First Day - Getting to Know You

Five days until my first day with students!

Last year, as a little "getting to know you" activity, we designed hot air balloons. I made the tracer and an example, and the students then traced and designed their own balloons. I asked them to draw pictures/designs that showed something about themselves, and they had to write a goal for the year on the basket part of the balloon. These looked so nice last year..... I laminated them and hung them along the top of the walls in the hallway. Most students took them home at the end of the year but a couple of students moved away, without their balloons, so I still have them for examples this year. I wish I had taken a picture of all of them when they were hanging up! This year I will:)

A few great things about this activity: it was a little bit time-consuming, so whenever we had down time in the first couple of days, they had something to work on; setting the goal for the year made them think about what they could focus on for the year; and designing the balloon helped us all to learn about each individual.

What are your favorite "getting to know you" activities?

Comments

Memory Wheels - First Day, Last Day, and Any Day in Between!

This post has been moved to: http://www.cognitivecardiowithmsmm.com/blog/memory-wheels-first-day-last-day-and-any-day-in-between

Love to Doodle (and a freedbie)

Exponents Color by Number For most of my school life as a student (and even as an adult, during PD), I have really liked doodling! During lectures, discussions...it would help me focus, but also give me something to make me look busy, so I wouldn't get called on in class! I always hated being called on and almost never participated voluntarily:) I liked to draw cubes, rectangles, squiggly lines, etc, and color in different parts of the doodles. Download this freebie:-) I really wanted to make some color by number activities. Since I am not good at creating actual pictures, I decided to make my color by numbers similar to my random drawing/doodling. My Exponent Color by Number is most similar to my past doodles, but I thought it was a little too random, so I started using actual shapes. The Integer Operations Color by Number (freebie), as well as most of my other color by numbers are more structured, but so much fun for me to make! Computerized doodling! Anyone else

Math Class - First Day Activity

Rectangle of pentominoes Many 6th graders seem to have a pretty negative attitude about math, so I try to do something interesting to "grab" them during our first class. Last year, during the first math class, we spent part of the period working with pentominoes. Before working with the pentominoes, however, we played a name game so we could learn each others' names (I find it impossible to start anything else if I don't know some names, and fortunately, I learn them fairly quickly). rectangle outline For the activity, I divided the students into groups of 3 or 4. The directions for the activity were not complicated - the task was to make a rectangle, using all of the pentominoes. I gave students an outline of the rectangle, as pictured to the left, so they would know the correct size of the rectangle. The squares in the grid are each one inch. The rectangle is 5 squares (inches) wide and 13 inches long (13 inches includes the row that has the "Pent

Middle School Math Moments (and more!)

Search This Blog