Whimsical Teacher Tried and True

5th-8th Grade Tried and True  First Day of School Tips!

     I've found that kids in 5th and 6th grade are looking for social connections on their first day back to school.   They are nervous about meeting and making friends and of course they're more in tune to what their peers are wearing and how they are acting.  Every art project or fancy schmancy glue this to that 1st day activity I've tried has flopped with the middle school/upper elem age group, so I developed a back to school pack JUST for the upper elem grades!  My back to school pack focuses on building friendships and making connections during the first week of school.

Here's my tried and true 1st day back pack!

     

10 Fun Activities

Here are some of my favorite activities from the pack!

Activity 1: License Plate Task Cards

    In this activity, I give kids a choice between 12 different license plate task cards.  Each card gives a detailed task that involves decorating a blank license plate.  Kids get really excited drawing their license plates.  I usually cut them out and laminate them and hang them all over the room the 1st week of school.  The license plates tell me a lot of about the kids, and I only have one rule- no white spots! :)

Activity 2: Respect Lesson: flippy flappy book, task cards and cartoon activity.

  In my classroom, I have 4 rules: Respect Yourself, Respect Other People, Respect Your School, and Respect the Materials.  I find that in a middle school classroom, these are the rules that need to be addressed before routines are established.

    Respect is a great topic of conversation because everyone has their own definition of it.  Getting everyone on the same page about respect is a vital part of my 1st day routine.  Last year, I had the kids act out mini respect plays based off my task cards. Example: What should you do if someone keeps bothering you, and they won’t stop even when you try talking to him or her? 

 Activity 3: Student or Family Interviews

   I like having my students interview each other on the first day of school, and then I send them home to interview a parent or family member the first night.  My method is a little crazy (homework on the 1st night?!?), but the interviews speak loads about the kids.  First of all, I can tell on day 2- who is serious about homework/grades.  Also, I can tell a lot about writing skills and family relationships.  I read every word of these interviews with passion, so I can understand quickly who I'm going to be working with this year and how I may best start to help them!

    Thanks for tuning into my 1st linky party AND my tried and true methods.  Also a big thanks goes out to my godson, Nick, who helped evaluate my back to school pack and was my model for this blog post!   Here's the link to my back to school pack if you want to check it out in closer detail:  Upper Grades 1st Day Back Pack!

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