First Day of School Lesson Plan for 5th Grade

Tomorrow is the big day! The first day of school for me with students and students with their new teacher and grade. My first day of school lesson plans from my post on Tuesday, July 28, have changed some. I have come across so many great ideas from Twitter, Facebook and the many blogs I  follow that I have been so indecisive of what would be the best activities for my 5th graders. Also, with having a grade change this year, moving from 4th to 5th, I needed to make a few tweaks to my plan. This year I will have three classes and will have an hour and 45 minutes with each. So, as you will see a few tweaks to my lesson plan from the one I originally posted a few weeks ago, that you can check out here.

So, here's the plan:

1. 5th 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.)

2. 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", and review the 5 WBT rules. You can find out more on exactly how to implement this in your room here.

3. Supplies-

Next we will begin picking up supplies. Students are asked to bring in a 3-subject notebook which they will use for Reading, English and Writing and 1 composition book which they will use for Morning work. We will color code our notebook purple. That's my favorite color!

4. 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 5th grade class.

5. 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. And I am so excited that this year we will be using play money with our class economy, thanks to a coworker who donated play money to me. This coworker also just started her own blog! You can check it out here at Primarily Pelafigue.

6. 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.

7. Kahoot-

Finally to end their hour and 45minutes with me, they will play a short Back to School Quiz on Kahoot.

Maybe, it's not so different from my other plan just a tad shorter.