First Week

I just completed the second week with students and I'm finally getting around to sharing some activities we did in the first week.

Obvious we spent time the first week going over procedures, sorting supplies, and getting to know each other. On this post I'm just sharing a few of the FUN things.

On the first day the kids participated in the Saving Fred activity shared by Lorraine at Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies. They loved it and it was nice to get a feel for the kids. It even connected with our ocean theme. I know I took pictures but I don't seem to have them right now so they must be on the other camera. On our second day we also Lorraine puzzle races. The winning team finished in just over 10 minutes and the last team finished in a little over 20 minutes. I used Sponge Bob puzzles from the Dollar Tree. Once again there were great strategies shared.

the winning team

On the first day we also opened up a package that came to us from New Zealand! The kids were very excited to meet Snail and Whale, traveling pets from Room 3. We read the book about them and then picked a lucky child to take them home and fill out the journal about their visit in Georgia. The first week the kids took them to an assembly, out to recess, to specials, to the cafeteria and pretty much everywhere else. They also our school mascot ,Wolfie. This continued on through the second week as well.

In keeping with our ocean theme, on the second day I also read Manfish. It is the story of Jacques Cousteau given to me by the Two Sisters at a D5/CAFE workshop. I also shared a quick slideshow of pictures I have taken while scuba diving. Then I let the kids try on the gear and we took pictures in front of a green screen. I finally finished changing out the backgrounds this weekend. The full set can be viewed here.

 

One other thing we did the first week was read Not A Box and Meggie Moon and then have the kids (in pairs or trios) use their imagination to transform a squiggle into something else. They definitely had Snail and Whale on the brain because five groups had some variation on them. We did however get a rabbit spy with a jet pack and a few other creative things.

I'm sure we did some other fun things but since it has taken me so long to write this post I lost the list I had made for myself. All in all it was a fun week.