Getting to know each other and the school surrounding is vital to a successful beginning of the school year. As students begin to feel more confident and comfortable with their new school surroundings, they start to become more confident and comfortable with academic learning as well. The Back to School unit provides great opportunities for students to become aware of their surroundings, including who their peers are and what the term “school” encompasses. It is important to incorporate several different hands-on activities that help students engage in learning about their new peers and school environment. In this we try to include a variety of learning activities such as a self-portrait activity to learn more about classmates, a sorting activity to learn about different places in the school and what is found there, as well as a SmartBoard activity where writing becomes incorporated into learning about classmates. Self Portraits - Whole GroupSelf-portraits are a great way to show individuality and creativity in the classroom. To begin, students will be given a template to take home in order to decorate to represent themselves. Parents are encouraged to help children complete this project which will be shared with the class (Parent Letter). As students begin bringing their decorated self-portrait back, the class learns about one classmate each day. The chosen student will have the opportunity to share their self portrait and have classmates ask further questions to learn more about the student. This information will then be used to create a biography about the chosen student. The teacher will use the information gathered to write the biography. Students will create their own illustration of that student to be included in the final copy of the biography.
Interview Graphs - Whole GroupAfter listening to each presentation and asking questions to learn more about that student, the class will go back to the one detail they decided to graph and add that onto their lego graph. This will also support beginning math skills and can be used to make connections for students during math instruction.
WorkstationsNoun Sorting Mat This is a great activity for your students to get to know your school, school personnel, and their tools while also working with nouns. Students will be given a stack of pictures cards that represent different places, personnel, and their tools, along with a sorting chart. Students will then be asked to match the pictures based on the specific area of the school, ex. Library, librarian, book. After matching each special area with the correct personnel and tool they will then be asked to sort them on their noun sorting mat.
"Who Are You?" This workstation (SmartBoard file) will allow students to identify their classmates and practice letter formation while learning how to use the SmartBoard. At this station, students recognize classmates photographs and practice writing names for letter formation practice. The student can select different pens on the SMARTBoard to trace over the typed name on the screen.. You can “jazz” this file up with your personal touch as this is just a basic template to get you started! Remember to lock the objects in place after typing in each student name. Students can practice moving through the file by using the “next page” button as well as practicing using the eraser after their writing practice. This task card will support students during the workstation activity. *Teacher Tech Tip: This activity requires the teacher to insert individual student pictures as well as student names. You may want to save this file on your desktop for students to be able to easily access without your assistance. Integration of differentiated activities is significant in the learning process for young students. By utilizing engaging and meaningful activities such as these, students will be able to gain a stronger understanding of their peers, their classroom, and their school environment. Standards ELA K-I.3.2, K-I.4, K-W.6.2 CS K.DL.1.2, K.DA.1.1, K.CS.1.2 AuthorsTrella Collins
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