Congrats Julie and Lisa! Please check your email and respond by Monday or new winners will be chosen.
Ok, now on to my Welcome Back Packs. I always like to have a little something on my kids' desks as they enter the room on the very first day. At our school the kids kind of trickle in along with parents who are helping them carry supplies and want to walk them to their desk. During those first few minutes I'm usually distracted greeting students and answering parent's questions, so I really need the kids to have something that they can start on right away. I really think it helps the kids too. They're often a little nervous and giving them something familiar to do for the first few minutes helps get them settled. So when they walk in, they'll find this little packet at their seat with a nice new box of crayons and a "welcome to second grade" pencil.
All of the activities are meant to be very simple and completely independent. I always tell the kids to chat and get to know each other and it seems to happen a lot more naturally when they have something in front of them to actually discuss. All in all, they probably only work on this for about 10-15 minutes, but we then keep this pack for the rest of the week. It's fantastic for the kids to have at their fingertips when you just need five or ten teacher minutes to do things like handle dismissal concerns, shuffle supplies, and walk around and get a first glance at how your new little nuggets handle themselves with their new classmates. This is where I start making mental notes about my first seating arrangements.
The second grade pack can be found HERE. It's got some simple math, color by code, a first writing sample, word search, handwriting practice, some critical and creative thinking... just a little bit of everything to help wake up their little brains from their summer slumber.
I've also got a pack for third graders as well. Same types of activities, but with a little more of a big-kid spin. You can find it HERE on tpt.
I'l be back to share a few other fun first day activities over the next few days. I can't believe it's just about time to start getting all of this stuff together! Where did my summer go?
If you're looking for a fun ice-breaker, this game is perfect. There's no prep for you, but big fun for your kids. My kids always ask to play this long after the first day of school! It's the perfect way for your new students to get to know each other a bit better while you observe how they handle working in a small group. It's so much fun to see who your natural leaders are, who your observers are, who's a little more low key, and who your little stinkers might be. Because, let's be real, there's always one (but you know you end up loving that one like crazy!) You can check out the game HERE.
I know it's sad to say good bye to summer, but having fun and easy to prep materials like this definitely helps a little :)
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