Back to School

School is starting soon and I’m sort of freaking out (the italics are my sarcasm font because, let’s face it, I’m totally freaking out)… but I am also really excited and trying to choose what I am going to do from the 9,384,847 things on Pinterest, teacher blogs, books, other teachers, my brain…. you get the picture….

Being a first year teacher, all I want to do is start teaching my students all the amazing things I have been planning to teach them since I was… oh I don’t know, like 12…. but Kelly (my brilliant mentor teacher) keeps reminding me of how important it is to build my community. She’s usually (ok…. always) right so I decided I need to map out what I am going to do to build community in my classroom.

I decided on all the team-building, community creating, ice-breaking, getting to knowing (I needed the word to end in -ing… c’mon now) activities I HAD to use and typed them up. I made cute half sheets with activities on them so I can laminate them, cut them in half, and use them all year long. 

I am definitely learning how important it is to build my community and I think if I have the activities ready to go at all times I might not be so tempted to teach them how to add fractions and do research projects (fifth graders are too stinkin smart) from day one…. I guess that can wait a week or two :). Here is the link in case you are just like me and need something to anchor you down so you don’t try to teach your whole year’s curriculum in the first week :)…. I guess we just get so excited…. Seriously though, I think I like the school supply display in stores more than the Christmas ones!

Oh, and if you need even more great ideas for back to school, check out Kelly’s back to school pack. 

She has great community building activities and… even better… she has activities for each subject. Knowing her, it will have everything you need for the first weeks of school!