Shepherd's Shining Stars: team building activities

The first two days Back to School have been filled with

rules/expectations
procedures
team building activities
text to self connections
picking a Just Right book
Getting to know you activities
exploring technology in the classroom

Students really did a great job of becoming acclimated to the WBT Class Rules/Expectations. We practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and taught our partner the 5 class rules. We also reviewed certain rules (like Rule #3 Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat), when students broke them.

We reviewed procedures throughout the day such as sharpening pencils, our designated time to use the restroom and how we walk to and from the restroom, lining up for lunch and PE, switching classes, and finally coming to the rug with our partner for Shared Reading.

Students participated in a team building activity. They worked exceptionally well together! I was pleasantly surprised. However, I completely forgot about the Saving Fred activity, which students reminded me of at the end of the day. We will definitely have to fit it in our schedule sometime next week.

After reviewing rules and expectations of our shared reading time, students were assigned their first partner and were given a designated area on the rug. I began reading First Day Jitters and modeled making connections using sentence starters posted on an Anchor Chart.

On Friday, I read Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians with a focus on exploring different genres and the 5 Finger Rule.

Finally, students were given a chance to explore centers.

Here on the rug, you can see students cutting, pasting and sorting the Rules under the following headings on a Tree Map- Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible. In the Back of the picture, you can see my student teacher assisting students with choosing a Just Right book.

Here are a few students exploring the apps on the iPads. Temple Run seemed to be the most popular, among students. However, they were given instructions not to spend their whole time playing games and to explore as many apps as possible. They did a fantastic job exploring!