Hi 5KP, I have enjoyed getting to know you over the first week of school this year. I feel like we have made a good solid start to the year and have gotten to know each other a little better. We have established some guidelines for behavioral expectations in the classroom and discussed what we like and dislike about school.
Your task now is to have a think about what YOU would do if you had been the teacher for this first week of school.
How would you have done things differently?
Would you have done some things the same way? What and why or why not?
How would you make new students feel welcome in our school?
What sort of ‘getting to know you’ activities would you have led?
What sort of homework would you have set?
After you have had a think about the above questions, go to the ‘comment’ section of this post, it is linked below in blue. Write down your answers to the questions in as much detail as you can, they should be in paragraph form. Over the weekend, check back on this post and see what your classmates have said in their comments. Try and have a discussion about what they have said by adding more comments to the post in reply to what your friends have said. Make sure you use their name in your comment if you are responding to something they have said.
Mr Howitt’s class have already done a similar activity so check out his blog by clicking on the link at the start of this sentence and you may have a better idea about what I mean.
I look forward to seeing your comments adding up to some interesting and thoughtful discussion. Remember, the whole world can see what you are writing so make sure you make a good impression the first time around and maintain a responsible attitude when you are posting.
the barefoot librarian 
This is Mrs Power leaving a comment to show you how it is done.
Good Luck grade 5. I look forward to hearing your ideas about what you would have done in this first week of school.
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1.Something that I would have done is encourage the students,fun friday, extra reading time on monday,wed.and friday and alot of science experiments and feild trips! 2.I would want it to be the same way because for the past week I noticed I had a ton of fun since I came to 5th grade and I hope we could do a science experiments and feild trips soon! 3.When a new student walks into the room I welcome he/she by comforting him/her,by encouraging him/her he/she gives up on something(when she says I can’t do it!I can’t do it!). 4. The activity that I would do is that they could write a poem of themselfs and what they like to do and what their good at. After they finish writing it, they will read it to the class.(So they will start by saying… My name is what so ever and they will start talking about all the thing they like, hate and other things about them. 5.The homework that I would set is read at least thirty minutes a day,math at least 10 or 20 minutes and writing at least 20 or 30 minutes.
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Wow, Samantha, great writing here. You were the first one to respond to this post, great job, I will give you a sticker on Monday.
I agree that you are a very friendly student and you are good at comforting other students with your welcoming smile. I am so glad you have had fun this first week and I am looking forward to continuing the good times next week.
Mrs P
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How would you have done things differently?
Fun Friday would be a great idea, Mr. Denton did it really well last year. I also would have given more reading time, and less writing time!
Would you have done some things the same way? What and why or why not?
I couldn’t have done things better myself, you really did a good job. You still haven’t finished all the interviews, though. I think I would have done something other than the interviews because they were kind of…. weird.
How would you make new students feel welcome in our school?
I’m not sure, maybe have a big assembly and a few games?
What sort of ‘getting to know you’ activities would you have led?
In 3rd grade we had the “show and tell” unit you were talking about, that was a good idea.
What sort of homework would you have set?
Maybe 20 minutes of writing, 30 minutes of English (writing, spelling), and 20 minutes of everything else?
Greetings and salutations from planet Earth, Michael.
P.S. Field trips within the first week? Are you crazy?
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On monday morning i would have an hour of do whatever you want time for kids to talk , explore the classroom ect. On Tuesday i would have everyone write about the first day of school,the whole week i would give everyone favorite pages to work on in morning work time, Monday I would also take a mega tour around the whole school. On Wednesday I would give the kids extra recess and give them free coloring time for a hour. On Thursday and Friday I would make a treasure hunt around the whole school making groups with new and old kids and have the last scrap of paper say “free time”, everyday for homework I would give them one math sheet and 30 minutes of reading.
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If I was the teacher I would of had a lot of fun with my students on the first week of school. I would of taken them to a movie theater and I would give them chocolate right before the went home (good luck to their parents)!
I would not of done things the same way because i would want to let my students have loads of fun!
I would make them feel welcome by letting them sit by whoever they wanted and I would also do fun experiments with them.
I would have probably done what Mrs.P did because I think that after we did the interviews I knew everyone in the class a lot better.
I would not of given homework that week because no one likes getting homework right after the summer holidays!
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If I were the teacher for first week of school I would do a lot of “get to know each other games” because then people could know each other better. I would also want the students do interview somebody they didn’t know so much about. If it was a sunny day I would let them either have extra recess or as a class, do activities outside since there aren’t so many sunny days in Shanghai. If it wasn’t a sunny day then I would let them either have an hour of reading or play a board game or do something quiet. I wouldn’t give homework on the first week either. I would still do some free writing time too though, and maybe some math on some of those days.
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If I were a teacher for a week I would get them exited and happy. I would tell them the exiting things that are coming up in the year. I would go on a feildtrip to the recycling plant to learn about recycling and how important it is. Or if there were alot of new students I would show them around the school. I wont give them much work because I would let them refresh there memory a little. I would start on science and do cool expeiments with them. James do you have to get the kids hyper on the first day of school.
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Wow, you guys are giving some thoughtful and interesting responses although like Cody, James I wonder how the parents would feel with all those hyper kids coming home on the first day.
I think there was some fun in the first week, but there also has to be a balance and I think we had that.
It is important as the teacher that I set up some guidelines for how I want the class to run so that we have fairness and common understandings throughout the year.
Michael I really enjoyed your detailed answers and Jackie I agree it would be nice to have some outside time.
Izzy, I will try and fit in a tour this week, good thinking.
5KP where are the rest of you???
Mrs P
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1. I would have given more reading time to improve the students’ vocabulary. I would have reading buddies twice a week so we can get to know each other and have lots more reading time! i think the whole fifth grade should have made a big play for the whole school to tell the new students about big events and interesting things happening this year.
2. I would have kept it the same because I have had a lot of fun the past week. Meeting new people and making new friends has been fun. I hope we can go on field trips and read to our reading buddies soon!
3.To make new students feel welcome, I would have given them a tour of the school one their first day. In 4th grade, whenever there was a new student, my teacher would have a returning student give the new student a tour of the school. I gave a girl a tour of SAS last year and we’re now great friends!
4. To have students get to know each other, I’d also have the students to interview each other. Instead of interviewing just one person, I would have groups of five and each person would have to interview the other four. After everyone presented each other, I’d have the rest of the students write something they learned about each person. It’s kind of like a remembering game and it helps to see who’s paying attention.
5.For homework, I’d have a page of spelling every night, math every other day, free reading every night (I’d have them write what book they read and the number of pages.), and no homework on the weekends. I think it seems like a pretty balanced schedule.
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Hi Mrs Power,
If I had been teacher last week, I probaly wouldn’t have changed things too much. For the first week I probably would give kids a break on homework because some familes are new to Shanghai and they have JETLAG. I think it’s good to match new students to old students so the old students could help the new kids. I would also make sure that the students know exactly how I want everything organized, and how I’m going to grade them. I would play games on Friday afternoons- IF the kids were good!
Great Blog! Kyle
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maybe we could seea movie everyone likes movies and mabe have some popcorn.
Maybe we can have more library time and more dear time now that would be great and we can have more recess time.
We can have fun friday it was like a treat for us when we turned in all of our homework.
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Great responses Tiffany, Kyle and Byron.
I especially liked your detailed and neatly organized response Tiffany. Great idea about matching up the new and old students Kyle and Tiffany, I think we should do that tour this week. Byron, I will ask you about Fun Friday as many students have mentioned it now…tell me more!
Mrs P
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1. I would have done more games and activities to help the students to get to know each other and make friends. I would also have gotten the students to do more writing to show to the class so that we could find out more about what they have done and what they are interested in.
2. Some of the things I would have done the same. Some of the things I would have done the same are: I would have let the students chose where to sit, and I would done something like the interview project, also.
3.To make the new students feel more welcome to our school I would have asked one of the returning students to show the students where everything is instead of the teacher showing them.
4. Some examples of some getting to know everyone projects I would have done are games that students have to make by themselves or with a partner about themselves then the other students would then play them. I would also have the students write a paragraph or draw a picture to express themselves.
5. For homework I would have set stuff like very short mini-tests so that I can find out what the students strengths are and what their weakness’s are.
Sincerely,
Willow
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Great ideas Willow, now I can’t wait to start the second full week.
Mrs P
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If I were the teacher for a week this is what I would do:
1. How would you have done things differently?
I would play more get to know each other games and have more reading time. I would also like to make friends with some younger students, for example during Reading Buddies time. I would also let a person who was here last year give school tour to all the newcomers.
2. Would you have done some things the same way? What and why or why not?
I would do some things the same way like not having so much homework so that they could get used to the school and not have homework to worry about.
3. How would you make new students feel welcome in our school?
To make the new students welcome to our school I would make them feel happy and make them look forward to the year by telling about fun things like field trips, reading buddies and eating in the big cafeteria.
4. What sort of ‘getting to know you’ activities would you have led?
I would have led things like interviewing people in a group and then presenting the person you interviewed to the class. There are also name games I would like them to play.
5. What sort of homework would you have set?
At first I would not give them a lot of homework. I would only give them reading.
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1.I would let them have more free time on getting to know each other,and do lots of group work.I would give each student a word search for them to work on in pairs every mourning,and ask each student to read to me one-by-one.
2.I would also do an interview with students and present them to the class because maybe other students have same interest as other students and they can know each other better,I would mostly do the same because I thought the first week was really fun.
3.For new students I will let them choose one of the returning students give them a tour around the school.No hard work for them.
4.For ‘getting to know you activities’ I would get everyone to sit in a circle with a ball for them to pass to a person and the person will describe themselves with three words,and talk about their summer holiday.
5.I would have set more game kind of homework such as Wordsearch,Crosswords or Sudoku,as a fun start of the week.Also a little of each subject to see whatthey need to improve on.
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1.Something I would have done differently is I would first them play with the board games for a bit, then I would let them do some free reading for half an hour. A little less writing time, and let the returning students walk with a new student around the school showing them where places are.
2.I would do somethings in the same way, like on the first day, I would have them doing a project called the “Interviewing my classmate” project.I would have the students do this so that they know each other better.
3.What I would do to make the new students more comfortable here is providing a sofa in the room for reading and writing, and having six reading and writing chairs. I would also make the students comfortable by having myself being patient, and respond poiletly.
4.For the “getting to know you” activity, I would have the students get into a group and interveiw themseleves. Then I would have the groups come up infront of the class and have a different student to interview another person from the group.
5.For homework, I would have the students do the interviewing my classmate poster and 30 minutes of reading.
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1. I would of played more get to people games. Maybe some specail things on Friday. More reading.
2. Yes, because I liked and disliked some of the games and work that we did. Also at the end of the day i started to feel tired.
3. At recess I would play with them. Or give them a helping hand.
4. We had this game in 3rd grade and we had a ball of string and would pass it around. And they would say their name and where there from and one goal for this year.
5. I would of gaven out one page of math and 15 minutes of reading. Once we got a little futher maybe 2 pages of math, 30 minutes of reading and somthing .
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James,
I thought the chocolate was a good idea and what movie are we seeing?
Abbey
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Michael,
For the first week of school don’t you think that’s kind of a lot of homework.
Abbey
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If I were to be the teacher for the first week of school a few things I would of done differently would have been, first of all I would have done a different name game with the class. Maybe to get to personaly know about there present more than there past as smaler kids. Another thing that I would do differentaly than what really happened was that I would have had the class do a writing piece of what they thought the first day of school was going to be like and then another story about what it really was in there mind and to them. A final thing that I would choose do to change the first week of school is that for the first week of school you can eat at the Ice Cream Bar in the cafitiria, then later you can eat at the Ice Cream Bar on friday, instead of only on ( special ocations ). The few things that I have chosen to say that I think I would do if I were to be the teacher for the week are things that I think would give the Kids a better impretion of the first week of school but even with what we did I very much enjoyed the first week of school I beileve that I will have an exelent year in 5KP.
I definelty would have done alot of things in the same way that Mrs. Power chose to do in the first week of school if I were to be the teacher. For starters a few things that I would do the same are, the poster project. It was an exelent way to learn about someones indepth personality. One reason I really thought that it was a good idea is because the person we got pared up with is someone we didn’t usualy talk to by using the hat and that brings me to the next thing that I would have done the same if I were to be the teacher, I would defenatly used the hat quite often. I belive the hat is an exelent thing for 5th graders. The hat pares you up with a random person, usualy not you first pick but it is a good idea to use it so you can meet someone new, esspecialy during the begining of the year. It is good becuase of ten you don’t get pared up with your best friend but it isn’t the teachers fault so the students don’t get mad at the teacher, instead it just is how it is. I think mrs. Power made some exelent choses for the first week of school.
If I were to be the teacher early in the year, to make all students feel welcome I would try to make every one comfturble with the fact of being in my class doing variose activities. Such as name games. The thing with name games is that people are less shy to ask people things. Because if they know there name there is no hesitation to asking them so there for people will feel less shy and more welcome. So if I were to be the teacher name games would be a main priority at the begining of the school year.
For kids to get to know eachother getting to know games are a good idea. I would lead some games for kids to get to know eachother. One of my main ideas for an activity following those topics is a web activity i did last year, it is were we all sat down on the floor and done person had a ball of yarn and they would through it to a random person, but before they through it they would say there name, age, hometown, and 3 interesting things about themselves. The yarn went all around and in the end it created a web. My teacher said that the web had a little bit of everyone in it. I thought it turned out to be quite fun. So I would to that activity if I was the teacher.
Homework that I would have set truly would haave been exacly what Mrs. Power assighined. It wasn’t overload therefore it also wasn’t a under load. I think it gave kidds an easy way to start of without getting stressed but allo to undersand that through out the year in will be increasing so I would do it exactly like Mrs. Power.
Being the teacher for the first week of School sounds like a big resposibility, I’m glad it wasn’t my job and I am also glad we got through it.
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If I were for a teacher for a week,
1.How do you have to done things differently?
I would do get to know games and do DEAR.
2.Would you have done the same way? What and why or why not?
I wouldn’t do the same thing I would give alot of homework and give alot of school work because they need to get ready for 6th grade.
3.How would you make new students welcome to our school?
I would get to know you games and I would play spider web.
4.What sort of getting to know you activities would you play?
I would play getting to know you activities and play other games.
5.what sort of homework would you have set I would be setting math, sience, and reading.
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1.I would have done something were you go around the elementry schooland ment all the teachers.
2.I liked the way we did that get to know you thing where we were in that circle but I think we could have done better.
3.I am a new kid and when I saw pictures of that caffiteria I thought “wow!!” But when I walked in I felt kind of lost. I think we should have put 1 returning student to help them know how to get their lunch.
4. I would have done a p.e. activity where you had to pass a soccer ball to somebody in the class and when you passed it you had to callout there name.
5.since it was our first week I would have done a homework free week.
There were some ups and downs in the week but still when that “how was your day?” question comes up my answer was always “Great!!”
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Thanks Jordan, I am so pleased to hear you say you are enjoying school so far. There are always good times and bad times in life but I hope that grade 5 is filled with far more good than bad.
Mrs P
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Keaton I was just wondering how you moved all your writing from one post to the other post. Did you have to retype it, or just copy and paste it?
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Mrs. Power,
I thought that the link you had from Olive’s post was cool – the one with the guy acting as if he was the wind. It was an ad for a company that makes electricity from wind power I think.
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Mrs. power
I was wondering if there is wind,water,nuclear,steam and human power – what power do you have
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