Her First Day Plans Linky Party

Hello all! I am linking up with one of my favorite bloggers, Raye @ The Caffeinated Teacher, for a linky party. I cannot believe summer is basically over (I go back to school next Thursday for inservice days) and it's time to start thinking about the first day of school with the kids.

I honestly do not think I have done the same thing in my classroom on the first day of school for any of my 11 years. I always hate what I do on the first day - not that I can articulate what I don't like about it but I remember each year that I didn't like what I did the previous year. Thankfully I think that has changed! This is how I think my schedule will go and it is very similar to last year - Yay!!! (I teach 8th grade so that means 70 minute classes - I will have a Civics schedule and an English schedule since I teach both subjects.)

Civics:

5 minutes: Attendance - Ask each student to introduce himself/herself by saying their first and last name and answering the card they chose as they walked in the door. I got the cards on Teachers Pay Teachers - you can find them here.

10 minutes: A ten question true/false quiz. Students will answer true/false for ten questions about me, my classroom, and my classroom procedures. (The questions are something like "T/F: Mrs. Ironmonger throws away papers with no name." This is false and when I go over the answers I explain the "No Name" board to the students.)  Right/wrong answers do not matter.

20 minutes: Answers to the questions are revealed. While discussing the answers, the classroom procedures and expectations will be laid out for the students.

25 minutes: "Find Someone Who..." worksheet. This worksheet gives the students ten questions, like "Find someone who knows the name of the current President of the United States?" and students must find a classmate who knows the answer. They don't write "Barrack Obama" on the worksheet, they write their classmate's name. The students love this activity because they don't have to know all about U.S. government to complete the worksheet. They just have to find a classmate who knows the answer. It takes the pressure off immediately.

10 minutes: Discussion of the answers to the questions. This helps me learn the names of the students as well as discuss some of the major topics we will be covering over the course of the year.

English:

5 minutes: Attendance - Ask each student to introduce himself/herself by saying their first and last name and answering the card they chose as they walked in the door. I got the cards on Teachers Pay Teachers - you can find them here.

10 minutes: A ten question true/false quiz. Students will answer true/false for ten questions about me, my classroom, and my classroom procedures. (The questions are something like "T/F: Mrs. Ironmonger throws away papers with no name." This is false and when I go over the answers I explain the "No Name" board to the students.) Right/wrong answers do not matter.

20 minutes: Answers to the questions are revealed. While discussing the answers, the classroom procedures and expectations will be laid out for the students.

30 minutes: We will discuss what a bio poem is and I will show my example (this is also good because it helps the students learn more about me). I have a worksheet to help the students structure their own bio poem. As they write, I can assist as needed and ask questions about what they are writing to help learn more about each student. When finished, I will give each a sheet of construction paper so they can neatly write their poem on the paper and then illustrate it. With the students' permission, I want to hang the poems in the hallway. I found the template for this idea on Teachers Pay Teachers - you can find it here.

5 minutes: Finish class by collecting poems and reminding students about the forms that need to be returned and supplies that will be needed.

This year I will have a class of students that I teach for two periods - once for Civics, then again later in the day for English. Since that class will have already heard my expectations/procedures speil in Civics I will need an additional activity for their English class to fill those 30 minutes. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated! :)

Hope you all enjoy your first day with your students. TTYL,

PS - I texted my husband while I was writing this post to tell him I was doing a linky party about the first day of school. My stupid auto-correct changed linky to kinky and now my husband cannot stop laughing. Happy Friday everyone!