Well, I have officially completed my FIRST week as a 6th grade math/science teacher!!!! WAHOOO! If I had any doubts about my decision...they were squashed! :) I love it! I learned something this week that were a bit of an epiphany for me: There was really NO HUGE difference between 4th graders and 6th graders! They are still sweet, talkative, and hard working. If anything middle school kids get my jokes more. :) LOVE IT! If you follow me on Instagram (@immixingitupinmiddle) you saw that I even treated myself to a pumpkin iced coffee on Friday to celebrate!
I thought I would take a moment to blog about what we did our first week of school. I was really worried about what I was going to do for ice breakers, so I had to come up with some new ones (some of my elementary ones were a little cheesy). So, I hope that this gives some of you some new ideas for YOUR first week of school. :)
I used some GREAT math brain teasers from Stella's Stunners. These were GREAT, and the students LOVED them! We did the toothpick one, and the students had a blast. Here is a picture of one of the genius ways one of my groups tried to figure it out...
These got my students up and moving around while working with other students. You have to check that site out if you haven't yet!!! :)
We did some other ice breakers, like my 4 Corner Power Point get to know you activity:
They had a BLAST going to "their" corner of the room and mingling with the other students there to talk about WHY they chose the choice they did. Here is an example slide:
We also put together our classroom puzzle for each class period! This was a lot of fun, too!!
I copied all four sheets on different colored paper so that each puzzle could be four different colors. The students filled out the pieces as a group, then mingled around the room looking for the different pieces to their puzzle. Once they found their group, they glued it together and presented it to the class!
You can get this activity for FREE in my TPT Store!!!!
The last activity that we did that was SOOOO much fun was our Marshmallow Tower Introduction to the Scientific Method for our first science lab!
This went AMAZINGLY (aside from the sticky hands from the marshmallows!!!). The students worked together really well, and had some amazing team work in the process.
Our tallest tower was 32.5 inches tall!! Can your class beat that? :)
Last weekend I had a contest to have one lucky follower win a BUNDLE of my back to school goodies!!! The winner is...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Congrats, and be sure to e-mail me so I can send you your prize!!! :)
Looks like you had a fun first week! That marshmallow tower is such a cute idea. I'm certified to teach up to 6th grade and was always scared of it, but I guess there definitely are some perks to working with slightly older kids. I hope your second week goes just as well!
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