The First Day of School

It's here!  The first day of school.  Some of the things I'm doing this year...

Learning Names: To help the kids meet their classmates, I'm playing a very simple name game even my beginning English speakers can do.  I've taped a child's name under each chair in the classroom at random.  I'll take roll on Day 1 and practice pronouncing each name (some of my students' names have sounds my tongue is just not used to saying, so it takes some repetition).  After I've said each name and identified each child, I'll tell the kids to look under their chairs for a piece of paper.  They then look for the person whose name was under their chair and give them their name tag.  Simple.  Easy.  Gets the kids moving around.  And not too "in the spotlight" for my shy new ones.


School Tour: As I give my kids a tour of the school and introduce them to other teachers throughout the day, I'll take pictures of the places and people we see.  I'll later print all the pictures and during an afternoon lesson, the kids will label each picture with a word, sentence, or paragraph of what the picture is.  Then I'll bind it in a book for the kids' reference.  Our first published book of the year!


Welcome Back Sack: All the kids' notebooks and supplies for the year are packed in a paper bag (free in any U.S. grocery store and a few cents each in Europe).  Then I put this cute little note I got online on the front of the bag.  I pass out each bag and the kids open their "present".  Each bag has supplies with a child's name on it, so this becomes a Name Game again, as the children have to pass their sack to the person whose name is on the supplies inside.  We organize all the supplies they've received and the kids then know where everything goes.