Finally, after days of scouring blogs, articles, twitter chats and teacher Facebook pages I have my first day of school lesson plan completed. That was a lot of work for the first day considering I still have the rest of the week to plan for, lol! I learned a lot though, and found many great resources to use this coming year.

 I don't have my schedule yet, which I won't get until next Wednesday so here's a bulleted list of activities I have planned for the first day which is a Monday for students, August 10th.

• 4th Grade Questionnaire - A questionnaire  and a pencil will be on student's desks as they enter for them to complete as I greet parents and welcome other students into the classroom for the first day. Students will also have a goodie bag from me on their desk which will contain a simple snack, bottle of water, pencil, and a pencil pouch. Pictures to come soon of their goodie bags. (The questionnaire was borrowed from Teaching in Room 6.) 

• WBT (Whole Brain Teaching) - After taking attendance, which needs to be done before the start of the day, I will then introduce myself to the class, teach them my "call back" or the "Class-Yes", introduce the Scoreboard, review the 5 WBT rules and finally learn students names playing the name game. You can find out more on exactly how to implement this in your room here. Did you know Chris Bifle the founder of WBT is on Periscope? You can watch him live giving great tips on how to get WBT started in your classroom. Mrs. Shipley is also great on Periscope for teaching WBT. 

• Brain Break Time with Go Noodle- I'm really looking forward to using Go Noodle in my classroom this year! I've already set my class up and can't wait to get students up and moving to wake up those minds and add a little dancing, singing and laughter to my oh so serious 4th grade class. 

• Supplies- Next we will begin picking up supplies and color coding our notebooks. Students are asked to bring in 5 black and white composition notebooks. Each notebook is color coded on the edge for students to easily access when digging in their desk or school bag for the required notebook. Some students will be done color coding and picking up supplies faster than others, so early finishers will have a Class Name Word-search on their desk to complete. 

• Introduce Class Economy- I started using a class economy this past year in January and wish I would've started sooner, like 13 years sooner.  It is awesome and the students buy in quickly. I found a lot of my ideas here again at Teaching in Room 6's blog. She gives step by step directions on how to get started. My one thing to work on this year is to assign bankers at each table at the end of the week to total students budgets. I'll post pictures soon of my rewards and my Class Economy bulletin board later this week when I get into my classroom. 

• The Important Book- Next I will read the Important book, a great book recommendation by Teaching in Room 6. Students will then create a circle map of their best qualities they possess.  This will be a great opening review of character traits which will precede a lesson to come in the following weeks on analyzing a character's thoughts and actions. My students will most likely need guidance on choosing traits for themselves, so here's a character trait chart you can grab here. I will have students use this and then glue into their reading notebooks.

• Brain Break with Go Noodle

• Writing Activity- We will then choose three traits from our circle maps and write a letter about our self. This will be a guided writing lesson in which students will follow along copying and filling in their blanks with their qualities and reasons as I write my own letter about myself. This will also be there first introduction to Kidblog.  I will type my letter via Kidblog as they follow along.  If time allows, students will begin typing their letters via Kidblog. 

• Finally, and another wonderful idea borrowed from Teaching in Room 6, I will end the day with a Read Aloud from Louis Sachar There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. I will read as much as I can until busses begin being called. 

I really want to also do the All Hands in Project with students from Teaching in Room 6, but I am not sure where to fit it in. Maybe, I will hold off on the writing activity for Tuesday and replace it with that. 

I definitely think I have over planned for the first day. 

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Mrs. Shepherd

One of the things I'm doing this summer to get ready for the new school year is pinning. I visit Pinterest every day looking for new and innovative ideas to implement into my 4th grade ELA & Social Studies classroom. Here are a few of the many anchor charts that I have pinned which I plan to implement into my class this upcoming school year. To see more of my pins and to follow me click here.


I like this Close Reading anchor chart because it is easy for students to read, and the expectations are clear. Close Reading is still new to me. This past year I tried out Close Reading with my students really focusing on the 2nd Reading and 3rd. By the end of the year my students learned how to annotate the text and look for evidence within the text to use in their constructed response. However, this year I want students to do the 1st Reading and discuss. This way I will be able to walk around the room to listen to their thinking and scaffold if needed.

My students are so use to using the term "because" in their answer. They know "because" is my favorite word for them to use because what follows is their evidence. So, finding this anchor chart made me happy because look at all the different ways students can answer a question citing text. Love this!

This is a great anchor chart to use the first week of school. I sent it to my partner teacher who teaches Math. She used it this summer during extended year and said the students loved this activity and even created one of their own.

I really like this anchor chart because it defines students letter grades. They not only see their grade on their paper as a letter, but now understand what their grade means. I hope by using this anchor chart that when my students see a "C" on their paper they don't just think they did ok, but now know they need to work harder by asking more questions or putting forth more effort.

We do a lot of Opinion/Argumentative Writing in my 4th grade classroom. So, I loved this anchor chart when I came across it. I really like the counter claim and the rebuttal. 

Here's another CCSS that I teach in my classroom. This anchor chart is very clear and specific.  I also love the strategies that are suggested to determine the POV.

This is a great anchor chart to help students with varying their sentences. I always have a few students who have writer's block, so hopefully this anchor chart will help in freeing their words.

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Mrs. Shepherd