EP 141 Beginning of the Year Lesson Ideas

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You are an efficient, engaging, and hard-working educator. The work that you are doing for your students is appreciated. Thank you for your dedication and the time you put in to ensure your students succeed. 

In this week’s episode, I will share a 5-day lesson plan you can use during the beginning of the school year to help you learn more about your students. 

On Day 1, you will start the lesson by introducing yourself. During the presentation, you can share your favorites with the students. I do this presentation as a model to students since they will do something similar. 

Afterwards, the students can do an icebreaker. One of my favorites is called Group Stop. During this activity,  students will quietly move around the room. One person randomly freezes and this will cause everyone else to freeze. 

On Day 2, students can start the lesson by greeting each other. One of my favorites is the index card greeting. Each student will write their name on an index card. Students will then pull a name and go greet the person. 

In the second part of the lesson, the students will watch a video. Brainpop Back –to-School Video (FREE). Inform the students that they will watch the video and play a review game afterward. Students will write their answers on the whiteboards.

I would also like to suggest taking the time to introduce and practice 2-3 classroom procedures with the students.On Days 3-5, of this week’s lesson you can do a daily icebreaker with the students. You can even add in a quick game to help build relationships. 

The goal of the lesson for days 3-5 is for students to create an All About Me Presentation. I suggest giving the students 1-2 days to create the slides. I will go through some sample slides that you can use for the student’s presentation. Also, depending on your student’s age and access to computers they can create their presentations online. 

To start the lesson model for students how to complete the presentation. This can look like projecting the slideshow and walking through how to complete each section. 

I like to include a checklist so that students will have clear expectations about how to complete the activity. 

Click the video below for more details on how you can recreate this lesson for your students.