FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL: TEACHER VLOG

good morning welcome to the first day of third grade I am so excited it is 6:35 in the morning school starts in an hour 7:30 and I'm here super early today because I still have a bunch of stuff to do because after back-to-school night I was so hungry that I just left so I have a couple things to do this morning I figured that for the first three days of school I would did this vlog and show you what we're doing at each little part of the day I'm not going to show you guys the actual students because they don't have media releases for them for YouTube but I will show you all the activities that we're doing so students will not be in the vlog but I will show you every activity and every little thing that I'm doing and so um I wanted to say welcome first and then I'm gonna be picking up the camera throughout the day because I'm not exactly sure everything that we're gonna get to I have like a laundry list of things to do as far as procedures to check off and then little activities for us to do team building stuff stem activities all different kinds of stuff so I will be showing you guys that periodically so I think that this is not going to be just a first day of school vlog but this is going to be like the first three days of school so today's Wednesday we have Wednesday Thursday Friday as our first week and I'm just so excited I got to meet my students last night at back-to-school night they are amazing they're so sweet some of them were so nervous which I was like it's okay I'm nervous too and we're gonna have so much fun and their families are amazing so I'm really really excited about this school year and I just I can't wait to get started so um something that is really important to me is my students knowing that in our class we are family so that's what my shirt says this shirt is from the cutesy class and I actually have a coupon code for you guys I will leave down below I believe it's hello 15 but I will double check that and put it down in the description box for you and then my earrings are from wills cooperative they are a fair trade company so I love getting to purchase things from them because I know that it is going to a good cause and they're super lightweight they look like they'd be heavy but there's seriously like a feather um and then I have black pants on and blue shoes I usually wear a dress on the first day of school but once I saw Brittany from the cutesy class post this shirt for sale I was like I need that it's perfect because from the very first day I want the to know that we're a family and I want to start building that classroom community even with the things I wear so that's what we're gonna be doing today we're going to be doing a lot of things for building classroom community up and just have a really fun day so I'm gonna put you guys down I'm gonna get a couple things down and then I'll show you what we're gonna do first [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so I'm just about ready for the first part of the morning so I'm going to show you guys what they're gonna do when they first walk in a couple of the procedural things we're gonna do a stem activity and then I kind of get to know you thing so let's start with that flip you around and I'm gonna show it we're doin first okay so when the students walk in I will greet them at the door and tell them to go sit somewhere where there is a paper and a pencil this is just like a very low stress easy kind of silly thing it says take a guess and it's questions all about me so they're guessing things about me and then after they finish I will tell them a little bit about myself by giving them the answers to these I like doing this because it's something really easy for them to do they don't have to think about it very hard it's kind of silly and then it kind of gives me a chance to talk to parents a little bit that are coming in or you know any last-minute things that happen that I kind of have to have them be doing something I don't want them to just sit and be waiting for me to tell them what to do so this is really easy the questions are as your teacher married how old is your teacher what are your teachers favorite hobbies what is your teachers favorite color favorite lucky member favorite food how many sisters and brothers does she have where was she born what kind of pet do they have and then on the other side write something else you think you know about your teacher so it's kind of funny the things that they write and it's just like a really cute little way to get to know me a little better before we start talking about them so I have one set out at all of the different little flexible seating options that I want them to be able to sit up and then wherever they choose is going to be their spot for the day so you can see they have this little piece of tape here so I will pass around a sharpie or I don't know it's kind of small so I might write it on here for them and then at the end of the day they'll just pick the tape off they'll come stand over here along this stage and then I'll just call a few over at a time they can pick their next spot they'll put their tape down on it and then that will be their spot for tomorrow okay the next thing that we're gonna be doing is like a little team-building kind of STEM challenge activity I don't like to jump right into icebreakers and I don't like to make the kids too icebreakers in front of everyone right off the bat because I remember being a student and hating those like even in college even as a teacher having to introduce myself in front of all the rest of my staff here at the school I'm at my first year is so nerve-wracking I remember too being like anxious my heart pounding and feeling like I didn't know what to say and so I don't want to do that to my students because I know how it feels so the next thing we're gonna be doing is so the next thing we're gonna be doing is this marshmallow challenge this is a free freebie off of TPT so it tells you all the materials you'll need 26 of spaghetti a yard of tape a yard of string a large marshmallow scissors and a yardstick so I don't have yardstick for everyone so I'm just gonna skip that last one and I totally eyeballed the string but I have their little plate set up and you can see I grossly overestimated how much materials I was going to need but that's okay so this is what you student you're not sorry not each student each group is gonna get so I made one plate for each little section in my room and then I'll just partner them off so they can work together and their challenge is to build the tallest freestanding structure using only these materials so whichever one is the tallest and can stand up without anyone touching it wins so this is a really fun little kind of get to know each other game because as they're working on it they can work together they can talk they're gonna chat about their summer and I think it's just a really fun way to start the year okay next I have this beach ball I think I got this from the Dollar Tree and had this for like three years and I just wrote random questions on it tell us something fun you did this summer if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go what do you want to be when you grow up what do you like to do for fun what did you do this summer what are your most what are you most looking forward to about third grade what's your favorite sport do you have any siblings what's your favorite book what do you like to do after school what's your favorite part of school my favorite song is what have you done that you're proud of what is your favorite movie what's your favorite animal what's your favorite color I think that's it yeah so I like to sit in a big circle and then we'll just toss around the beach ball and again I don't like to force them to do icebreakers so if they want to pass that's fine we're gonna have a chance to kind of get to know them better in a small group setting but this is just kind of a fun silly thing they like tossing around the ball and then right after that too while they're still in a circle I like to play a little name game so the name game we play we all sit in a big circle and then I start with one person than their name and then I repeat it and then the second person says their name and then I have to say their name and the person next to them and then the third person says their name have to say the third person the second person and the first person all the way around in a circle and it's kind of funny because obviously I'm gonna mess up on some of them or I'm gonna forget or we're gonna have to start over and it's kind of funny and then some of the kids are like I want to try and so they try and it's really good for me to get to know their names but also for them to get to know each other's names and I usually have little nametags for them and I started writing on them on just like the colorful labels that I put on their homework folders and I got down to the last four kids and I don't have enough so I guess I'm not gonna have name tags for them I'm gonna try to go office right now and see if they have any extra labels so I can just make some real quick for those last four kids but if not that's okay I really want them to get to know each other just as much as I want to get to know them and so I feel like doing some of these little games and name games and get to know you games and challenges are a really good way for them to get to know each other in a really low stress easy way okay so by this point in the day they've had a chance to kind of get to know each other ease into the day a little bit do some fun stuff get to know their classmates a little bit get to know me a little bit have some fun and they've also been sitting on the flexible seating for quite a bit so I would like to go over the flexible seating rules of them at this time so that they know what the expectations are and so we can talk a little bit about why we have flexible seating and how to make a good choice for themselves so that they can learn best so that's what we're gonna do next we're gonna go over the rules I want them to understand why we have flexible seating and how to use it appropriately so that they can make the best choice for themselves so I just have this up on a slide I will have them come sit down in front of the TV and we will go over the rules so then after that I will take them around the room and show them the different options that we have right now though probably a little bit familiar with it because they've been the back-to-school night so they've seen we have and then they've also been in the classroom for probably at this time about an hour hour and a half so they've seen the options but they're probably gonna want to try them out so I take them around I show them the different things and then I explain specific rules for specific items for example the yoga balls and the wobble stools are two things that kids oftentimes misuse so we talked about with yoga balls you need to have both feet on the floor you need to have your bottom in the center so that you're not leaning too far back you need to make gentle bounces and it's okay to move that's the purpose you can bounce around a little bit but that it should be helping you focus and if it's a distraction then it's not a tool we're using it as a toy and then we can't sit there same thing with the wobble stool you can wobble back and forth but your feet need to be on the ground your bottom needs to be in the center and you need to not be rocking so hard that you can't focus in New York so um and then talking about expectations as far as like putting things back and then showing them two things I have to move all that stuff off the stage but I'm showing them like all the pillows and the kneeling pad and the lap desk and things that they can use on different parts of the room that maybe they haven't seen yet because they've been put away um so that's what I like to do next and then that will probably take us to recess but just in case I'm going to show you one more thing that we're doing so you may have seen me talk about this on my coming back from Christmas break vlog because these same task cards exist for coming back from break but these task cards are from misfit they're for the first day of school something up you guys are gonna show you what they are so each student will get a page looks like this each letter corresponds to a test card around the room so I will take you to the first one and they don't have to do it in any kind of order it's just kind of whichever one they want to do as long as they get all of them done by the end so each of them has a question for them to answer on this sheet so like on this one they will answer this question in the Box where there is the F so that one says what is your full name do you have any nicknames that you'd like your teacher to call you and then I always will read these after school so I can get to know them a little better and if they want to tell me anything they can I'm gonna go around and show you all of them how do you feel about your first day are you excited nervous explain why are says what is your favorite subject what is your least favorite subject s says look around our classroom what is one thing you excited about t says look around her classroom what is one thing you're wondering about which they're probably gonna have a few questions D says what have you heard about third grade a says what are your goals for this year I figure I put white over them here why says what would you like your teacher to know about you only does this give me a ton of information about them but it gives them a chance to get up and moving and take kind of a break kind of where they're not having to like talk so much and they can just kind of chill out for a little bit and also this is really cool because it lets me see their handwriting and kind of where they're at as far as sentence structure and capitals and complete sentences and all that kind of good stuff so that should definitely take us to recess if not lunch um I also have a book that I like to read on the first day I'm like all over the place right now trying to find where everything's at um this is such a cute book if you have not read this yet tell me the unicorn unicorn um it's all about being yourself and I just love the tone that it sets for a classroom that you can be whoever you are and you don't have to hide it and it's okay you should be proud of who you are and we're all gonna be proud of you and celebrate you in this classroom and that's not something you have to hide or be nervous about or like feel like you can't be yourself so I really like to do this it's funny it's silly it's cute the kids like it and it really sends a really positive message and I like to start reading on the first day of school and then if we need like kind of a filler I'm gonna do a library tour with them where I show them our library and we talk about the system for how they can pick out books there's a ton of books in the corner that I forgot to sort so I will have to do that later but we'll go over that and get them excited about getting to pick out books and that's always one of my favorite parts of the day because reading is my little baby and I want them to love reading so introducing them to the library and getting them excited about getting to check out books is a really fun part of the first day for me okay so we now only have about 15 minutes until school starts I need to run up use the restroom try to get those labels for the nametags and then just kind of breathe a little bit before the kids come in but I'm so excited it's gonna be the best day ever I already love them and I can't wait to get to know them better and I just I hope that they leave school today feeling like it was the best day ever for them to and that they're really excited for the school year so I can't wait and I will pick you guys back up probably at lunch and show you what the last half of our day looks like and if I missed anything from showing you from recess to lunch I will make it up then and shave my gosh I'm having a blast it is recess now I'm so exhausted I forgot how I'm tiring the first day of school is like I'm not used to waking up this early or having to talk this much or be so like ah so it's been a lot and we haven't even had a chance to go over any of the rules all we did so far was that take a guess about your teacher we did the multiplicator not multi-patient the marshmallow challenge we play the rock-paper-scissors game oh that was really fun so what you do is you partner them up and then they play rock paper scissors is the best two out of three gets to move on to the next round the person who loses gets to be their cheerleader so if we were playing me and one person then if I won that other person I played against would have to go behind me and cheer me on as I went to play the next person who won and if I beat them then then and their cheerleader have to come behind me so that at the very end you have two people who are playing against each other and both of them have like a team on either side that's cheering them on and it's just really fun and then it was super cute because the person who won in my class this year was like an awesome sport about it like shook the Vicki's handles like you did awesome and then the kid who lost is like smiling and didn't care and so we gave him a little cheer and I taught them a little chant for them to congratulate each other which is just it's hard to do with no hands set this down so the cheer is just to go at the person who did something awesome and so we have a quick little conversation about losing appropriately and that you know it's it doesn't make the game fun if we you know throw a fit or pout and now that we're in third grade we're a little bit older we're expected to be a little bit more mature we need to be a good sport we lose something so congratulate the other person have a smile on your face and have fun still because it's just a game so that led to a really awesome conversation during that time I'm trying to think of what else we did we did the task cards they got have been moved around I forgot to tell you guys this morning that I was going to teach them a call-and-response so I have a little doorbell attached to a little hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works and it's attached to my lanyard so when I hit this I have a doorbell that it's plugged into and the kids know that they need to stop talking fold their hands in their lap and find me wherever met in the room so I taught them that and then waterfall which I say waterfall and they put their hands up and go shhh like a waterfall and then when they bring it to the bottom that means that they have to stop talking and that they have to find me so just to really quick easy like call-and-response things to get their attention it's a Chinese definitely very chatty but they're super sweet and we're having a blast already so I think when they come back in we're gonna read the film of the unicorn book and then I think that's will go over the flexible seating rules because already some of the kids on the yoga balls are definitely not using it the right way so we'll go over the flexible seating rules and then I think we're gonna go on a school tour so we'll go over the expectations by location at our school and then we come back I need to figure out what we're gonna do so I'm gonna put you guys down again I'll pick you back up at lunch I'm sorry ok the end of the day it is 107 degrees right now hence the red face and the hot sweaty mess I have like a kind of boring update for you guys I guess so after lunch um some of my fourth-grade students well my class from last year who are now fourth grade students I wanted to come in and help and so I had them teach my kids a couple call and responses so I'm gonna figures down so I can show you what this one is it's like a clacking one clappy that's not a word you know what I mean okay so I found this on YouTube I don't even know the teacher's name but it's a teacher who does a bunch of : responses so the teacher would say give me one and the students would go and then she'd say give me two and they go give me three so you can really watch that as many times as you need to get it but the kids love it and then the way that you get them to know that you're about to do that is you say hands ready so you'd say hands ready and they'd all like put their hands like this like wavering about the desk ready to do it you say give me one and then they start the clapping give me two give me three and they love it like they I taught them at the beginning of the year and they wanted to do it up until the very last day and even when they came in just now from lunch and we're like can we help and I was like actually want you guys to teach them give me one thing and they were like oh my gosh yes and like we're so excited so we didn't have for like 15 minutes because it took quite a quite a bit of time but that's okay it was fun and it was something to kind of cool down from lunch and then after that we went over the rules for flexible seating and then we did like a little room tour about flexible seating so I showed them every single spot I'd let a couple kids try it out we talked about what to do what not to do and wanted me to after that after that we played a name game where we all sat in a big circle and I have one of those little like handheld microphones so we used that and how it works is everyone sitting in a circle and then I start so I'll say my name and then the person next to me says their name so then I have to say my name and then their name and then so forth I think I already told you guys about this but in addition to that the kids wanted to do it so then they started so I pass the mic to them and then they would start by saying their name and then they would just say everyone's name so it's not like doing the whole game again it's just them getting to know each other's name and it was really cute and then if they got it all right then we did a little goofy thing for them and trying to think at the end of the day we moved their tapes so they have new seats tomorrow and I think that's it went by really fast I am exhausted but my heart is so full I love my kids I love them every year no matter what like they'll I'll always love them they're my kids but it's just it's so cool the first day because everyone's excited myself included and we're all ready for a new year and ready to have fun and learn and it's just great so I am gonna put you guys down and pick you back up tomorrow because I need to plan out what I'm gonna do tomorrow and then I need to go sleep for like 84 days so I'll pick you guys back up tomorrow morning when I'm fresh and not sweaty and I'll see you then I just got home I'm still sitting in my driveway but I was just thinking I'm up I was thinking on my drive home about this one thing that I did today that I've done every single year on the first day of school and I was kind of like getting emotional thinking about it because I think it's really powerful even though it's something really small easy free cheap no prep and so I wanted to share with you guys so I'm sure you guys have seen the Rita Pearson TED talk every child deserves a champion and if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet you definitely need to go look it up I think you can find it on YouTube or whatever the TED talk website is but it's super inspiring moving touching I cry every single time I watch it I watch it every summer the week before school starts to kind of get me like back in that mindset of like what you do in same matters and kind of tell like recenter my mind and heart to get ready to accept all these new little kids into my life and my heart and into the school year and all that kind of stuff so there's one thing that she talks about in her TED talk that really has stuck with me and this is the one thing that I've done every year so she talks about telling her class that they were hand-picked to be with her because they're the best kids she's the best teacher and they got to show everyone else how it's done and I have always done that after watching her talk about this and so I always tell my kids on the first day like alright I'm not supposed to tell you guys this it'll be our little secret but did you guys know that you were hand selected for this class because every single one of you is the best top third graders in our school and I'm the best teacher so they put us together and we got to show everyone else how it's done so when we walked down the halls we got a walk down with our you know our chin up our chest out our back straight we got to put our hands down by our side we're not you know touching anything I'm messing with anything or watching where we're going around talking because other people are looking to us because we're the leaders of the school and so we got to show them how it's done when we're on the playground we got to make sure that we're including everybody that we're making new friends that we're making people feel welcome because the other people are looking to us to see hey how are the leaders doing it because I want to be like them want to emulate whatever they do so if they're making friends if they're being kind if they're extending a hand to someone they don't know and I should do the same because I want to be like them because they're the best and it's so funny because every year their reactions kind of the class as a whole has varied reactions but every year the reactions are the same like some of the kids are like that's not true right off the bat and then some of them are kind of like looking each other like if they buy it I buy it but I want to make sure they're buying it too because I'm on the fence and then some of them kind of like sit up straighter they're like yeah like I am the best and you're the best and yeah this is totally true we should totally do that because we're the best and it's just so powerful like I think for the first day of school like right off the bat telling every single one of them they're powerful and that they're the best and that you believe in them and that you already have so much faith and they have so much power like I think that is so motivating I really like to believe that that has a lot to do with why my classroom feels again like a family and like such a strong that community because we work together so well even from the very first day something as simple as like hey walking in line this is how we need to do it because everyone's watching us because you're the best oh my neighbor's outside watching me so I'm gonna go but I just want to show that because I think sometimes it's easy to lose sight with testing and planning in parents and admin and you know all this stuff that goes on that can be frustrating that what we do in say matters so much and that even something as simple as telling your kids that you believe in them and that you think they're amazing and that you think they're the best like I think that that holds so much weight because they care so much what you think and they care what you say and so I think that that has so much power and I just wanted to show that because I think it's really valuable so I'm gonna put you guys down I'm gonna go sleep and eat and I will catch you guys again on the way good morning welcome back today is now Thursday I'm starting to put things together so I wanted to show you guys what we have going on today so I'm gonna turn around do that okay I have everything kind of just like set out on my Table four things that I want to do today and the first thing that we're gonna do is we are gonna play mini Jenga so I need to get these set up and I have some fourth graders coming at seven o'clock it's like 6:30 right now to help me set these up on the tables and I'm gonna flip you over and show you what that is so I just made this really quick I just found this little wood thing on Google I just searched Jenga wood piece and then I just added a little circle of color on the end so I couldn't figure out how to get it to be a whole square since it's angled and every time I put the square it would it wouldn't fit as an angle and I didn't really have time to figure it out so each color of the piece that they pull will correlate to a question so I'm not trauma classroom trained but I haven't seen things on Instagram about you know being sensitive to kids who may not have had such a great summer and so I tried to include questions that would just steer towards like favorite things about themselves things are excited to learn about movies they like asking each other questions like instead of like Oh tell me the fun thing you did this summer if it was an awful summer that's gonna be a pretty triggering question so these are the questions I chose to use I just made this on Google slides and I'm just gonna project it on the TV instead of having to print anything out for them and then as they pull out pieces they can just take a look at what the question is so I'm hoping they like this the mini Jenga is pretty small so I'm hoping their little fingers will be able to pull the pieces out but I think it's a fun way to get to know your classmates and I hope they really like it I think I mentioned this yesterday maybe the day before I don't know this whole week has been such a blur but umm I remember being younger and really hating doing all like the Icebreaker stuff in front of everyone so I do want them to get to know each other but I really would like them to get to know each other in small groups so they're gonna play a game of Jenga and then once all the pieces fall they can switch groups and play with a different group that way they're getting to know different people but they don't have to do it all in front of the class and have that like nervous energy about having to talk a bit of everyone I'm gonna kind of ease them into that says why we didn't play any kind of like get to know you game in front of the whole class we're like everyone has to say things about themselves because I don't like that even as an adult so I don't want to force kids to do stuff that I don't even like so um and then I'm gonna read them I'm gonna turn you around again and then I'm gonna read them this book I didn't end up getting to read it yesterday so we're gonna do that today I have my people colors out because I miss all i phone selfie page this is a freebie on TPT if you discern Search iPhone template I think something like that it will come up so in front of our avid binders there's like a clear pouch and so last year we had like a the shape of a person and they got to draw themselves but I thought this would be more fun slash relevant to them so they're gonna draw a selfie of themselves in here and then we are gonna talk about what a good student is and I'll show you that paper in a second and so we're gonna brainstorm ideas about what a good student looks like what it sounds like what they do what they don't do and then they'll be able to write hashtags around the outside of the selfie of ways they can be a good student okay so I have the wording a little wrong it's a good student is does says and it's not so I just have this chart that I'm gonna do with them and I'm gonna have them come up as they think of things and write them in the different squares and then there's a page that I'm gonna have printed out for them where they can copy it down at the same time and then we'll put this in our avid binder and then this page I believe it came from Lauren at cursive and crayons it is a flexible seating reflection piece so yesterday we went over all the rules we talked about all the different spots that they have and the appropriate ways to use it how we talked about how they can make a choice when they can make a choice we talked about everything flexible seating and so today I want them to be able to reflect on what it is so it says what is choice seating where do we have it what is one way to use the tools appropriately what should you do if a spot is not working for you what does it mean to choose a spot where I work the best what will happen if you do not take care of his supplies or choose the best spot and then yesterday they had a chance to oh there's the page I was like I knew I printed it oh this is what happens when you make piles everywhere okay so this is that same page that they're going to use with that chart I just showed you anyways on the back of the flexible seating reflection um there's a spot for them to write all the different seats that they've tried out and then if they love it like it or don't like it they circle one of those and then say why so yesterday they got a chance to try a couple of the spots they sat at one all day and then as we did the room tour they got to try different spots so they've tried at least two most of them have tried three by now and today when they come in they'll have a chance to try either a third or a fourth because they're gonna be sitting somewhere different today and then I'm thinking of just having them put these in their avid binder too and then kind of reflect every day that we're doing the trading with the tape so that every day when they come in they're gonna be somewhere different and then they can reflect on if they like that spot if it works for them and why or why not so that way they kind of start to understand where a good spot for them to sit would be and maybe some of those places that aren't gonna be good for them if you saw my last week of school vlog this is something that I had my students do last year so I haven't even read these yet but it's the advice for next year's class so I meant to give these to my students yesterday but it was just such a busy crazy chaotic day as it always is so I didn't get a chance to but I think it'd be really funny for them to be able to read these from my students from last year especially now that they've met some of them because they came in and helped me yesterday and they're gonna come back today so I'm gonna put these out for them this morning so that they can read those and then I thought that this would be fun and be a kind of easy little break and a time to get to color and just kind of like hang out and chitchat with their friends because we have to remember much like we want to chitchat with our co-workers and the people that we haven't seen for a couple months they want to do the same thing so I don't really mind if they talk to me this time I'm gonna put on some Kidz Bop music and just kind of being easy part of the day um so it's just I think this was a freebie I want to say as well I can't remember honestly I'm sorry if I can find it I will link it no promises though because it's been a crazy week so this is just another one of those iPhone templates and they can put a picture of what they did where they went people they saw and then favorite food that they eat um that's pretty much it this is gonna be a time filler if I need it I don't think I'll need it today but I might need tomorrow my coworker gave me these there's a couple different templates this one says I can't I will end up story if it doesn't challenge you then it doesn't change you you're much stronger than you think you can't have a positive life and a negative mind and that's it so I'm just some positive quotes for them to color and this will take a long time so the reason why I might need a filler is because we are going to be doing our reading assessments today we have one of our toeses or teachers on special assignment coming in to help us do like all of our dibbles and some of the phonics screeners so though there might be a point where I need to have them doing something that I can work with students one-on-one on so when that happens these will get done I'm trying to think of what else we have going on today so this is what my planner looks like we have this template every week and we make a copy of it as a grade level and then we just make changes to it based on what we have going on that week so the first week of school is like everything's pretty much on Monday and then we'll just highlight when we finish it that way we know what we still need to do and then just the way my brain works when I think of something I just like write it on the side because if I don't I will forget and yesterday I was like oh my gosh I'm running out of things to do and I realize I didn't do really anything that I wanted to do but it was just it was I really fast so today I'm also planning on doing a library too with my students and we're gonna talk about what book chats are I'm gonna assign them class numbers they're gonna do that reflection piece for flexible seating we only did the first seven of the essential 35 so we'll go over the next seven and yeah I think that will probably take up most of the day also this is what my supply situation is looking like right now because yesterday I was showing the kids what flexible seating was in the stage and so I had to move all the bins so I'm gonna get this tackled and put away right now and and one other thing we're gonna do with the kids is sort their supplies so most of them have their supplies yesterday like their individual supplies their crayons colored pencils there's things like that so so we will sort them into their bins and get their avid binder set up and if you watch my classroom set blog I still have not found the other half of their binders so I am gonna go hunt for those right now that cabinet that was in the waxed hallway is now open so I should be able to go get into that and hopefully I can find those we can set up our bad news today so I may not pick you guys back up until tomorrow morning I might check in at the end of the day but it's gonna definitely be too much for me to check in at recess and lunch because it's just such a crazy time and I also need to take a breath so um yeah that's what we have going on today and I'll see you guys tomorrow I just wonder real quick share with you guys one other little thing that we did at the end of the day to kind of make it fun and end on a good note so I got these little disco lights from Amazon they just plug in and there's different settings and they are projected like all over the walls and the ceiling so I just have the lights off I just set them right there in the last five minutes of school or so I put on Kidz Bop on Spotify and we just dance to the song happy and it was just a really fun way to end the day and they were like oh my gosh it's just so cool and it just was really fun and it's easy and there's lights or I think like 17 or 18 bucks when I bought them at least um I will link them down below for you guys in case you want to grab them but it's just a really quick easy way to spice up the end of the day and make it a little bit more fun okay one last thing to share with you guys today before I take off this is a little bit that I have I think I got the pin on either Amazon or Office Depot I'm not sure and then these labels are from Amy Groesbeck these are definitely from Amazon these little folders and they come in all different colors and I leave this the same every year obviously because they don't have names on them so it makes it really easy to just take out all of this stuff from what was in it before throw it away and then I can still use it without having to make new labels because one thing I hate doing at the beginning here is labeling all the stuff with the kids names and then your list and it's just a pain so I just have my student numbers and then I always make like a little class list with numbers and the kids have numbers for their mailbox for the cubby system that we use for a lot of different stuff so and this is something that I use to sort all of there I'm gonna cover the name of my school here on theorem these back to school folders that I showed you guys in my back-to-school night video so all the paperwork that's coming back with all of my student information on it I have this sheet to kind of keep track for myself who has brought what back and then also what specific things each student has so for example I just put in the little gray boxes all the different things that I have inside of the folder so well the first ones not true that's just if they have a nickname and then are they parents signed up for remind101 did they fill out the game - no your student do they want a volunteer did they sign the book chat letters did they sign the essential 35 contract are they allowed to watch the PG movies and then anything else that they signed it just makes it a whole lot easier for me so that one when I'm going through all the paperwork I can actually see like who I still need to get certain papers from but then when I need them throughout the year instead of having to go through this big old bin every time I just tape that paper to the front of here and then I can just easily see who has one so this just makes it a lot easier for me I kind of have a love-hate relationship at the beginning of the year because there's so much paperwork there's so much to do there's so much to figure out about students so this is one thing that just helps keep me organized so in the actual boxes obviously for the nickname one if they have a nickname I'll just write it if not I'll leave it blank and then for most of them I will just take a marker and I will just highlight the whole box so for remind I'll highlight this one I'll remember all highlights this one I'll highlight this one I'll highlight highlight highlight and then I'll write anything on this one so that way I don't have like a bunch of words I can easily just see okay there's color on that one so that's a yes so just a quick tip in case you were struggling with paperwork overload and wanted a quick system to make it easier for yourself and also I'm still trying to debate for next year if I want to use the same system or if I want to go paperless I know that in these folders there's a lot of paper but I feel like when things are all online one people don't read them and two it's hard for me to keep track of it I'm like a hands-on kind of person so that's why I do that instead of online hope that helps I made it to Friday so exhausted but so happy and super excited for all the fun that's going to be had today today's a big day the kids are gonna be sorted into their houses which if you don't follow me on Instagram or yo new here think of the house it's kind of like the Harry Potter house system the kids are going to be sorted at random today into four different groups which we call houses and they're gonna work together to earn points based on our classroom rules working together collaborating all kinds of good things and last year I did kind of like a fancy sort I'll go over and show you I have this wheel off Amazon and right now it has house points written on it but underneath there's another little circle sheet that I will try to show you that has the house names on it so this is what it looks like has a house points and then I'll just kind of peel this back so the back page has all the different houses on it with the shields and the kids came up and one by one they would spin the wheel and whatever house it landed on from underneath that's what house they would be in one since that house had six members then I would say that house is full and then if it landed on a house they'd have to spin again but it took forever but that system kind of took a long time and I feel like after like the first like five kids they were pretty bored and then after they found out their house or once their house was full they just wanted to kind of like hang out and talk to the House members and like yeah it just it kind of just took too long for me so this year I'm gonna do a very simplified version I was planning on putting all the house names on a piece of paper like each individual house name on one paper and then putting that inside of a balloon with confetti pulling it up having them on the ceiling having the kids pick a random balloon and then popping at the same time and finding out their house but I did not have time for that I'm exhausted and I just I I didn't have time for I didn't do it so I'm gonna show you guys what I'm doing instead which is very easy I just wrote all of the house names each one of these papers has one house written on it I don't you guys can even see that and I just folded up the kids will come and just pick a random one whatever house they get that's what they'll have so we'll do a drum roll they'll open it all at the same time and then that will be their house so I think that'll be a lot better it would be a lot faster for sure and then we're gonna do some activities in our houses so I can see that my camera is gonna die right now which I should have charged it so I'm going to put you guys down get everything set up charge my camera and then I will meet back up with you at recess to show you the fun team building stuff that we are gonna do today in our houses okay I was just in the copy room making copies obviously and one of my teammates had a really good idea for sorting the kids in their houses and it's gonna take a little bit more time and be probably a little bit more exciting a little bit more interactive for the kids so I'm gonna steal it so what she's doing since we have four houses and four corners in the room she's gonna have the kids she's not doing it this way she's doing the balloon way but every time I have a kid pick a card I'm gonna have them do it one at a time and whatever they open it to I'm not each corner of the room be designated for a different house so once they do it ever and I'll cheer they'll go to that corner of the house and that way when whenever the next person picks that house they'll be welcomed into like their new classroom family immediately so I think that would be a better way instead of having them open all the cards at the same time that way it'll take a little bit more time it'll be a little bit more special for each child and it'll be kind of like a bigger deal so that's what I'm gonna do instead and then I was able to make copies of all of the stem stuff that we're gonna do in our houses so I'm gonna show you that too okay so the first thing we're gonna do is called help save Fred and I just googled this cuz one of my co-workers have the idea so if you just google save Fred the first thing that pops up is like it thinks eyes like Purdue University or something and this is just a free pdf that they have that you can download and print so what you're gonna need is lifesaver gummies and like lira gummy worms and then a cup so basically what happens is you're gonna have a cup for each team there's gonna be a gummy worm on top and then a lifesaver gummy underneath inside on a table and the the team gets a paperclip and they have to get Fred which is the gummy worm into the lifesaver gummy which is his floaty without stabbing him so basically it's like a little story like his boat capsized the boat is the cup and he ended up on top but his floaty is underneath and he doesn't know how to swim so you have to help save him without stabbing him with the paperclip oh I'm sorry for paper clips so each student will have a paper clip so the problem is how can you and your partners save Fred using only for paper clips you may not touch Fred the boat or the life preserver directly with your hands this is what this setup will look like I don't if you guys can see that it's kind of printed dark because it's black and white they're all the directions for the students you're gonna set up the challenge I've shown in the picture I love that has a picture for them so they can send it out themselves and then on the back there is this flowchart of how they saved Fred so they can draw a picture of how they helped save him describing it problems or challenges their group encountered rating the difficulty the enjoyment and then some questions so which problem have you encountered that was most difficult for your group and what did you guys do or how did you act to solve the problem and then list one thing that you would do the same and one thing that you would change if you attempted this challenge again so it's gonna force them to communicate and think on their feet and try to solve this problem because it doesn't give them a whole lot of directions as far as how to actually get him off the top of the cup into the floating so I'm excited to see how they figure that out and work together there's also a video on YouTube I'm sure there's more of them but if you just search on youtube save Fred gummy worm this video pops up and it has all the directions for the kids so I'm gonna show this to them it'll give me a chance to be quiet and stop talking at them and give them a chance to read and listen to something that is not me and hopefully will help explain it a little better if they're not understanding from the paper okay and then there's one more team-building activity that I'm going to do but I found on Instagram so I'm going to scroll to it so this idea is from Dustin Dekker if you don't follow him on Instagram trust me you just need to be he's amazing he has so many ideas for student engagement and he's an awesome teacher so you should go follow him um but he had this idea that he posted yesterday so basically the teacher I don't know if you guys can see this like try to tap that hold on someone just knocked on my door okay so I don't know if you guys can see this if not I will I will try to post a picture of what mine looks like but basically this is just like paper cups so I have paper cups again the same thing from the same and friend and then there's pieces of paper in between them so he has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 cups set up and there's three rows and then there's a piece of paper in between each row but the teacher is going to set this up in the hallway or in a box or somewhere where the students cannot see it so I'm thinking about just putting it outside of my ramp I'm just gonna read you what he wrote on here so that I don't try to explain it and explain it wrong so he said borrowed this idea from a coworker for a team-building activity today here's how it works the teacher builds a tower in the hallway that's what I just explained to you before beginning the activity and while explaining directions continually state remember throughout the activity that we are all a team I explained that they'll work in groups of four and then each student will have one role and one role only so hmm I have six kids in each house that's okay maybe I'll do this not in their houses we'll just do it as like a team-building activity for like the whole class so one person is gonna be the looker so that person can go look at the teachers tower in the hallway and then report back to their group only exactly what they see and what their group needs so they're the only person that can go out and actually see what the teacher built the second role is the Builder so the only team member who is allowed to construct with the provided materials so they're the only person that's going to be able to touch the cups and touch the paper the third person is the speaker that is the only team member who can move around to other groups to ask questions and then there's a teacher speaker the only team member who can ask the teacher question the end goal is that every team needs to build the tower that I constructed in the hallway they'll be quick to announce how easy that will be until they see that it's gonna be a challenge they're gonna have to communicate they're gonna have to work together they're gonna have to problem-solve and it's gonna be a little bit more difficult than they think I think it says the trick you provide all teams with the bag of materials but they'll soon realize that everyone's been to girls are mixed up the exact number of cups and paper are available but effective communication between team speakers must occur in order for every group to be able to obtain the materials they need plot twist ideally students may realize that it's best for all groups to place their materials in a centralized location and grab only what they need thus ensuring the success of every group though one group succeeded in building my Tower today our class okay it's not surprised so I'm excited to try this and see how it works for them he has fourth graders in his class I have third graders so a little bit of an age difference but I'm excited to see them work together and communicate and collaborate and work together and hopefully I have instilled in them in the last two days that were a classroom family and then we need to work together and I'm sure some of them just because human nature they're gonna want their group to be the one to win they're gonna want their group to be the one that gets it first or gets it right and so hopefully not but if that does happen that'll lead to a really good conversation about working together and that when we all work together and contribute to our team family that we all win together and so I'm just excited um that will probably take up a pretty good chunk of the morning doing the Health System sorting and then the to stem activities although I might break it up so that we have one stem activity in the morning and then another one like maybe after lunch when we're kind of all like you know falling asleep a little bit but I do have a couple other things that we're gonna do today we do need to go over some more of our essential 35 and then we're gonna go back over a flexible seating rules and then we're gonna fill out let me grab it real quick we're gonna fill out the rest of the flexible seating pages I showed you guys yesterday I'm not gonna show you the other side I showed it to already yesterday but my students already wrote on it cuz we did it yesterday so today they're gonna have a chance to fill out which seats they've already tried if they like it love it hate it and why and so we're gonna reflect a little bit on our choices for flexible seating I'm gonna read them the day you begin we have an art project to do and possibly another math candy activity but one of my students is allergic to food coloring and her mom brought in some candy that she can use but I haven't had a chance to go through it yet and separate it for her so possibly so I will pick you guys back up later and let you guys know how things went and show you the art project that we have going on and everything else for today oh okay it is after school on Friday my kids just left I am exhausted that's so happy I am obsessed with my class I feel like I say that every year but I just love them I love them so um it's gonna be an awesome year I'm really excited I'm so tired I can't wait to go home and take a nap but um I wanted to just fill you guys in on a couple of the other things that we did today and then kind of give you guys updates on how they went so the first thing I want to give you guys an update on was the stem project from I was a really stem it was more kind of like team-building kind of like collaboration from Dustin Decker that I showed you guys earlier so basically sleep you guys around so on my little desk over here I have a cardboard box and so I just built my little teacher Tower this is the same one that Dustin had so it's just four cups on the bottom a piece of paper four cups piece of paper four cups and so in little Ziploc baggies I had different amounts of cups and papers and I didn't have all the numbers that they needed as a whole class they had all the numbers that they needed but the supplies were kind of mixed up so they had to communicate with one another so there's only one student who was allowed to come look and then I put the numbers or not the numbers sorry the names of the roles on the board so there was one looker in each team that was the only person who was allowed to go look in that box and then report back to their group what supplies they needed and what it looked like then there was a builder that was the only person who was allowed to actually like put their hands on the materials and build the speaker was the only person who could go ask other groups questions which is the one that ended up needed needing to go ask for other supplies and then the teacher speaker was the only person allowed to ask me a question and then I just ended up writing on there what Dustin had written on his caption which was remember we're all a team because they kept asking like are we allowed to go ask for help are we allowed to go ask other people if they have supplies and we allowed to go borrow stuff and so yeah it was really fun it ended up a little different from what Dustin had written in this caption so they didn't end up like compiling all of their supplies like I thought they would from what he had said they just kind of like mixed and matched and treated and helped each other out as needed so it was fun though and then the art project that we did let me flip you guys around again so you may have seen this on like Pinterest or Instagram or something but basically these templates I believe we just googled like an blank head template which looks super creepy on its own but if kids draw their head everything but the eyes because they are gonna have these sunglasses and in the sunglasses they're gonna write whatever you want them to I had them write about what they did over the summer but if they ran out of things to talk about then they could tell me what they were excited about for third grade they can color around the outside the glasses cut them out and then they'll glue them onto the head and then we were gonna glue these on to yellow and orange paper to put up on the wall but we completely ran out of time totally underestimated how long it was gonna take to do that but this was not a super artsy project but they got to cut in color so they thought it was fun I also wanted to give you guys a little update on the sorting of the houses it was so much fun so I would randomly I pulled a stick so I have a little popsicle sticks with their numbers on it and so they do the drum roll on their desk and then I pull a stick and then they would chant that person's name so if it was me they'd be like mr. Romeo Romeo miss from you on their way up to go see me and then I would shake the bucket with all of the little cards in it with the houses on it they'd pull one and they would all be chanting their name as they're opening and then I have a little microphone like a little one from Amazon and so they'd say their name into the microphone not their name but the house name that they got and then they would go over to the corner and the houses were so cute about cheering for each other and welcome to each other and they were all like excited that they've got each other and it was really cute I'm really excited and so that was fun and then I wanted to share with you guys one last thing and is different procedures that I teach the first week so this is a super not instagram-worthy like list or anything but I just want to share with you guys like how I make sure to check off all those little things in my brain that I'm like oh yeah I need to teach them this oh yeah I need to teach them how to do that and the procedure for this so for the last time I'm going to show you that started this list at like I want to say 11 o'clock at night one night when I was like I need to tell them how to use the bathroom and what to do with their water bottles and how to line up and where the turn in bin is and what I want them to do to get my attention and all those little things that were like I know I need to tell them that but it's different from class to class and I'm gonna forget if I don't have it written down so if you want to make a list here are some things that I was thinking needed to be taught and we didn't even get to all of them because some things we haven't gotten to yet like book traps how to pick a book home work folders agendas things like that but some things definitely needed to be talked about from the very first day like you need to raise your hand you can't just come up to me and start talking because then it'll get chaotic you know what to do if you need to use the bathroom all that kind of good stuff so this was really helpful I liked having it on my table so that I could just check it off as I did it and that way I wasn't like oh man which one did I do and which one did I not do so I would really suggest having something like this I got this idea from Miss B and 3 on Instagram where she had like a big old chart and she did it and she was checking things off so definitely necessary for the first week of school even if you just throw in little things here and there I know a lot of us like it to be fun and I definitely agree that procedures need to be taught and rules need to be taught and it can still be fun but there's definitely some things that need to be taught right from the get-go so definitely would suggest doing something like this so that your first week back is a little less chaotic and you can remember what you've already taught something else that's really important for me to start at the very beginning of the year is building each other up and celebrating each other so I don't want to be the only one that's like saying hey that was awesome good job like I want my students to recognize and understand when to cheer for each other and how to cheer for each other and that that's important and that we're a family so we're going to do that for each other and so I like to start the year too by teaching them some little chants and cheers to help them kind of get started with building each other up so first and foremost anytime I say that was student like hey Johnny good job that was awesome then my students should also do the same thing so if I say Johnny that was awesome good job that my students say good job Johnny and they all cheer for him and so it's so funny till to watch that the first week of school because I'm used to that now and my kids were used to baths and last year and to see brand-new kids come in and not be used to that and then be like and just be like saying I'm just like beaming the whole time is so adorable and powerful and like it's just really cool um but besides just saying things like a job that was awesome we have specific ones so I'm gonna set this down and show you guys these are not like so these are not like definitely anything that I created or made up revolutionary purchase if you were looking for something for how to like teach your class to give someone a celebration here are a couple ideas so these are the ones that I talked to my students so there's a boop-boop that's really easy so you just go then there is the disco so you put your hands on your hip and you'd be like that's the way uh-huh ha we like it uh-huh uh-huh you do it again and there you go yeah at the person who got something awesome and then there's the roller coaster so you take hands and you go choo choo choo choo choo Shh whoo that's the person who is getting it um and then if someone got a house point we did one that's called rolling like a big shot I know I stole this from someone on Instagram like two or three years ago but I can't remember where I got it so if this is yours thank you and I will definitely give you credit in the description box that I have no idea whose idea this was so this one is probably their favorite and they get all excited about it every year no matter what so um you would take your hands at the person who is good team is getting it you go Roman like a big shot so much you know and you about to hit the jackpot and then they get to go up and spin the wheel so I'll actually take you over there and show you what the wheel is right now so you guys can see what that is and I'm gonna do a whole video on the house system and house points and how I do that but not right now because I'm too tired so anytime that a house gets house points I have this wheel we did a little roll in like a big shot and then they can come up and spin it and whatever it lands on is the one that they get and I just wrote on this with Expo marker so I need to fix that because that is from last year but they always think it's really fun and they get really excited because it kind of sounds like a song and it sounds really cool when they're all doing it together alright guys that wraps up my first week of school we only have three days of school this week so I don't know if you guys have like a longer amount but we're actually starting with math and ela curriculum on Monday so it's gonna be a lot less like you know random fun stuff and a lot more curriculum so I will be showing definitely more about that but first I need to go home and sleep and recover from this exhaustion of the first week of school because I am so tired I always forget how exhausting the first week is I'm like oh my gosh there's just so much to be done and you forget to because like for third grade teachers like and this is true for any grade but they leave as third graders and they actually leave as fourth graders because they're like brand-new fourth graders right there's so much sure and they know what to do and they have everything down and then they come in as like second graders and you're like they're so little and like they don't know then like they don't know how to do anything in this class like not that they can't do it but like they don't know what my expectations are and of course they don't but it's just like I have these other people trained and like they knew what to do and it was it just was like a well-oiled machine and now it's like chaos and it just yeah it's exhausting so I hope you guys were able to get some good ideas for your first week of school it was so much fun and I'm gonna go take a nap so I will see you guys soon for another video thanks for watching and I'll see you later

Channel: Hello Miss Romeo

Views: 245,020

Rating: 4.9098921 out of 5

Keywords: 3rd grade, 3rd grade teacher, 3rd grade classroom, third grade, third grade classroom, third grade teacher, teacher, teacher vlog, classroom vlog, vlog, teacher vlogger, first week of school, first week of school activities, classroom community, building classroom community, classroom activities

Id: PjkDgI7f5FI

Length: 59min 25sec (3565 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 13 2019