school

Going back to school is a busy and exciting time for teachers and students alike. On these pages you will find some of my favorite activities and books to read during the first couple days of school! Click on a link below to find some back to school activities or resources!

First Day of School	Learning the Rules	Name Games
Back to School Treasure	The Alphabet	Books

This heartwarming story is one of my favorites, and it is a wonderful way to begin the first day of school as it eases children's anxiety. I have an adorable raccoon puppet that I share with the children before reading the story. I have to admit that I did have trouble finding a stuffed raccoon. However, my mom found a wonderful raccoon puppet at First Monday in Canton, Tx!

I introduce the puppet as Chester and then pass him around so that all of the children can take turns greeting him. I then ask the children if any of them felt a little bit nervous or scared about the first day of school. Sometimes, there are a few children who are willing to share their feelings. I tell the children that Chester was a little bit nervous about the first day of school too, and he has a very special story that he would like to share with us. After reading the story each student creates a page for our class book about our first day of school.

Chester becomes our class mascot and enjoys traveling home with his first grade friends on the weekend. He has a bag and a journal that travels with him. I also include a copy of The Kissing Hand for the first visit home. Audrey Penn has written a sequel titled a Pocket Full of Kisses, and I send this book home when Chester goes for his second round of visits.

Roll out the dough and let each child cut out a hand. Bake according to directions. When you remove the cookies from the oven, press a kiss in the palm of each hand. Eat for snack!

At the end of the day, I re-visit The Kissing Hand and tell the children how glad I am that they are in my class. I stamp each of their hands with a red heart and ask them to come back and visit Chester and I tomorrow. ( I recommend using a washable ink pad.) The stamp gives the children something to share with mom and dad when they get in the car. You can also purchase foam hands with hearts cut out of the center. I found a packet for 99cents at Hobby Lobby. I think they would make cute bookmarks!

Lots and lots of wonderful ideas! There are bulletin boards, poems, recipes, writing, and much, much more!

This is a funny book about a puppy named Arnie and what happens on his first day of first grade. In the story, the class is asked to help make up the rules. One student suggests, "Never spit on your shoes." I love to use this book to begin talking about classroom rules.

To make up our classroom rules, I have adapted an idea from The Responsive Classroom. It is very important that children understand why we have rules and that there is a purpose for having them in the classroom. This avoids children thinking that they have to do something because "Mrs. McDowell says so." According to "Creating Rules With Children," by Mary Beth Forton, there are several goals to achieve when establishing classroom rules.

After reading Never Spit on Your Shoes, I ask the children to help me write a list of rules we should have in our classroom. I accept every answer and record it on chart paper. After we have a nice long list, I stop and say "Whoa, that's a lot of rules. I don't think I can remember all of them." I tell the children that I think we should put this list away and look at it again tomorrow. If the children are still wanting to add more rules, I ask them to hang on to them until tomorrow.

Next, we start talking about what we think we will learn and do in first grade. We record this on chart paper also. I then ask the children what they hope to do the most this year. What is their dream to do in first grade. We then go back to our seats, and draw pictures of our "hopes and dreams." I give children cloud shaped tracers and white construction paper. They trace the cloud shape and cut it out before drawing their picture. I go around the room and have each child dictate to me what he or she hopes to do this year. These are displayed on a special bulletin board titled, "Hopes and Dreams for First Grade."

Over the next few days, we spend time sharing our hopes and dreams and talking about how we could achieve them. We re-visit our list of rules and talk about why we even have rules in school. The children learn that we won't get to do any of the things we hope to do if we do not have any rules in our classroom. They also discover that we can condense our long list of rules into four or five statements that will encompass all of them. I allow the children to come up with simple rules that will help us learn, keep us safe, and take care of our friends, our school, and our classroom. The children get to sign the rules before they are posted on our Hopes and Dreams board. This gives the students a sense of ownership and by signing the rules, each child promises to do his very best to follow them so that every student and Mrs. McDowell can achieve his or her dream.

At Open House, I share our rule creating experience, including the long list of first grade rules. I discuss with parents how important it is for children to understand why we have rules and how this allows them to take ownership of what occurs in our classroom. I give the parents a homework assignment. Each parent has to write their own hope or dream for their child this year. I display these hopes and dreams with those of the children. For more information on creating classroom rules with your students, visit The Responsive Classroom. Also, I highly recommend the following professional books for beginning the school year. Jody Capehart is my current head of school and her discipline book is amazing!

During the first weeks of school, students enjoy practicing basic classroom procedures and rules using the "Rule Jar." Inside the jar are slips of paper. Each slip lists a procedure or rule, such as "Show me how to sit in a chair." I also include silly ones like, "Show me how not to line up." This quick activity is a fun way to get children thinking about how we act in the classroom and it is a great filler when you need a two minute activity!

The first few weeks of school always include playing name games. Here are just a few of my favorite activities! If you have one, email it to me and I will add it to my pages with your name!

You will need a ball of yarn. It must be in the shape of a ball to work. The multicolor yarn is most fun for this game. The class sits on the floor in a circle. The teacher introduces herself and shares her favorite color. Holding onto a piece of the yarn, she rolls it to a new friend. The new friend says his or her name and shares his or her favorite color. Before rolling the ball to another friend, the child says "That's Mrs. McDowell and her favorite color is pink." The child holds onto a piece of yarn and rolls it to a new friend. The third child would introduce himself, share his favorite color, introduce the child that rolled it to him and his color, and then introduce the teacher. For example, "My name is John and my favorite color is green. That's Amanda and her favorite color is purple. That's Mrs. McDowell and her favorite color is pink." I get the class involved in saying everybody's name and favorite to make it more fun and help us learn each other's names. This is an activity that my second grade teacher, Mrs. Sandy D'arconte did when I was in second grade!

This is a wonderful story to use during the first couple days of school because it focuses on names. It also works really well with an All About Me unit. Here are a few activities for extending the story:

Name Graph: Have each child graph the letters of his or her first and last name. This activity helps you quickly assess letter recognition and counting skills.

Investigating My Name: This is a fun questionnaire to send home and children love learning about why their parents chose their name! Thanks to Mrs. Critchell at Kinderteacher for posting this activity on the web!

Take a picture of every student. Mount the picture on construction paper with the words, "Hello, (student's name)!" Use the book to get to know everybody by singing:

This is a cute chant that promotes phonemic awareness and helps students learn each others' names. I have a bee puppet that I pass around a circle as we say this chant.

This is a fun way to welcome students back to school and help ease anxiety. After purchasing all of the treasure items, I sort them out into white lunch sacks. I discovered that I could send the lunch sacks through the printer! However, be careful. The printer will eat a number of bags and it is very frustrating. However, the bags did turn out really cute! Here is what I put in the bags and what each item represents:

Here are some little things to treasure and remind you that I think you are the best

                    The penny is to remind you that you are valuable.
                    The star is to remind you to always try your best.
                    The eraser is to remind you that it's okay to make mistakes.
                    The tissue is for drying your tears and those of others.
                    The band-aid is to let you know that together we can make things better.
                    The sticker is to remind you that we always stick together.

The beginning of the year is the perfect time for first graders to review the alphabet.

Have students stand in a line. Flash an alphabet card and say either "before" or "after."

If you say before, the student must give the letter that comes before it in the alphabet. If you say after, the

Sing the alphabet song and leave out or add letters. See if children notice which letters were omitted. This is fun

This is a wonderful way to teach students about how letters get together to form words, sentences, and meaning. After reading the story, re-tell it using food!

Invite students to spread their celery "tree" with frosting and use the alphabits cereal to create words for the word worm to eat!