In this post I’ll share fun first week of school activities and ideas to use with the best back to school book ever, You’re Finally Here! by Melanie Watt.
I’ve been waiting and waiting, printing and prepping, plotting and planning for my brand new class. I’ve looked so forward to meeting them, putting faces to their names and welcoming them to second grade. The pencils are sharpened, their desks are arranged, our room is all ready but where are they? What’s taking them so long?
Meet the teacher night finally arrived.
My shiny new second graders
approached their new classroom to this…
The Best First Week of School Book Ever!
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Then something happened that has never happened before.
Every.single.child asked me about that book. No one was shy,
no one was nervous, no wanted to know where their desk was.
But everyone, with their bright little eyes opened wide, asked me,
“When can we read the book?”
And finally, after so much waiting, it was our first day!
They’re finally here!
And we read our book. The very first thing before anything else.
And then I asked…..”What took you so long?”
I know our little bunny friend was bored,
but not me. I was busy!
but not me. I was busy!
As a little getting to know you activity after
reading the book, all my new friends turned
to a neighbor and explained what took them
reading the book, all my new friends turned
to a neighbor and explained what took them
so long to get to my class. The giggles were priceless!
I have to admit, my class had some
pretty good reasons for keeping me waiting!
pretty good reasons for keeping me waiting!
We made these little booklets so they could explain.
While they were working I took some first day photos.
Later that day we played “The Bored Game” so my
new friends could connect, carry on, compare stories and
find things they had in common. Hilarious!
new friends could connect, carry on, compare stories and
find things they had in common. Hilarious!
On Wednesday, everybody chose their favorite reason
from their booklets and wrote it in a
speech balloon for our bulletin board.
from their booklets and wrote it in a
speech balloon for our bulletin board.
Then to get to know them a little better we all did this….
I make sure to ask everybody where
they’ve seen words like this before!
I cross my fingers that the answer is,
“In our writing! They’re transition words!”On Thursday, we talked about idioms and
found lots of them in our book.
they’ve seen words like this before!
I cross my fingers that the answer is,
“In our writing! They’re transition words!”On Thursday, we talked about idioms and
found lots of them in our book.
We worked in groups and roamed the room to
figure out the answers to some of these questions!
figure out the answers to some of these questions!
One of the recurring themes, and one I like
to capitalize on in this book, is time.
Our new friend the book character bunny talks about
how unfair it is that his readers keep him waiting.
As unfair as having to go to bed when you’re not tired!
So to introduce our journal writing routine and to
take a baseline writing sample I gave them this prompt.
Later on, I asked everybody, “How’s it going so far?”
I like to give my new class an outlet to express
their anxieties or excitement, and generally see how
everybody is doing. These give me insight into
where I may need to quietly intervene and help
a child socially, or give extra TLC to support them
emotionally. I make copies of these and place them
in their writing portfolios to compare to later
to determine writing growth.
On Friday, I finished our bulletin board at lunch …….
and sent everybody home with a first day keepsake card!
Besides being an absolute blast to use
with your students, this book lends
itself perfectly to a lot of thinking!
With lots of opportunities for getting
students to think back and retell forward
the events that lead them to finally being in
my class, I also want them to think ahead and
set goals for the year. So we made these
little book character writing crafts.
I then added these to our bulletin board.
If you’re not completely in love with this book yet, you will be after you watch this adorable, You’re Finally Here Read Aloud video!
If you’d like to do all of this with YOUR class
you CAN! I’ve bundled all of our fun,
into an easy to prep unit you can find {HERE}
you CAN! I’ve bundled all of our fun,
into an easy to prep unit you can find {HERE}
The unit includes many more activities not pictured
in this post, plus all the chart and bulletin board parts
you’ll need!
in this post, plus all the chart and bulletin board parts
you’ll need!
Get all of the You’re Finally Here first day of school activities and the You’re Finally Here book! These buttons will take you right there.
Happy teaching friends and I wish you the best first week ever! If you love these ideas, why not share with your teacher friends?
Go ahead and pin it for your friends and share on Facebook!
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