Ready, Set, Go!

 The madness of week one has blasted past like a sonic boom, and now my thoughts are turning toward the long haul.  Whether your class has you counting your blessings or counting the days until the school year ends, just remember it will fly by faster than you think. In the meantime, I'll be posting some new resources and ideas for you to check out. Hopefully, they'll help you along on your journey this school year. 
      This week we spent a lot of time getting to know the rules and routines of our classroom and school, as well as each other.  We explored our classroom with a scavenger hunt; got to know one another with some getting-to-know-you games; and created our own set of classroom rules. Click on my TpT tab to visit my store and download some fun freebies for the beginning of the year. Follow me for new products I'll be adding soon!

Fact or Fib 

(Getting to Know You Game)

*My brilliant co-teacher told me about this super simple game. I'm not sure if it's her invention,

 but I thought I'd give her a shout out- Thanks Bria!*

Materials:

• Post-it notes or index cards (1 per student)
• Pencils

Objective: To build a sense of classroom community and help students get to know their peers

Directions:

1. Ask your students what a fact and fib are.
2. Tell them that you are going to tell them two facts and one fib about yourself (ex: I have kissed a dolphin; my favorite food is chocolate; and I have a silver cat named Shady). 
3. Let the students guess which is the fib (My fib is that I have a silver cat named Shady. Sadly, someone catnapped her while I was on vacation five years ago... I still miss my kitty)
4. Give each student a post-it or index card and let them write down two facts and one fib about themselves (you may want to remind them to mix them up so it's more difficult to identify the fib)
5. Collect the cards and read them to the class, letting the students guess which is the fib for each student. You could also do this in small groups if you prefer.

*This is also a great correlation to fact vs. fiction if you want to tie it in to a review skill.  I may reuse this game again later when we work on literal vs. nonliteral!

Lessons From Kid President

   A co-teacher (Yes, it was Bria again!) told me about an inspiring video that she had shared with her class, "Kid President: Pep Talk". 

How adorable is this little guy?!

My class was so pumped up by this pep talk that I ran with it! 

The next morning we watched the "Kid President: Pep Talk for Teachers and Students"

After each short video, our class discussed what lessons we'd learned from the video. 

I asked the kids what their most memorable phrase was from each video and it became our inspirational quote of the day.

"YOU WERE BORN TO BE AWESOME!" stayed on our board for the whole week. 

On the third day, we watched the original pep talk video again, and I asked the students to think of one way that they could make the world a more awesome place. 

They were directed to choose a small goal that they could work towards this year, or a big dream goal that they could work toward as they grow up.

My students were so engaged!

After everyone finished, we turned our "We can be AWESOME" goals in to a colorful bulletin board for the front of our room. Everyday we can see how we want to make the world a more awesome place.

1 inspiring young man + free video links + a little creativity=

 BIG CLASSROOM MOTIVATION!

Thanks Kid President!