When I taught high school, I remember running into a mother of a student years later. She shared with me that her son still carried a dog-eared scrap of paper around in his wallet, with a list of positive qualities his classmates had wrote about him in my class! Wow. I never forgot that conversation, and the impact something so simple can have on a person. 
- Run off my letter + the note to parents, explaining the file and requesting a family photo. Send them home the first week of school.
- Buy a pack of various sizes of smilie face stickers for the Award calendars.
- Run off the "I love my family!" hearts on a variety of colored construction paper.
Print off the "Happy Grams From Your Teacher" and fill them out as soon as you know your students well enough to make a "special" comment about them.-
- Keep the folders in a crate under your desk for easy access.
Run Off "This is your day!" sheets. Keep them and all the other masters in the crate.- As soon as students return their forms and photo, pass out the folders and have them cut and glue their "pieces & parts" together.
Whatever system you use for choosing children, pick a child each day to have your class fill out a "This is your day!" sheet, so you can get these completed the first month of school. - Whenever you pass out certificates or other paper awards, have students put them in their Smile File.
- Periodically choose work that children will put in their Smile File, so you have things to show parents for Parent Teacher conferences.
- If a member of their family comes to help in the class or chaperone, take a photo of them with mom, dad, grama, grampa working with them. They can glue the photo to a sheet of construction paper, write about it and put it in their Smile File.
- It's important to give students a choice of things they want to put in the Smile File. Perhaps they got an "I love you" note from mommy in their lunch box, or a 100% on a spelling test, or were Star Student; you can make copies of things so they can take originals home.
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At the end of each day, pass out a smilie sticker to anyone who has put a smile on the teacher's face ALL day. In other words, this student has made wise choices (not moved their apple or other behavior management token, or been in the Time Out chair etc.), has completed their work or whatever else you have explained to your students as the guidelines for receiving a sticker. - Children put their smilie face sticker on the appropriate day of the week.
- This Smile File then, can work as a great behavior modification program as well. You can reward students who have gotten a smile for the entire week/month if you want to.
- I've designed monthly certificates for this purpose, which of course they can collect and put in their Smile File!
Have students paperclip certificates so they can stay organized from other things. - If you'd like a writing extension for the calendar, post a list of one-word "happies" that students can choose from, to write on their calendar of what made them smile the most that day.
- I've given you a list of suggestions that you can keep posted.
- You should make one for yourself too! I keep my favorite drawings, cards, "scribbles of love!" and little notes from parents and students in mine.
- Then, when you're having one of those "I feel so unappreciated!" days... you can sneak a peak at your Smile File and feel "paper hugged" The file will help you remember why you became a teacher in the 1st place and hopefully give you a burst of feel-good energy.
I hope this idea brings a smile to your students' faces and helps build their self-esteem. Who knows, maybe someday you'll meet a mom somewhere and they'll tell you their child still has their Smile File! "I am not a teacher, but an awakener." -Robert Frost
"They may not be easy to see, but these are 5 things I want you to know about me!"
That's what the sentence says at the top of the paper.
It's a quick and easy icebreaker for the first day or first week of school, that’s also a terrific writing prompt for September, and fun way to get to know your students.
When completed, they make a cute back to school bulletin board too! Make sure you do one yourself, so you have an example to share with your students, so they know how to do the assignment, as well as get to know their new teacher a little better too.
Older students can draw their own self-portraits in the blank oval. So that they don't feel overwhelmed drawing themselves, remind them that this is just a section of their face from the nose up, or even just their eyes. You can also give students a choice of the other 17 facial tops to fill in and color.
They should color their hair and eyes to represent themselves. I find that younger students are less overwhelmed if they have this sort of template to follow and have a bit more fun with the activity, if they don’t have to start from scratch. You also won’t have to listen to whining: “I can’t draw a face; or “I don’t know how to draw.”
Little ones also tend to draw a tiny circle instead of a big one, or they draw an entire stick body. You can include the template in your “Welcome to school summer letter” or Open House packet, and have students return them on the first day of school, so they can share with their new classmates right away.
Another plus of doing it this way, is that parents can help little ones write down the 5 things. Some teachers like to have an Open House activity that students can do with their families. This would be perfect.
Another option, if you don’t do a summer letter or Open House, is to hand them out the first day of class and have students put them in their backpack or "Take Home" folder, for a home-school connection, to be returned in the next few days.
Make sure you provide time to share their completed projects, so everyone gets to know each other. No matter what my students’ ages, I always had them applaud each child’s sharing. This is a big deal for many “shy” kiddos. Writing in different colored markers also jazzes things up.
If you have the time, turn this into even more of a keepsake, by having a room helper or students trace eachother's handprint on flesh-colored construction paper. Fold it over and cut once for 2 handprints.
Have students glue their paper hands “holding” their writing prompt, in such a way that they can fold the wrist portion over and have them "flop" open to reveal their writing.
You can punch a hole in the top and hang them back-to-back and suspend from the ceiling or line them up as a cute border, just below the ceiling in the hallway.
Click on the link to view/download 5 Things Icebreaker Portraits Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away!
"By learning, you will teach; by teaching, you will learn." -Latin Proverb
- Back To School Ideas
- icebreakers for the first day of school
- first day of school ideas
- back to school bulletin board ideas
- September bulletin board ideas
- back to school activities
- back to school lessons
- first week of school activities
- first day of school lessons
- september bulletin boards
- activities for the first day of school
- ideas for getting to know you new students
- back to school bulletin boards
1-2-3 Come Make A Name Map With Me!
I teach “mapping” as a writing strategy to my college comp students. It’s a fun visual way for them to get their thoughts organized on paper, before they begin to write their essay.
A name map is a terrific way to introduce "mapping" to elementary students. This is also an interesting icebreaker for the first week of school and a great way to get to know your new students.
Children think of a symbol that represents them and draw that in the middle. I chose an apple as it’s sort of universal for school or teaching.
Branching out from the center symbol is a variety of things about the person such as hobbies, their favorite season, birthday, what they want to be when they grow up etc.
By having students use their two favorite colors to write their first and last names in the center of their object, everyone gets to know another “tidbit” about that person.
The completed activities make a wonderful back to school bulletin board too! Make sure you do a personal one of yourself, so that you have a sample to show your students as a way to explain things, as well as a means for them to get to know their new teacher. Includes an explanatory note home to families.
Sharing name maps is a nice activity to do after reading the story Chrysanthemum, a wonderful back to school tale, whose main character is a little mouse named Chrysanthemum. She loved her unusual name until she started school and everyone began making fun of her. It's one of my all-time favorite back-to-school books and especially great if you need some stories to go with "bucket-filling."
My inspiration to do name maps, came from an art teacher’s “heart maps” that he did with his 4th graders at Riverside Elementary. Click on the link to check out their awesome endeavors. I hope you and yours have as much fun making these as I did.
Click on the link to view/download Name Maps. This packet is a special FREEBIE in my TpT shop. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away! For your convenience, my "Pin it" button is at the top on the menu bar.
“There’s few things as uncommon as common sense.” –Frank McKinney Hubbard
- Back To School Ideas
- icebreakers for the first day of school
- first day of school ideas
- back to school bulletin boards
- back to school activities
- first day of school activities
- back to school lessons
- first day of school lessons
- september bulletin boards
- icebreakers for the first week of school
- icebreakers for elementary
- name maps
- mapping activities
- name activities
- name lessons
1-2-3 Come Make A Shape House With Me!
Since the last "my home" craftivity was so popular, I decided to whip together another social studies lesson you can use when you're studying family and neighborhoods. It's also a fun way to get to know your new students.
Completed projects make an adorable back-to-school bulletin board, and are a nice "icebreaker" for the first week of school, when students are getting to know about their new classmates.
So that math is also covered, I've included all of the 2D standard shapes that children can use to decorate and "build" their home with. Common Core State Standards: K.G.1, K.G.2, K.G.3, 1.G.1, 1.G.2, 1.G.3 can all be covered.
Remind students that 2D shapes are flat shapes. (Lying on a plane.) You can make templates of the shapes using an old file folder.
Have a room helper trace once and then cut out 5-6 at a time, or you can print off the masters, rough cut, and have students trim up their own pieces.
Provide lots of colors, so you can review those as well. You'll also have a nice variety of different looking houses.
I've designed the square windows in such a way, that you can review small, medium and large, as well as fractions: a whole is "cut" in 1/2 and then into 1/4ths to make the windowpanes.
To cover this standard, encourage students to draw windowpane lines on the shapes that they are using for windows.
Be sure to make a sample for yourself to help explain what you want students to do. Have children share their homes, pointing out which shapes they used.
To reinforce more of the shape standard, encourage them to use spatial direction words as well. i.e. "My rectangle door is beside the window. The square window is under the triangle roof." etc.
If you are working on CCSS fractions, students should also use the vocabulary whole, half and fourth when explaining their window shapes. If "Knows their address." is a standard in your school, you can have students write theirs in the middle of the H.
Cutting their school photo into an oval and having them "peek" out a window, adds pizzazz. 
Click on the link to view/download H Is For House shape craftivity.
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"They can, because they think they can." -Virgil
- back to school activities,
- back to school bulletin boards,
- bulletin boards for the beginning of school,
- social studies bulletin boards,
- neighborhood bulletin boards,
- letter activities,
- Alphabet Activities
- activities for the letter H,
- address activities,
- learning address activities,
- home crafts,
- house crafts,
- activities about homes,
- house template,
- icebreakers for the first week of school,
1-2-3 Come Do A Social Studies Icebreaker With Me!
"My Home" is a quick and easy "craftivity" perfect for those studying about neighborhoods or families, or use as a sweet icebreaker for the first week of school, as it's a wonderful way to get to know your new students.
You can also do this for an easy activity that parents can work on with their child during your Open House. Completed projects make a wonderful back to school bulletin board.
If you send a "welcome to school" summer letter out, you could also include the house pattern in that, or send it home the first day of school. Children take home, complete and bring back the next day to share with their new classmates.
What an interesting and fun way for them to learn about each other, which also gives them practice sharing in front of the class. So your kiddos get to know a bit about their teacher, make sure to do one for yourself to use as an example.
Here's What To Do: Students write their family's last name at the top, write the number of members in their family and then draw a picture of them.
Inform children to label their drawing to tell who is represented. Let them know that they can include pets as well.
Children glue a photgraph of themselves in the window. For the door, students complete the writing prompt "My favoirte room is..." and then explain why.
Some schools still have "knows their address" as a standard, so I've included a window for that as well.
Children color their house the appropriate color and cut it out. After students share their homes, make a classroom "neighborhood" as a bulletin board.
Click on the link to view/download the My Home back to school icebreaker activity. Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN away! My "Pin It" button is at the top. I hope you can stop by tomorrow for another home-sweet-home "craftvity" entitled H is for House.
"If you don't risk, you can't grow. If you don't grow, you can't become the best you, you can be!" -Unknown
