The First Week of School

The First week of school was GREAT! I have such wonderful students and I am really excited for this school year. We did a lot this week and I think I will have to keep the momentum going! We started the week off by doing Time Capsules. Since my students stay with me for three years, I thought this would be a fun activity. Every year, we will add to the time capsule and on the last day of school, when my students are 6th graders, they will get to look back on what they were like at the beginning of the school year in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. They also wrote a letter to themselves that they will open on the last day of school.

Everything they completed for the time capsule went inside a manilla envelope along with a picture of them on the first day of school, and a piece of string I cut to their height. It'll be interesting to see how much they change over the next three years!

We also did a partner activity this week called "Language Ladders". Partners had to take the word "TEACHER" and write it vertically on one side of the paper, and then vertically backwards on the other side. It looked something like this:

T               R

E               E

A               H

C               C

H               A

E                E

R                T

Then, using a dictionary, they had to look up words that started and ended with the letters. For example: a word that starts with T and ends with R is tractor. 

If they didn't know the meaning of the word, they had to write the definition. I set a timer, and the team with with most words won a prize. I also gave prizes for the team that had the longest words. 

Everyone really seemed to like this activity, and it was a great way to introduce working in pairs. Before we started, we went over what a good partnership looked like. We also used student dictionaries, so I didn't have to worry about students coming across inappropriate words. 

On Pintrest, I saw this great math activity called "Figure Me Out" where the students have to solve math problems in order to find the answer about their teacher, like how old she/he is or how many people are in her/his family. I thought this activity would be great reversed, and I had each table come up with their own math problems about themselves. 

It turned into "Figure Us Out" and they LOVED it! Some students got really creative with their math problems!

We also did these self-portraits!  

Over the summer I went to Japan for my honeymoon and my students last year knew about my trip, so this year they were really curious. I decided to use my trip in the classroom, and made our Social Studies and Art this week all Japan themed! I made a slide show with the pictures from my trip, gave every student one yen, and taught them one Japanese word a day. They loved seeing all the pictures, hearing about all the food I ate, and thought getting real Japanese money was pretty neat. Here's a little peek at what I showed them:

Continuing with my Japanese theme, we read "Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes" and I taught them about the tradition of origami in Japan.  Then, we made paper cranes, but I forgot to take pictures of them! I also showed them a kimono I have, and we read about kimonos and when people wear them.

I found a kimono book mark template online, and adjusted it to allow my students to create their own patterns.

 The template had a bun, so the boys in my class just decided to cut it off in the end.

For writing this week, we learned about and wrote our own Haikus! It was fun, and some of my students got really into it!

This was the Haiku we came up with together as a class. Why they wanted to write about spring I'll never know!

To end our week, we learned about the Cherry Blossom season in Japan. I wish I could have seen them in person, but they only bloom in spring and our break last year was only a week.  Still, I think our paintings came our pretty well.

Overall, I'd say it was a successful first week of school. I can only hope the rest of the school year is just as good!

Welcome to Room 12

Well, all the pencils are sharpened, desks are arranged and bulletins are up! I am ready for the first day of school tomorrow! I have a lot planned for this first week of school, and I can't wait!

I saw this idea for book bags on chairs here!

 This board I am really excited about! I made those pencils from construction paper :) It's for "The Great Pencil Challenge". Pencils are kind of the bane of my existence during the school year. They often grow legs and/or get eaten. It drives me crazy! This is a challenge to see who can make their pencil last the longest. I got the idea from Ladybug's Teacher Files! She has some wonderful ideas!

This is for my class jobs! 

So there's my classroom! Once I get some student work up it'll be even better :) 

Where Do I Begin?

This is probably my 3rd attempt at blogging, and I'm still unsure where I begin.....I guess I'll start from the beginning.

My name is Morgan and I am an elementary teacher. I teach at a wonderfully small school where every grade is a combo. My class is the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade room. Yes, you read that correctly. I teach three grades in one room. Now, I promise, it is not as scary or weird as it sounds. Last year was my first year teaching this class and it was great! 

Since I feel like I have a better handle on things, I am hoping that this year I can actually blog about the school year! Keep your fingers crossed! I go back into my room on Monday and I couldn't be more excited!