The Best Get to Know You Games For the First Days of School

Today I am brining you the perfect combination of back to school ice-breakers and games for those first days of school!  Back to school is a crazy time and we all want to hit the ground running. There are routines and procedures to teach and we are ready to get to them the second those kids walk in the door. Building community and getting to know your kids has to come before or alongside all of that, though.  As a kid, I remember starting the first day of school with an ache in my stomach because I was so anxious about having to make new friends and meet my new teacher. The unexpected and unknown terrified me.  These games are meant to warm your kids up to one another and get them feeling comfortable in their new classroom one- step- at- a- time! This first one is the most comfortable for kids. They don't feel super vulnerable because it is predictable and they have the support of the whole group during a very short share.

It’s called Pick a Stick. I use these colored toothpicks in the container. You can also use colored popsicle sticks, straws, or anything else you have around. You can print the editable handout here or create a chart and hang it up.  1. Have the kids sit in a circle. 2. Model for the class by choosing a colored stick at random and matching it to the prompt. Start by sharing your name and then whatever the prompt was.  3. Have the kids take turns passing the sticks around the circle and sharing using the color code.  If you’re worried about them choosing a specific color you could put them in a paper bag or have the kids close their eyes. This is a great one to start with because kids can see the questions/prompts ahead of time and feel prepared. They don't feel vulnerable standing up in front of the class or working one on one or in a group with people they don't know at all.

The next game is perfect as kids are getting to know one another and becoming more comfortable. To play you pair kids up or allow them to choose a partner. Give each student a key.  Before getting together with their partner teach them to play “Math Pop”. Math Pop i like rock paper scissors, but instead they each hold up 0, 1, 2, or 3 fingers. They then find the sum of both of their fingers. Easy peasy! 1. Now that they know how to play Math Pop have them pair up and begin.  2. The sum of their two hands corresponds to numbers on the key. They can answer a question more than once.  This game goes by pretty quickly (5-10 minutes per partners). In my classroom we play several rounds by mixing up the partners after those 5-10 minutes.  They make lots of new friends before recess! This download is also editable. You can change the questions or prompts and if you teach upper elementary you can make it work for multiplication by having them find the product of their two hands!

Now the kids are really getting to know one another and settling into their new classroom!

Last year I took an equity course. One of the things that we did to get moving and learn more about one another was this amazing game. It didn’t have a name so I decided to call it Master in the Middle. So, here is what you do: 1.     Have kids make a big circle with their chairs. Depending on how your classroom is set up, you could also have them stay at their desks or their tables. 2.      Take away one chair. There has to be one less chair than there is a person. 3.     The teacher will demonstrate Master in the Middle first by saying something like, "My name is Mrs. Newport, and I have 2 pets." 4.     Everybody that has 2 pets has to get up and swap chairs as fast as they can. They cannot go to the same chair, but because there is one less chair than there are people there will be a new Master in the Middle! 5.     The new master in the middle has to think of something they want to share. They might say, “My name is Joey and my favorite color is green.” Everybody who has the favorite color is green has to get up and find a new chair. Whoever is chairless is the new Master in the Middle and the game continues. Each time the kids are recognizing friends that they have something in common with and they're engaging in some fast paced fun movement!

I always start by modeling and allowing them time to think of 1 or 2 things they would want to share so that they are prepared if they become Master in the Middle. In the younger grades you may even want to make a list. Some ideas might be somewhere you've gone on vacation, a favorite food that you have, a book that you read, a sport you play, that you took swimming lessons, or what your   favorite animal is.

Click HERE or any of the pictures above to grab your editable printables! I would love to hear about games and ice-breakers you use in your classroom to build community and get kids feeling comfortable! Share your ideas in the comments with all of us.

Thankful for you FREEBIE Linky!

Happy Holidays, friends! I am gearing up for a long week of conferences, 

but I am happy to say my report cards are finished. 

I haven't spent a second working on anything school related, 

which neverrrrr happens on the weekends. 

Instead, I'm listening to Christmas music; don't judge 

and baking with this little toothless love!

This Thanksgiving week I am linking up with Brooke over at Countless Smart Cookies. From now through Thanksgiving you can grab: 

and

FREE in my TpT store. Just click on the images. 

While you're there be sure to follow me and find me on Facebook. 

I love to share my latest creations and 99.9% of the time I'm flying by the seat of pants 

and trying to find the time to put together a thoughtful blog post just doesn't happen. 

Instead I share my goodies with you for free, so follow people! 

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you ALL for your love and support!

Now head over to:

and snag up all the Thankful for YOU freebies!

For no good reason...

I am blogging for no good reason, no good reason other than.... 

-that I am teaching a 2nd and 3rd grade blend and am always feeling too crazy to gather my thoughts into a coherent written post. 

-that it's Sunday night and the Dallas Cowboys and Trail Blazers are both playing at the exact same time. Thank goodness one of them is winning because I can only handle so much pouty whiney husband. 

-While he pouts I work. I made a few new math centers to begin this week. 

My 2nd graders are working on adding and subtracting 10 from any number. Meanwhile, 3rd graders are working on using the distributive property to solve double digit multiplication. 

CAN YOU PEOPLE SEE WHY I FEEL CRAZY EVERY DAY!?!?! 

I digress... 

Click the pictures to download each and thanks for stopping by 

to read my less than thought provoking post. 

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Mother's Day

If you're anything like me then Mother's Day rolls around 

and bites you in the butt every- stinking- time! 

I get myself all sorts of stressed out trying to find the perfect gift

that won't cost my paycheck and will leave those mamas smiling. 

As usual, I over analyze everything and when I should be celebrating 

Mother's Day myself I'm left anxiously wondering what the moms of my sweet kids thought when they opened their gift that morning.  {I know, ridiculous, right?!?!} 

Last year, we read Because of Winn Dixie as a class.

 How could you not fall in love with this book? 

When the Preacher told Opal 10 things about her mama I knew 

just what we were going to do!

This is a keeper people! 

I had more than a couple of mom's email me to say just how much this gift meant to them. 

The kids put together little books of stapled construction paper and plain copy paper. The covers were 3.5 x 3.5 and the copy paper was 3 x 3. I literally cut the paper to size and the kids did the rest. They had a front cover, a back cover and 5 pieces of paper in between. They also used one piece of copy paper to glue to the cover. Before beginning the final copy I had the kids brainstorm 10 of the most important things about their mom. They could be as simple or as heartfelt as they wanted. I also had them do a rough draft sketch to match each. 

Once their rough drafts were complete they set to work on their books. So little of what we do allows kids the freedom to make their own decisions and work at their own pace without constant direction from us. During art I am constantly stopping to give kids next steps. This project on the other hand was completely done by kids. I was freed up to walk around and just enjoy watching them as artist and writers. 

You don't have to read Because of Winn Dixie to make these little books work for your class. Any mama is going to love listening to her little one read a story written from the heart!

On the Friday before Mother's Day I brought in a few ingredients for the kids to make their mom a little breakfast in bed yogurt parfait to eat while they read their story together. 

I might try another recipe this year, but I liked this one because there wasn't any baking or mess involved. The kids just came over, mixed their goodies and wrapped it all up. 

Here's what you'll need:

-A few tubs of vanilla yogurt (each kids needs 1/2 cup)

-A tub of Quaker oats, you know the big round ones (2 tbsp. each)

-A few cans of crushed pineapple (1 tbsp each)

-Small plastic cups 

-Plastic wrap and twist ties

 (I like to get the little cellophane bags that come with the zip ties)

Have each kid mix together their own ingredients. Then they place their cup in a cellophane bag, sealing it shut with a twist tie. The book and the breakfast go in a brown paper bag, complete with this sweet little poem.

P.S. Don't forget to remind them to put their breakfast in the fridge right away when they get home. 

Of course you can grab this little FREEBIE by clicking HERE. 

While, you're there be sure to follow my store. Happy Teaching!

We are Rounding Stars! Freebie rounding centers, parent page and song!!

My kids are rounding stars!!

This year I decided to teach rounding a little differently. I really thought about when and how I use rounding- when I'm shopping, of course! Since we were moving I had more newspaper ads than usual so I set to work making this chart.

I told the kids that I like to get my Christmas shopping done before everyone else to avoid the crowds. I also explained that I like to make sure I was getting a deal and asked for their help in rounding these prices. Visualizing them on a # line from the very beginning helped to solidify the concept for the majority of kids. For those that didn't grasp it right away I already knew that they were lacking strength is number sense so I worked  more on that with them during our small group time. 

After our chart we did some practice in our journals. Obviously we're not going to draw a number line every time we need to round a number. After some practice kids really got it though and didn't need to draw the number line.

As another strategy I introduced the rhyme:
4 or less let it rest
5 or more raise the score
We practiced using these steps:
1. Underline the place you're rounding to
2. Circle the neighbor aka the boss
3. If it's 4 or less let our neighbor rest and I it's 5 or more up the score.
4. Everything to the right turns to 0's

I'm sure you know the schpiel, schpee??? (uh, is that even a word?) so we'll move on :P

In my homework binder I always include a page in our "help" section when we begin anything new. This helps families when they are feeling stuck at home. Here is the help page I used for rounding:

You can grab yours by clicking the picture!

I've explained my math block before. You can check it out here.

After a few whole group lessons we started some rounding centers while strengthening our skills in small groups. We have been playing roll n' round, spin n' round and pumpkin round! I promise I'm not trying to brag, but the kids are so engaged and independent during this time that you could literally hear a pin drop! These centers are in my TpT store for the price of FREE. All I ask is that you pretty please leave your feedback!! Click the picture below to download yours. 

And I have one last thing for you! This is really just for funzies and keeping em engaged. I have a lot of fun rewriting familiar songs to the tune of learning. This time I decided to go with "Rounding Stars" to the tune of Counting Stars by One Republic. Whatever gets them pumped for learning right?!?! Enjoy!

Click the picture for your copy. 

Visualizing FREEBIES!

This year is the 75th anniversary of one of the most incredible stories ever told. As a girl I walked around telling strangers my name was Dorothy, as in Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. My sister was born when I was four and I've been told many times that as I was riding the elevator up to see her for the first time an elderly lady asked me my name. When I told her it was Dorothy she couldn't believe it because her name was Dorothy too and Dorothy was such a rare name for a little girl. My grandparents sadly had to break it to her that I also had imaginary friends named Tin Man, Todo, Scarecrow and Lion.

I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I found out that our district high school would be performing The Wizard of Oz this November! I might have squealed a little. Before the play I am going to read the original story to my class. It's going to be the perfect way to practice the reading skills and strategies we've been working on before our first big novel study. 

We began with making THICK connections and followed it up with visualizing. Next week we will begin working on inferencing. We spent about a week and a half on connections and visualizing. Theres a lot more to inferring so we will spend more time here.

For visualizing we started with one of my favorite poets Jack Prelutsky. If you don't have a copy of the Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant you need to one!

 Each poem describes a creature. These creatures are usually a blend of an animal and a household appliance or favorite food. The panthermometer for example is quite the little mix of a panther with a thermometer for a tail. 

 I began by reading a few of my favorite poems from the book and we shared what we visualized and the words that helped make this image in our mind. Next I handed these out. 

Without showing the pictures I read each poem through a few times and gave the kids time to sketch their images. After both sketches I gave some time to add color. Once everyone had time to bring their images to life I finally showed them Jack prelutskys images. This was of course their favorite part. We talked a bit about how even if what they visualized was a bit different that doesn't make them wrong. Authors want readers to be able to create their own images, characters and scenes. It's part of what makes reading so enjoyable!

Another favorite activity in this study was creating our own images for a bad case of the stripes. 

This was super simple but they LOVED it! When this lesson was done I knew that not only did my kids understand the importance of creating images they enjoyed it. Kids were coming to me to share parts of stories that came to life for them. There wasn't anything special about this lesson other than the way I delivered it. I was excited in every way and I read in that special way that builds so much anticipation for readers. 

You can snag this FREEBIE just by clicking the picture. In writing we were working on restating the question in our answers and citing evidence from the text so there is a page in addition to visualizing. 

I promise to snap some pics of their images tomorrow and add them so you can see how awesome they are!

I'm sure I'll be back later with some inferencing goodies.

Personalizing the Classroom with Bunting Banners

Buntings are all over the place these days and why wouldn't they be. 

They are adorable and change the look of any space with little effort. 

You might have seen my Instagram pin of our personalized student bunting. 

I have started tacking up ribbon in the most unused spaces of my classroom. 

It is so quick to add a couple of tacks and a few clothespins to display student work.

 I don't need to deal with staples or removers of the sort, 

making the put up and take down time much faster! 

When I decorate my classroom space I always leave the bulletin boards empty.

 I want students to fill the room with their work as we go and to add charts as our learning grows. Along the way our classroom becomes a space that is personal to each of them and the decor is more than just background that has always been there.

 This also means that our surroundings are ever-changing so developing 

something that saves time and allows us to personalize our space is ideal.  

Here is another bunting that we will add to as the year goes. 

Really, I should have waited to put this up and added the posters as we learned 

about elements of a story, but they were so cute and I was so excited!

 I made these chalkboard ones too. I'm still not sure which I like more. 

You can grab each HERE and HERE. 

     

I know the school year has already started and most of us have done our share of get to know you activities, but if you are looking for one more you can grab this All About Me bunting free! 

Just click the picture below. 

Ready for a new year! Classroom reveal!!

Oh me, oh my! Things are cuh-razzzzzy around here!!! 

We are in the process of buying a home and selling our own. 

I already stress out completely unnecessarily during this time of year, 

but I am pretty sure my husband has considered running away- forever. 

I can't say I blame him at all. 

The unknown and out of my control does not mix well with me right now

- well pretty much never. 

I know you teachers are with me on this. 

So let's play catch up, shall we? 

I went to lunch and met these lovely and amazing blogger ladies!

I was completely **star struck** when I saw Tanja from Journey of a Substitute Teacher. I literally didn't know what to say and have to admit I recognized the back of her head in line, but was too scared to say hi- haha. Now, I'm not sure how that could ever be! We forgot to take a picture before anyone left but here we have Laura from Teacher Laura- Kindergarten Adventures, Sarah from Sarah's First Grade Snippets and Tanja. Plus Laura's adorable little one taking this picture into cuteness overload.  

Sarah and I were even able to take advantage of a little kid free shopping after!! I can't wait to meet up again. We definitely have to make it happen before August comes around again. 

I have also been packing and organizing and repacking what has been unpacked by this little one. 

With everything going on and all of the unexpected I am so glad that I started going into my classroom early on. I am ready for 32 new Third Graders on Tuesday! 

I really want that first day to be about making connections with kids. I am hoping to keep things as calm as possible as they are coming in that morning. I am always nervous on that first day and it can be hard to keep everything going smoothly as parents are trying to talk with me. This year I decided to leave a note asking parents to help their child find their seat and put away their things. I apologized for not being able to meet with them that day, but promised to talk with them during our back to school night. I am hoping this is going to be just what I need to keep things calm and give me the chance to go around and make a connection with each student first thing!

 The view as you walk in. 

One of the biggest and simplest changes I made this year was combining our group meeting area and our library. I've come to the conclusion that having a separate area for each is a luxury of small class sizes. I do not have that luxury- sadsies :( Bringing the two areas together created so much more space though. 

I was lucky enough to win these posters from The Brown Bag Teacher. They are a must have for our classroom gathering area! I am going to make them a focus of our community circle time too. 

This extra little cubby area is great to display student work and creates a cozy space for kids to read. 

From the top: 

-Around the classroom I am hanging ribbon with clothespins. This is an easy way to hang up smaller posters, students work and more. 

- The black bulletin board is a great space for hanging anchor charts

-I keep all of my teacher books and curriculum resources behind the curtain. I can't stand looking at the clutter so the curtain is a perfect solution. 

-A lamp creates cozy light and frames around the room will have pictures of the kids to make the classroom space more personal

-On the bookshelf we keep dictionaries and thesauruses

-All around the room are little chairs like the ones shown. I found these at thrift stores and garage sales over the years

This is my teacher desk/small group area. I covered my table in contact paper again this year. I did this a few years ago and kids picked at cracks in the paper and needless to say by the end of the year it was destroyed. I have a solution for that this year though! I promise to share soon. The black is so much easier on the eyes than the red. 

Behind my table I try to keep things at a minimum. I am all about eliminating clutter! 

I am hoping these binders will help to keep me organized by month. 

 These posters hang above my table. Each is a Robin Williams quote to help inspire learning and confidence. You can snag your copy HERE or by clicking the picture below. 

Here's our math board and supplies. I created the labels with white contact paper and 

my Silhouette Cameo. 

 I keep our math centers in folders in each tub. 

To the right is where student folders and notebooks for each table group are stored. 

This will be our math word wall. The pocket charts will hold vocabulary words. I created the letters with the Silhouette Cameo. I am in love with this machine, people! Now that my classroom is done I can't wait to start creating and decorating for our new home!!

While I was doing everything possible to eliminate furniture and create more space I switched out our larger computer table for a smaller and I couldn't be happier with the space it opened up. 

Our classroom rules. These frames are from the dollar tree. I spray painted them & added a ribbon and bow with hot glue to each. The subway art classroom rules are editable to you can add your own classroom rules. You can get them HERE!

 Student desks are ready with a relaxing doodling activity that all students can be successful at that first day. All but one of my tables are round. The round supply trays are actually chip and dip trays from Dollar Tree. The center/dip part is perfect for a larger can to hold scissors. All of the other cans are standard size covered in black contact paper and trimmed with wash tape. 

 I love that these name tags stand up, making it easier for students to find their seat on the first day. They also use almost no ink. I just printed them on colored construction paper and folded. 

Of course I am going to share them with you! I added a monster, cupcake and birdie version too so you have some choice. These are editable so before you open the Powepoint you will want to make sure you have the font KG Why You Gotta Be So Mean downloaded. 

Also, if you're not familiar with Powerpoint you can duplicate each slide by going to "Edit" and choosing "Duplicate Slide" this will create more of the same slide so that you can make name tags for your whole class. Just click HERE or the picture below to snag yours!

          

         

This post was so much longer than I ever anticipated it to be.  Hopefully you were able to hang in there and grab some freebies too! Happy Back to School!