August. For such a simple word, it has such profound meaning...The 8th month meaning new beginnings...when educators slowly mourn their last few days of summer...when some students dread the beginning of a new school year while parents secretly celebrate the start of school! There is a certain excitement in it all...freshly inked pens and sharpened pencils...fresh new blank calendars (until it is quickly filled with meetings and deadlines), notebooks with no creases, clean offices, full buckets of play dough, and new stress balls...and don't forget...big bright smiles!! Yes...August! The start of another year! New faces, New attitudes and New beginnings! I like to start each school year by visiting all the homerooms and welcome everyone back! This year might be a bit of a challenge because I went from a school that had ~510 students with 20 homerooms to a school with ~1025 students and 38-40 homerooms!! So this year I plan to either do a mass greeting as everyone enters the building or a video blast to the entire school!
I typically start my lessons the 2nd week of school with my older students (3-5)...they know the ropes so they don't need as much time to be "broken in' so to speak. This year I will be working with Kindergartners, 2nd Grade and 4th Grade...I plan to start with 4th grade, but the lessons are listed below... Some of the worksheets I use are available on my TeachersPayTeachers site!
This is really fun and simple lesson! If like many of you my lesson are ~30 minutes give or take a few minutes! I love, love puppets and believe it or not, the students still get into it! I generally take my friends (puppets) with me during our first lesson to introduce the ones they might see throughout the year! During this lesson I introduce myself and tell the students a little about what I do... I keep it simple...then I introduce my "friends"...After quick introductions, we read the book:
Listen Buddy by Helen Lester
I use these rules to teach the Rules for Listening...these are typically the rules I use when I am in the classroom for guidance lessons, and it helps reinforce listening in the classroom. I use the song, The Rules for Listening from Stephen Fite & Mr. Al Cd Back to School by Melody House. I'm sure you can find the CD on Amazon.com or something like that for cheap! There are 13 songs total so you might be able to use it often.
Its not a fast, rap type song, but the kids love it! I have little dance/hand moves we do as they sing the along with the song. As I'm teaching them the rules (essentially the song), we talk about each rule and what it means and what it looks like! The take home is a little booklet that has each rule...they can color and take it home...and we all know how kinders love the color!! The booklet is available on my TeachersPayTeachers site if you don't want to recreate the wheel!
More or less along the same lines as Kindergarten on this introduction lesson, I go into a little more detail about who I am and what I do...I also have friends that I take into 1st grade as well...not as many as Kindergarten, but friends still the same! Following introductions we read the book Bunny Business by Nancy Poydar.
After reading we discuss what happened in the book. Some discussion questions might include:
1. What was Harry's problem in the beginning of the story?
2. What was Harry so busy doing instead of listening?
3. Because he wasn't listening, what did Harry do to try and find out the directions?
4. How did Harry feel when his ears looked different from the rest of the class?
5. Why is it important for boys and girls like you to listen in class?
6. What could happen if you are not a good listener?
We briefly discuss the Rules for Listening previously mentioned in the kindergarten lesson! Again, I use those rules to redirect so it helps when they know what i mean...Hands Still, Feet Quiet, Lips Closed, Eyes Watching and Ears Listening! If time permits, I will let them color and make their own set of bunny ears! You can easily find a template off line and download it for FREE! :)
For this introduction lesson we have a bit more fun and I introduce a little "Magic" to the mix!!! I have 2 friends that visit 2nd grade with me...Wagner and GWC Checking Chipmunk (You might learn more about them later:)) so I will introduce them along with myself!! As I explain my role and who I am to them, I use The Magic Coloring Book of Feelings to explain the concept of being open and sharing things with me and how am I there to help!! They are really fascinated with the magic of the book!
Following the book I have the students complete a Guess Who puzzle and cut it out...they put the pieces into Ziploc bags and we exchange the bags to see if other students can put the puzzles together and figure out who it belongs too! The kids really enjoy trying to figure out who's who...it gives them a chance to get to know their classmates even better than they already do and it gives me a chance to learn about the students! Another option is the play People Bingo for 2nd grade. A more detailed description of People Bingo is listed below!
My introductory 3rd-5th grade lessons are the same with small variations!! I like to start by getting them up and moving so we do a quick little exercise where they have to do certain things if the phrase I mention pertains to them... Some of my questions look like this:
Stand up if have at least 1 brother
Stand up if you have at least 1 sister
Make a face if you dislike Broccoli
If you like hats give me a wink
If you like cats better than dogs let me hear you meow
If you like dogs better than cats let me hear you bark
If you like rainy days give me a thumbs up
If you play a sport, show us how you play
If you play an instrument, show us how you play
If you are excited to be back at school, give me a great big smile!!!
This usually gets the students up and moving a bit and they can relax a little before we start the lesson! Following the ice breaker, we review a PowerPoint...I created a simple PowerPoint that I use to introduce myself and my role! We go over things like:
Confidentiality
Individual & Small Group Counseling
Classroom Guidance Lessons (days and times)
Different Groups they can participate in...
Testing (this is very, very brief...just a blurb really)
Bullying (We have a No Tolerance Policy-I mention that and tell them we will further discuss that topic in later lessons)
Referral Process if they need to see me
Those are just a few things the PowerPoint covers...After we go over the PowerPoint, I give each student a Individual/Small Group Survey form to complete. I do this mainly to find out what's going on with my students. Things can change over the course of the summer...And I tell my students all the time that they are my best referral...no one can tell me what's going on with them, better than them!! I have each student complete this whether they help or not (data collecting purposes-and we all know how much we love data "she says sarcastically")
Once all that good stuff is out of the way...We have some real fun and play PEOPLE BINGO!!! Each grade level has a different board but they have 3 minutes to find classmates that have the same likes them and get the student to sign their boards. No one name can be on the board twice and only one name per square! The purpose of the Bingo game of course is to give the students a chance to get to know each other better and to learn something new about their classmates that they may not already know! It gives them a chance to see that they may have things in common with people they never spoke to...I incorporate the quote "Never Judge a Book By Its Cover" get to know people before you decide if you want to be friends!
The Bingo Boards and Individual/Small Group Survey is available on my TeachersPayTeachers site!!
Phew...That's it for my introductory lessons!! It might seem like you can't squeeze all of the above into a 30 minute lesson, but trust...it works!! Use them, have fun with them...share in the comments if you do a variation of the above...any questions shoot me an e-mail! I'd love to hear from you! :)
Continue to be GREAT!!
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