Week One is done and what a wonderful week it was with my new group of students! Although this was a 4 day week and the first day was really all about getting our supplies put away and learning the rules and routines of our learning environment, we were able to sneak some fun and educational activities into our time together. Take a look down below to see what we were able to accomplished!
I am a big fan of craftivities! I love the mixture of curriculum based learning with the element of creation. When it comes to back to school, my go-to person for craftivities is Amy Lemons. I chose to use 2 of her BTS products this year – one for Language Arts and one for Math. And let me tell you, my students loved them both!
Language Arts
For Language Arts, I wanted to do a craftivity that would serve as a “first look” into the writing abilities of my students without putting too much pressure on them. The All About Me Flip Book activity that I found in Amy’s Back 2 School Engagement Made Easy product was the best way to start off our writing block. Not only could I get a quick peek at my new students’ writing skills, I also used the directed drawing lesson provided in the pack to see how well students listened and followed directions – while getting a global view of their fine motor and visual processing skills. A lot of valuable information was gained during the delivery of this activity.
An important side note: I now know a lot of information about my students that would never have known in just 4 days of meeting my students. Information like the number of family members, pets, favourite colours, and tons of other interesting facts. I now have a better understanding of what makes my students who they are… and I was able to make connections quickly with my new group of kiddos.
For the next few weeks, these Flip Books will be proudly displayed in the hallway outside of our classroom in anticipation of our next great project! Once they are taken down, they will be placed in the portfolios and used as a benchmark from which to evaluate each students’ progress throughout the year.
Math
For my first few math periods with my students, I wanted to help all of them feel comfortable about math. Math anxiety is a real thing and I see more and more children entering third grade with a negative attitude towards learning math. Using craftivities in this subject area is a great way to help calm the nerves of those who really dislike math for whatever reason. To try to change the mindset of my students, I introduced them to the concept of them being mathematicians — just everyday ordinary people who use math every day — sometimes without even knowing it. I broke students off into groups of 4 and asked them to brainstorm ideas of what mathematicians do. We then created little mathematician characters to help decorate our anchor chart. As you can see, my students came up with some great things that mathematicians do… with no help from me!
The template for this craftivity comes from Amy Lemon’s Let’s Get Started (Beginning of the Year Math Activities) pack.
After a very busy and eventful first week, my students and I are ready to tackle all the Language Arts and Math curriculum coming our way! Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Have a great day!
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