First Day of School Agenda
After learning our first procedure, the order of events for the rest of the day is as follows:
1. The first activity the students will do is the get-to-know-you activity. This activity will start with each student sharing a few things about himself/herself with his/her desk buddy. They can choose to share from the sample questions from the board that they answered when they walked in the room, or they can share anything else they'd like to share, as well. After the students have had a few minutes to talk, they will be introduced briefly to the rest of the class by his/her buddy.
For example, Eun Chong would say, "This is Sophia. She likes to swim and she has three dogs at home."
Then Sophia will say "This is Eun Chong. She has a baby brother and her favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs."
The entire class will have an opportunity to introduce his/her desk buddy while seated at his/her desk.
2. After the first activity, the students will move to the rug and I will read them a short story. I will look through the selection available in the library, and choose a book that has an inspirational theme to try hard and succeed. The book will also need to be at the students instructional reading level, and it would be a bonus if it had an international focus or theme, as well. After reading the short story, we will have a short class discussion about the book. During the discussion, we will relate the book to our classroom and draw applications from it.
3. After we talk about the book, we will come up with our class rules. I will ask the students what rules they think we should have in our classroom this year. These rules should include ways they think they should treat each other and myself, and behaviors that they think will help them to learn better. After writing down all of their ideas on a huge sheet of white paper, I will group the ideas into 5 categories. These 5 categories will be the categories in the 5 finger covenant. After we have established this covenant, I will explain it a little bit further. Then, I will draw it out, and each person will come up to the paper and sign their name as an agreement to the contract.
4. After the class rules, I will explain the Nurtured Heart Approach to the students. I will use positive language while explaining it, and label it as a way to help them grow into better people. I will explain that some behaviors are good, while others aren't. To try and help them maximize good behaviors and minimize bad ones, we will be using the Nurtured Heart Approach as a class. I'll explain what the approach is to the class and answers any questions they may have about it.
1. The first activity the students will do is the get-to-know-you activity. This activity will start with each student sharing a few things about himself/herself with his/her desk buddy. They can choose to share from the sample questions from the board that they answered when they walked in the room, or they can share anything else they'd like to share, as well. After the students have had a few minutes to talk, they will be introduced briefly to the rest of the class by his/her buddy.
For example, Eun Chong would say, "This is Sophia. She likes to swim and she has three dogs at home."
Then Sophia will say "This is Eun Chong. She has a baby brother and her favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs."
The entire class will have an opportunity to introduce his/her desk buddy while seated at his/her desk.
2. After the first activity, the students will move to the rug and I will read them a short story. I will look through the selection available in the library, and choose a book that has an inspirational theme to try hard and succeed. The book will also need to be at the students instructional reading level, and it would be a bonus if it had an international focus or theme, as well. After reading the short story, we will have a short class discussion about the book. During the discussion, we will relate the book to our classroom and draw applications from it.
3. After we talk about the book, we will come up with our class rules. I will ask the students what rules they think we should have in our classroom this year. These rules should include ways they think they should treat each other and myself, and behaviors that they think will help them to learn better. After writing down all of their ideas on a huge sheet of white paper, I will group the ideas into 5 categories. These 5 categories will be the categories in the 5 finger covenant. After we have established this covenant, I will explain it a little bit further. Then, I will draw it out, and each person will come up to the paper and sign their name as an agreement to the contract.
4. After the class rules, I will explain the Nurtured Heart Approach to the students. I will use positive language while explaining it, and label it as a way to help them grow into better people. I will explain that some behaviors are good, while others aren't. To try and help them maximize good behaviors and minimize bad ones, we will be using the Nurtured Heart Approach as a class. I'll explain what the approach is to the class and answers any questions they may have about it.
5. Our next activity will be a getting-to-know-you venn diagram. I will put students in groups of 3, making sure that no student is with his/her desk buddy. The groups of 3 will each be given one venn diagram and three markers. Their first task will be to each talk about themselves for 2 minutes. I'll be timing them and telling them when to switch. After 6 minutes is up, they will start to talk about some ways in which they are the same, and some ways in which they are different. They will be able to start filling out their venn diagram in this time. I will demonstrate this entire process for them before they begin any of it. After they have filled out their venn diagrams, they will be handing them in to me. Before they hand them in, though, we will go over the procedure for handing in assignments.
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6. After I have explained the procedure for handing in assignments, we will continue to learn more procedures. During this time, the students will be seated at their desk, taking notes of the procedures in their 'everything notebooks.' After each procedure is explained, we will practice it as a class.
7. After the procedures have been explained, we will play a 'scavenger hunt' game in which students will be given a sheet of paper with questions on it, and they will have to try to find the answers. The sheet will include questions such as:
8. After all students are finished with the scavenger hunt, the students will take a short math pre-test which will assess their knowledge of the concepts to be taught. The students who finish their pre-test early may work on a sponge activity.
9. After the short math pre-test, we will all head to the computer lab. There, the students will take a reading pre-test in the computer lab which will asses their targeted independent reading level. Those who finish early will be able to play some reading games on the computer.
10. After all students are finished, we will go to the library. There, I will make a short presentation and tell the students that they should each find at least one book that they are interested in reading for fun. I will tell them that they should look for the following things when selecting a book:
11. After the students have chosen their books, they will have 10 minutes of silent reading time in the classroom. Before they begin, I will explain what silent reading means. If a student finishes selecting a book early from the library, they may have extra silent reading time in the library.
12. After silent reading time, I will begin to teach students a clapping pattern that we will use as a group sponge activity.
13. As the day ends, I will tell students that they do not have any homework for today, but I'll be excited to see them again tomorrow because we've got some great material to learn.
7. After the procedures have been explained, we will play a 'scavenger hunt' game in which students will be given a sheet of paper with questions on it, and they will have to try to find the answers. The sheet will include questions such as:
- How do you spell my last name?
- How many garbage cans are in the room?
- What five subjects are listed under the 'homework' section of our board?
- How many pages are there in a book in the classroom?
8. After all students are finished with the scavenger hunt, the students will take a short math pre-test which will assess their knowledge of the concepts to be taught. The students who finish their pre-test early may work on a sponge activity.
9. After the short math pre-test, we will all head to the computer lab. There, the students will take a reading pre-test in the computer lab which will asses their targeted independent reading level. Those who finish early will be able to play some reading games on the computer.
10. After all students are finished, we will go to the library. There, I will make a short presentation and tell the students that they should each find at least one book that they are interested in reading for fun. I will tell them that they should look for the following things when selecting a book:
- Reading Level (The students will have just taken a test that will tell them what their reading level is.)
- Interest (Does it look fun and interesting?)
- Double Check with the first five - Read the first five sentences to see if it's easy/hard enough to read and exciting to you. If it is, continue reading the first five paragraphs. If it's still a good reading level and it's interesting, it could be a good book for you!
11. After the students have chosen their books, they will have 10 minutes of silent reading time in the classroom. Before they begin, I will explain what silent reading means. If a student finishes selecting a book early from the library, they may have extra silent reading time in the library.
12. After silent reading time, I will begin to teach students a clapping pattern that we will use as a group sponge activity.
13. As the day ends, I will tell students that they do not have any homework for today, but I'll be excited to see them again tomorrow because we've got some great material to learn.
Some of the first day activities come from adaptations from:
Masden, Rene, and Mary Robert. (n.d.). Icebreakers Volume 6. Education World. Retrieved October 14, 2012, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson242.shtml