Lights, Camera, New School Year...New Theme!

The new school year is off to a start with our new Movie/Hollywood class theme..."Like the movie, You'll LOVE the book!"  I love this theme because most students LOVE movies and want to watch movies during school time but they don't often realize that many movies once started as a book.  So I like to introduce them to this concept and challenge them to list favorite movies and the books they may be based upon.  Then I stock my library with lots of these titles and "catch" kids reading books based upon their favorite movies.  Later in the year we even work on writing scripts and making our own iMovies of books they've read.  Read below for some of my "movie" themed first days of school activities.  Feel free to check out my Movie Themed resources on TpT.

Our first three days were spent with some ice-breaker activities.  Each student received a "popcorn" bag full of fun!  The bags were labeled with each student's name however both the desk name tag and the book mark had different student's names.  In addition, each bag also contained red vines and a bag of popcorn.  As we familiarized ourselves with the new classroom and routines we took time out to have a "break" to get to know one another.  The activities were...

1. Name tag:  Find the person who's name tag you have and ask them what they did during summer vacation.  Then self-select your seat in the classroom for the month of August.
2. Bag of Popcorn:  Choose a person that wasn't in your class last year, sit down, have a popcorn party and discuss what did you like about third grade.
3. Book mark:  Find the person who's bookmark you have and discuss whether or not you like reading and what was the last book you read.
4. Red Vines:  Find a partner of your choice, sit down, have a Red Vines party and discuss what was the last movie you saw (at home or at the theatre, you're choice).

Afterwards we use the popcorn bags for our "Bucket Fillers" after reading "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?"

I can't take credit for the genre posters above my classroom library but find that they are perfect for identifying many different literary genres.  Just like reading books that were made into movies can be motivating we also discuss independent reading and a give the students a 40 book challenge based upon Donalyn Miller's book "The Book Whisperer".  You can read more about how I love Donalyn Miller's book here. We spend the first few weeks of reading working on building up good reading habits through a stamina study.  Each time we debrief our reading habits I go over the genres with the students along with a 40 Book Challenge Tally Chart.  Many students will begin to use the wall display as an anchor to identifying the genre of a recently finished book as they work towards reading 40 books.

Another wonderful book that I use to guide my reading instruction is CAFE by the Sisters.  We tie the concept in with a CAFE "table" and chairs for a pair of students to use during independent reading.

This "Welcome" board is by far my favorite first day of school activity.  I prepare copies of the various forms, informational about 4th grade, and Mini-bio on myself before school starts.  Then I setup the board on the first day for those parents who are able to bring their child to school to get a head start on getting information from me.  Probably the most important piece of information is how to communicate with me by texting via Remind, a helpful app where I can send both group and individual messages as well as parents texting me.  Most parents love the app because they can text me in the evening if they have any questions or if their child needs homework help.  The best part about the board is that I take it down, store it with all the copies and set it up again for Back to School Night and Parent-Teacher Conference Week.  The forms are all ready to go for those parents that I meet later in the year.

One of our routines is the "Cast Call:  Where Am I" board.   I created a QR code with a Google Form for our bathroom pass.  The only "rule" about the bathroom is you can't go during direct instruction (teacher talking) only during independent work.  Students simply scan the code with a classroom iPad and fill in their name and what we are currently learning.  Then they move a magnet from the "on set (in the classroom)" section to the bathroom.  Periodically I check the data in my Google Form and look for patterns such as who's going to the bathroom often, what subject/content area are they missing, etc.  This information is useful for conferencing with students who frequent the bathroom often.  As you can see there are other choices (office, speech, absent, etc) however I don't use a Google Form to keep track of the other areas.  It's great because it's located close to the door with our emergency backpack and clipboard and I can quickly check to see who is not in the classroom during emergency drills.