HI everyone..I am a new 5th grade teacher/1st year teacher and was wondering what kinds of things that you all do on the first day/week of school? Also how you set up your classroom..homework folders..bins for students..dicipline...rewards. What is appropriate for their age group?
You may want to visit the grade specific thread for 5th! You'll get many responses there! Best wishes to you in your new position!!
:help: I am in the same boat. I am looking for all the ideas I can get. Only a week and a half until school and I really don't have any idea where to begin. I've read all the ideas I could find, but many of them pertain to lower grades. My school starts on a Monday, so I have to plan the first whole week immediately. Now that we have grade specific forums, we need a place to find ideas that only pertain to 5th. So give us new teachers all your wonderful ideas, hopefully just one more time , so that we can find them more easily.
This will be my 15th year to teach 5th grade. Don't worry, it's a lot of work, but fun I love 5th grade. They get your jokes and they can carry on a conversation! I would say the best advice I can give is: 1) Be consistent 2) Be organized 3) Be fair 4) Always be prepared for anything 5) Be firm I would take the first day to lay out classroom rules and expectations. Also take the time to let your students get to know you. They love finding out about their teachers. For example, I don't live at the school, I really do have a home to go to:lol: Take the time to do a get acquainted activity. Me in a bag is always a good one for the students as well as the teacher. Bring things about yourself that lets your students know your interests. Then the next day let the students do the same thing. This lets them get to know their peers as well. There are always fun sheets that you can do that let you know about your student and their interests. Have something for your parents to fill out too. That way you know what their expectations are as well as anything they might want to share about their child. Don't know about your state, but here you have to be ready for lots of state tests. Fifth grade seems to be the year for testing. That is probably the most stressful part of the job. Have fun! Teaching is a lot of work, but also so rewarding. When you touch that one child and a lightbulb goes off, or a parent thanks you for doing something no one else has been able to do. That is when you know why you do what you do!
I just finished my first day of 5th grade yesterday. It ran very smooth. I just sat on the stool and passed a ball back and forth to the students. They would ask me questions and I asked them questions. They really seemed to like this. We also went over the emergency drills and classroom rules. Our first day was only a half day. On the first full day, I went over procedures and expectations with them. We reviewed them at the end. We then made bubble posters, wrote a "Dear Me" letter, and did a listening activity. Tomorrow we are going to play "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" reviewing rules, procedures, and expectations. We are also going to play math jingo and concentrate on AR books. I have also thought about taking pictures of the kids doing certain procedures and rules and posting them on our rule bb for reference. As far as being organized, I am pretty anal about it all. They have a different color folder for each subject and it is labeled. They also have a Friday Folder that will be sent home every Friday with their graded papers inside and the parents must sign. They have a homework folder that will go home with them anytime they have homework. I have a mailbox system for filing their graded work. This seems to work very well. For a discipline plan, I just use the check system. Name on the board is a warning and each check is 5 minutes of recess. If they get all of their recess taken away, 4 checks, they will get a daily progress report sent home and have to write a letter to their parents explaining what they did. The letter has to returned signed by their parents the next day or their name automatically goes on the board that morning. Hope this helps
This is my first year in teaching. I did do my internship in 5th grade last year, so that helps quite a bit. I began by thinking of how I wanted to do everything from sharpening pencils to homework. I am sending home a weekly folder with graded work too. We start on a Thursday, so I will spend those first few days going over procedures and getting to know each other. I will read aloud and have them do some writing. (Which will go with the "getting to know you" activities) I still need to figure out EXACTLY what I'm doing. My biggest thing to focus on over the next week is the curriculum. I want at least several weeks COMPLETELY planned and possibly more. Don't worry, it is ALL I think about. I even dream about the class and the kids, what can go wrong, things I "should" be doing, etc. I'm very nervous and have visions of the kids taking over the class, the other teachers not liking me and all of those other fears. I'm trying to convince myself that everything will be great! :unsure: This is my dream job (school, grade, etc) so I am bouncing off the walls with excitement. But...I'm FREAKING out too! I know I'm not much help, but if you have any specific questions I'll try to help you and tell you what I've done so far.
You can't worry about the kids not liking you. You are there to be their teacher and mentor, not their friend. We had a teacher like that in our school that wanted to be a friend. He had a real hard time with keeping his class under control. Just be fair and firm, yet loving and kind. They will respect you and you them. It's a balancing act sometimes, but you'll do great!
I don't worry about the KIDS not liking me...but my fellow teachers! (I have my own kids that are this age and older so I feel confident in how to interact with them.) I have an inclusion class and will have three other teachers in there with me. So, I am nervous in having them see my first year mistakes and us all getting along and knowing our role. I think that is MY biggest fear starting out.
For classroom management, I LOVE Teaching with Love and Logic It really made me feel less stressed, and like I won't end up in a power struggle with the kids. As far as what I am teaching I have NO idea because I have not gotten ANY of the school material. My principal is really sweet but I think she wants me to fly by the seat of my pants or something. I am a first year teacher too, so that is the best I can offer ;-)
I completely agree the "be consistent" idea. I was not consistent last year and it was horrible for me. Also, keep in mind that some kids might not show their parents all the homework in their folder. I have a Wednesday folder that the parents have to sign but I found out that my struggling kids were just taking most of the homework out and their parents still signed it. There isn't a lot you can do about it but I became much more inclined to schedule parent conferences if I felt they never saw homework or tests.
I am always nervous when I have other teachers in my room. I know exactly how you feel. Next year, my daughter will be in 5th grade and I worry about all the girls that have been to my house and how they will react with me having to discipline them in class. Good luck all of you. Just follow your heart and do the best you can with what you have. If you didn't care as much as you do, you wouldn't be here trying to find more answers
I had the same problem with kids throwing away the bad grades. I had to start making copies of them, and placing them in their files. I just had my first week of school. It went extremely well. The first day I focused on routines and rituals. We did a few getting to know you activities also. On the second day we did a teacher KWL. The kids loved asking me questions. We did mostly back to school activities with the texts. I explained our note taking procedures. I'm very anal as well so the kids have a different color spiral notebook for every subject. We will start the curriculum on Monday.
I have a sign and return policy. I will stamp the low paper and have the parents sign it, then it gets returned to me. I keep a file on every kid and those papers go in there. When I have a conference and parents wonder why grades are low, I can use those for refreshing their memory. I also use a red pen to mark failing grades or circle it in the grade book so that I know who owes me a paper when it has to be signed and returned. It is a little extra work for me, but it also makes them responsible.
Good morning I am new to school and 5h grade, may I ask what your mailbox system is like? I am at a Catholic school in South Texas this year with no teacher money to spend and have been racking my brain on how to set one up that is inexpensive and not cardboard! I do have some empty book shelves. I am teaching Math, Science and Social Studies.
You are too stinking funny! I am a old new pregnant teacher and my brains are completly fried as well. I am at a Private school in South Texas and have new curriculum with nothing to go with from last year. I am extremly excited but totally scared as well! Best of luck to you!
I had the same issue as well, but I realized phone calls took care of it as well. When they'd come in for their conference, they would see what I had stored away (and had made copies of). I do have to get better at this, though... it is not my strength. How are the different colored notebooks going?
One thing majority of our teachers do is make a "table of contents" for the weekly papers. I have each assignment listed on a reg. sheet of paper, double column style. I have the date at the top, a place for # of missing assignments, conduct grade for the week, note for the teacher, and an upcoming events area. I would list all the assignments that we did during the week, copy enough for each folder, and staple all the papers together. If that assignment wasn't there, then parents would know to ask about it. Of course, you still get parents who don't care that an assignment was missing, but for those who do care, they knew what was going on.
I like that idea! Now, I just have to figure out how to put it together. Do you do this on a spreadsheet? I'm trying to picture it...but I'm not too creative. Would you mind sharing an example if you have one?
I suck at using spreadsheet...I might go to a workshop this year on those. I use Mircrosoft Works/Word/Whatever and make the title line. After that, I go to options/tools and change the layout to columns with a line separating them starting after the title. Then, I have my subjects: math, science/health, reading, history, english, spelling listed, each with 5 lines underneath. It'll look something like this: Name____________________ Week of_________ math history ____________ ___________ ____________ ___________ science english ____________ ____________ reading spelling ____________ ____________ Conduct__ Late/missing wk___ Parent sign._____ Upcoming Events: Notes: I make 40 blank copies for the year, fill in the blanks each week, and make a trip to the copier. Hope this makes it clearer to you. If not, I'll try to figure out how to download my copy to here.
Okay, that didn't come out the way I intended it to, but I hope it still makes sense. Imagine the second word in each row, as well as the second line, over on the other half of the paper.
Thanks! That sounds like I great method and just one more way to keep parents informed. I'll probably steal that!
I love the "Me in a Bag" idea! I think I might bring my own bag with a few things about myself on the first day, and then hand out paper bags so the students can put 3 things about themselves inside and present it to the class during the rest of the week. I have a lot of ESL kids who have just moved to Canada in my class, so I was thinking that this would be a good way for them to connect with their classmates despite the language barrier.
I am in a similar situation and I am completely freaking out! I am so happy to have a fifth grade class this year! I am also a first year teacher. In fact, I just got a call from the principal today offering me the job. I have to get some training before school starts and I have to start completely from scratch to set up a room and the kids arrive a week from Monday!!!! AUUUGGGGGGH!!! I'm so excited and yet soooooooo anxious!!! I'm going to see my classroom on Friday and do some cleaning/decorating...even though I have NO idea what I need to do, really! My head is still swimming...I can't even think clearly at this point....Help????!!!! And every time I think about everything I need to consider I just freak out all over again...there's decorating the walls and purchasing supplies and making lesson plans and learning the school policies and getting training and meeting the staff and setting procedures and...oh my goodness...someone just slap me! :help:
You'll do great!! Just remember that this type of panic is so much better than the panic you'd be in if the principal hadn't called and you were still looking for work!! :lol: Enjoy!!
I love the Table of Contents idea! I'll be starting my 3rd year in 5th grade soon (I go back next week, kids don't come until Sept. 4) and both years I've had problems with kids throwing away bad papers and not getting papers back signed. I think I will steal the idea and put that on the front of the papers all stapled together so that the parents and I both know what should be included in it, and they can contact me if something is missing. Thanks!!!
I'm a first year teacher and a co -teacher. I work 2 days a week. It's going to be hard, I think, to get the kids to see me as their teacher b/c i'm not there very often. I just had my first week and i think it went well. They are a talkative bunch though. I already had to take time away from recess b/c they were so loud and had several warnings. Hopefully next week will be better.
I just want to add my thanks for all the tips. I'm a first year teacher too and start tomorrow with 36 5th graders. This is a job I have fantasized about for many years, and I can hardly believe that it is actually happening.
