun! 

When you walk into my classroom, you will see my "I CAN" posters for each subject. This is where I write what we are learning for the week. 

If you are interested in these "I CAN" posters, click here

I have them in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, spelling and health. I also have the sign "What Are We Learning" included in the resource. I laminate them and then I write on them with an EXPO marker each week. 

Of course, you have to be organized with your materials and supplies for the week! Here is how I organize my materials. Each tub has the mentor texts, examples from previous years, templates and lesson plans. You have make sure everything is in place!

If you're interested in my labels for days of the week, click here. 

I also have a handy dandy toolbox. I spray painted it teal and put duct tape and sunflowers on it. I got the labels from TPT. I absolutely LOVE it! I would never teach with out one! 

Let's talk about behavior management. To stick with the theme of Farmhouse, I made each table group an animal: Calico Cats, Palomino Ponies, Red Roosters, Grey Goats, and Pink Pigs. Each table has drawers with a teal basket on the top to turn in their work. They also have the animal poster on the side of their drawers.

I also have a sign on my wall that says Farmhouse Firsties. These are the posters for the table points for our Farm contest through out the day. 

Here is my clip chart. It is also Farmhouse themed. Every student has a magnet with their number on it. They all start out on green every day and can either move up or move down. 

If you're interested in my behavior clip chart, click here. 

Now- on to my library. I bought teal classroom bins from Wal-Mart and organized my library by levels and by genre. I also have genre posters above my library that I use to teach each genre through out the year. I also bought the foam letters and teal rug from Wal-Mart to make "We Love to Read". 

Here are some of the genre posters up close: 

If you are interested in checking out my genre posters click here

 I also laminated them and stuck them on my wall with ticky-tack. I pull them down one at a time and put them on my pocket chart to help my students understand each genre, then I put them back up on the wall. On each tub is a label for A-Z and for each genre.

 If you're interested in checking out my library labels, click here. They will fit any tub or basket, just print and laminate! 

Here are some labels: A-Z, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, ABC Books, Animal Books, Class Hospital, Dictionaries, Favorite Authors, Math, Science, Jan Brett, Kevin Henkes...and much much more! 

Here's my writing center. It has "I CAN" posters for:

Writing a Sticker Story

Writing a Postcard

Writing a Letter

Writing a Story

Writing a List

Writing a Book

Writing a Shape Book

Writing a Recipe

Writing a How To

Writing My Favorite Holiday

Writing My Favorite Letter

Writing a Card

Writing a Poem

The Big Pencil I found on Pinterest. 

Here are some of the writing templates for the center: 

In this center, I have my crayons in a tin container from Wal-Mart, different shaped scissors, a clear plastic organizer for templates, a clear plastic divider for student pictures, "I CAN" cards, and of course the white organizer you see is for the students to use as a holding place if they are not finished with their activity. If you are interested in checking out my resource for my writing center, click here . My students LOVE this writing center and it keeps them busy and engaged. 

Now, let's move on to my Alphabet Posters and Reading Strategy Posters. I have both of these up on my wall above my guided reading table for easy reference during small group instruction. 

If you look to the left side, you will see a small white carousel caddie. This is where I keep all of my guided reading, guided math and writer's workshop supplies and materials. I love it! I bought it from Michaels. On the right hand side you will see my guided reading baskets and leveled book sets. If you are interested in my alphabet cards, click here.

I also have my reading strategy posters behind my table, so my students can reference their strategies during guided reading. Here's what they look like up close:

If you are interested in my reading strategy posters, click here. 

Here is my author's chair. I have a teal pillow and the words "Read and Imagine". This is where I do most of my teaching for my mini-lessons. I also have my easel and pocket chart to the left and big book stand with my anchor charts on the right. You can also see my center pocket chart below the big book stand. 

Here is my word wall. It is below my smartboard to make it more interactive for the students at eye level. I used yellow ribbon to cut about 11/2 length for each letter to hang the words on. 

Here is a close up of some of my letters with the sight words. 

My word wall is interactive in that the students can easily take the words off with the clothespins.  You can see here in the picture because the word "good" is upside down. We add 5 new words a week and write them in our word wall folder. We read each word, spell each word and scoop it. Then we put the words onto the ribbons. This is also one of my literacy centers in that the students have a template that they write 5 words in alphabetical order. If you're interested in my word wall resource, click here . 

I also have 20 other centers in my classroom. They are also farmhouse themed with the center icon matching the icon on my pocket chart. Here is a picture of how I organize my center icons. On the left side you can see the numbers of the students on the right side are the centers that they can choose from for the whole week. Then, every Monday I rotate the cards. Each center has a template that the students need to complete for accountability. 

At each center, I have an icon that matches the icon on the center chart. This helps my students find their center easier. 

Here is an example of a center template with the "I CAN" cards. 

If you're interested in checking out my center resource with these icons, templates and "I CAN" cards, click here. 

Here some of the centers that I have:

Library - pictured above.

Writing- pictured above. 

Math

If you're interested in my number posters, click here. 

Theme

Author Study

If you're interested in my author study for Kevin Henkes, 

click here .

Geography

Felt Board

Construction/STEM

Poetry

Word Work

Calendar

Finger Puppets

This is how I keep my pencils. I bought these cute tins from Wal-Mart and labeled them with chalkboard labels and a white paint pen. I also hot glued small sunflowers on the front of it. 

The students put their dull pencil in first in order to get a new pencil. In the middle I put erasers for the students to use. 

And...there you have it! 

If you are interested in my Farmhouse Decor BUNDLE....click here. This bundle has ALL of the farmhouse posters and activities that you just saw in the pictures above. I hope you classroom is beautiful and full of fun! Enjoy!

Love, Kara