First Day of School Picture Frame

Hello fellow teachers :) For the first day of school this year, I made a cute picture frame for each student to take their photo in. I bought the frame from Michaels, painted it, sized and printed out my letters, glued, and voila! I think it turned out rather well, and am planning on using it next year too.

Classroom Mission Statements

Instead of boring old classroom rules (I know, I know, they are very important), why not try something new this year? Madame Belle Feuille wrote a great post about classroom Mission Statements. It was great to get the kids talking about what was important to them, and I was pretty amazed with what they came up with. The ending is more influenced by me, as I saw this on anther mission statement and thought it was so lovely. As a class, we are reciting our mission statement every morning to give us a little reminder about how we want to be and treat others in our learning community. Check out her post for some great discussion questions to get the kids started, or for more mission statement examples.

Friendship Tree

Hello readers,

Here's a simple activity to build community in the classroom. Sketch a tree with defined branches on large white paper. Set out ink pads and/or paint in shallow dishes. Have students come up one by one to put their index finger in one colour/ ink pad, and then place their fingerprint on the tree. Let it dry, and then display your classroom's friendship tree for the world to see.

We did this activity after reading a book about friendship and how to build positive relationships. My students really seemed to respond to the story, and doing this simple activity helped them to relate the book to their own lives.