The First Weeks of School

Today was the seventh day of this school year, and my students surprised me with how independent they could be.  We are still working on our procedures and routines, but I love the Whole Brain Teaching aspects that I have implemented this year.  I have always had class rules, but never reviewed the rules each day.  I feel that this is a great part of WBT.  

My students and I spent last week getting to know each other.  My favorite activity was Story of My Name by Fourth and Ten.  

I really loved reading how and why my students were given their names.  The craftivity that goes with the writing project makes for a great beginning of the year bulletin board.  Here is a picture of the completed hall display with the students name posters.  

To create the name posters I simply used Word Art in Word to create my students’ name posters, printed them on cardstock, had the students color them, laminated them, and hot glued clothespins to the back of each.  This will allow me to hang the students’ work all year for displaying in the hallway.