We selected in this post some suggestions and tips back to school. These tips are very useful for elementary school, especially the first year, but it can also be adapted for kindergarten.
Index
Some suggestions for dynamics to welcome and integrate the class on the first day of class – With fun dynamics, you teacher introduces the school to students, brings classmates closer and helps everyone feel welcomed into the new group. First day of school. The whole class is waiting to find out who the new teachers will be. Many students have never seen each other or barely know each other.
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To form a close-knit group, well-connected and in tune with you, forget about the old tactic of saying good morning, giving presentations, and getting into the content. Check out the integration activities for different levels of study below.
Like is my colleague
Tell the class that everyone will get a "picture." Tape a child-sized sheet of Kraft paper to the wall. Position the student so that he is leaning against the sheet and, with a pencil, draw the outline of his body. Encourage the class to tell them about their hair, their face, if they wear glasses, etc. During the activity, repeat the student's name many times so that classmates can memorize it. Make the “picture” of everyone. Finally, ask a classmate to draw your outline, repeating the observation process, so that the children become familiar with you too. Hang the drawings on the wall and praise the group. Over the next few days, at the entrance, ask the class who each of the drawn classmates is and if he is present. If so, you get a round of applause. Leave the papers exposed for a while. It is important for the little ones that their productions stay there until they feel they belong to the group and the environment.
The materials we are going to use:
Hide in the living room bags or packages containing different materials that will be part of the children's daily life. It can be, for example, books, games, brush, scissors or some clay. Have the children look in pairs for the objects. This already stimulates cooperation between them. Guide the search by saying “hot” if what you're looking for is close, “warm” if it's at medium distance, or “cold” when it's far away. Once all the packages are found, ask what activities can be done with the materials and take the opportunity to better explain the function of each one. Show how and where they will be stored, highlighting the importance of keeping the work environment well organized.
Make name tags with the children's names and place them on the floor of the room, in the middle of a wheel. Ask each person to identify their name. Encourage initial letter recognition, count how many letters make up each name, and make them see the same letters in different names. When everyone has a badge, start a nice chat about their preferences regarding a predetermined topic (such as food, games, objects or places). Group children according to affinities. In the next step, ask students to draw what they like on a piece of paper and name it. Anyone who doesn't know how to write alone can copy the badge. Once ready, the drawings are shown to colleagues and then displayed on the wall. With the literate, the dynamic is the same, but, in addition to drawing, they can make a list of their preferences.
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Organize an interview so students can get to know you better. Divide them into groups and ask them to ask questions as if they were reporters. Explain that the questions might be about your age, whether you have children, how long you have been in the profession, or where you live, for example. With the questions ready, sit in a place in the room where everyone can see you well to answer them. Inform everyone that they should bring, the next day, a brief text about everything they remember. So they pay attention. In the next class, randomly select a few children to read the written production and ask the others to evaluate and complement if necessary. Propose this activity after promoting the presentation and recognition of the school's physical space (below)
If your class is from 1st to 4th grade, divide students into groups. This is a good time to integrate newcomers. Leave them with the veterans, who must behave as true guides and hosts. On each sheet of paper, describe a location in the school, put the texts in a box and organize a lottery. Each group takes a paper and tries to guess which location is described. Then challenge the groups to find the chosen locations. Arriving at the destination, the students draw the environment in as much detail as possible, write down the names of the employees who work there and their function. Back in class, the groups exchange observations and records and exhibit their productions. Then ask them to produce a map of the school (with your help, of course) on a sheet of cardboard. At each specific location on the map, drawings are fixed. Encourage groups, in the following days, to visit the facilities that have not yet been covered. In classes from 5th to 8th grades, kids can photograph these places and do longer interviews with employees. In this case, you don't need to make the map and can ask for detailed texts about the different “sights” of the school.
Already in the early days, establishing the famous combined can avoid problems and ensure a good relationship throughout the year. Start by discussing with the kids what to expect in the coming year and how best to work as a group to achieve these goals. Formulate with everyone (and write on the board) the continuation of the following sentences: “We are entitled to…” and “We are all responsible for…”. Remember that the statement of rights and duties should be inspired by general school policies – which students need to know – and focus on what should be done, not what is prohibited. The next step is to find out what other classes in the school have agreed. The exchange of information, in addition to enriching the treaties made by them, promotes integration with colleagues from other classes. When finished, ask each person to copy the treatises and paste them into the diary. Thus, the text will always be at hand. In addition, students can produce two large cardboard posters to hang on the classroom wall.
Every year it's the same thing: what to expect from the upcoming series? An unknown situation always gives you butterflies in your stomach. To alleviate the children's anxiety, record on the board some of the group's doubts and expectations about working in the new class and invite some students from the next grade to answer them. Let them talk freely about their impressions and experiences as an alumnus of the series. This exchange, right at the beginning, makes the class more relaxed and safe and values cooperation and interaction between different classes.
Inspired by transversal content to be worked on throughout the year, choose images taken from magazines or newspapers: endangered animals, different professionals in action, children in a vaccination line, table with healthy food, individuals in precarious life situations, modern technological products, pregnant women, among others. Give one to each class member and ask them to write down what they feel or think about the image. This will make it possible to know the level of the text in terms of cohesion, coherence, grammatical and spelling adequacy and vocabulary. In addition, you will learn about teenagers' tastes, feelings, life stories and perceptions of the world.
Organize students into pairs and select topics to discuss. For example: Brazil, garbage recycling, internet, condoms, unemployment, Sun, music. Write the list on the chalkboard and on pieces of paper, which are placed in a bag. Each pair draws one, goes to the blackboard and says whether or not they applaud the chosen theme. Ask each one to justify their opinion. One should complement the other's speech by expressing everything they know about the subject. With this activity, you will be able to assess the group's knowledge, their level of expression and argumentation, and find out what their interests are. This information will be valuable for your planning.
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Considering the specifics of first-year students and their learning needs, this document contains some suggestions for activities for the first days of class. It is worth remembering that many of these activities must be carried out daily throughout the school year.
By the time the children arrive, they must be received by all 1st year teachers. The important thing is that there is an interaction between the teachers and the parents of these students, therefore, the school must be fully prepared to receive them.
Parents or guardians must be instructed to accompany their children to the classroom entrance, where the teacher will receive them. Then, the parents must be sent to the school yard, so that, together with the managers, they can participate in a presentation of the proposal for teaching, the routine of the first days, respect for the specifics of the age group, what children will learn during the year (learning expectations), on how parents can help with their children's tasks, as well as the development of activities during the school year.
In the classroom, the teacher will organize the class for a round of conversation.
This activity allows students to participate in exchanges, when they listen to their colleagues, formulate questions and issue opinions on the topic discussed. In situations like this, in which children are invited to report their experiences, their opinions about a certain theme or subject, their impressions etc., they are inserted into oral language, collectively sharing their meanings and appropriating the meanings of the other. Through language and interaction, children can access other realities. It is up to the teacher to encourage his students to this exchange, considering that the “conversation” should be seen as a content to be worked on in the classroom.
In the conversation circle, the teacher, first, must contextualize the reason for the activity, since this is the first contact that will occur as students and teacher. It is up to the teacher to introduce himself, as this will serve as a model for the children, later, to be invited to talk about their lives, for example: Who is it? What do you like to do when you're not at school? Did you attend preschool? What are your favorite dishes or foods? What games do you like? These and other related questions can be part of this conversation wheel.
Learn more at: TALK WHEEL: What the teacher needs to know
Play situations favor interaction, movement and autonomy among children. When they participate in games, children express their feelings and learn to know each other, especially when they interact with adults and other children. Contact with the rules of play allows children to appropriate attitudes typical of collective interaction.
Literacy is no longer seen as a watertight moment and started to be understood as a process, in which the first year plays a fundamental role in the acquisition of writing and reading practice in permanent activities.
From day one, the teacher can explore reading and writing activities of proper names, using the children's names as a reference. The important thing is that students have contact with the list of names of their classmates. It needs to be prepared in advance by the teacher and posted on the classroom wall, accessible to everyone.
The list must be presented in alphabetical order, in capital letters, as this type of letter is the most suitable for students in the process of acquiring the writing system. Its alphabetical order poses many questions when students are invited to participate in reading the list, favoring a cognitive conflict; mainly, with names that start with the same letter, as they will have to “fine tune” their strategies for reading such as comparing and analyzing the last letter or other letters that differentiate a name from other.
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