The First Day of School PLUS My Class Schedule

I love getting to see other teachers' classrooms. Almost as much - I love to see their schedules. It's amazing to me how different all of our schools and classrooms are. So tonight I wanted to share my new class schedule for this year, along with what my 1st day of school looks like.

A little bit of background - I teach 4th grade math and science. My students have 2 teachers - 1 for math/science and 1 for language arts/social studies. So I have two instructional blocks. This year I have 20 students in each class. Our school day is 7:40-2:55.

The First Day of School

7:35-7:40 When students come in, there is a word search & a pencil at each spot. The word search has everyone's name in it. 

7:40-7:45 School announcements

7:45-7:50 Discuss hallway behavior

7:55-8:45 Specials - Art

8:45-8:55 Bathroom break - discuss expectations

9:00 Circle Up morning meeting - everyone will share their name and one word to tell about their summer

9:15 Technology lesson (we are a 1 to 1 campus - each student will get an iPad): go over iPad trust card and consequences for misuse of iPad

9:45 Brain break - play the clapping game (1 student goes in the hall, the rest choose 1 object in the room - when the student comes back in we have to help him/her find the item by clapping when they're close. No talking or pointing!)

10:00 Snack & Read Aloud - I'm reading The Most Magnificent Thing 

10:15 I'll show this clip on failure and have students connect it to the story. This will set the stage for our work on growth mindset later in the week. 

10:30 Sort school supplies - I use a slideshow that I made to help students know how to sort all of their supplies. This is my least favorite part of the day!

11:30 Rules - we'll have a class discussion about our school rules and the consequences/rewards that go along with them. 

11:45 Get ready for lunch (more rules!)

11:55-12:50 Lunch/Recess

12:55 Students are going to make a time capsule - they'll fill out a sheet about themselves that we'll add to a class time capsule. 

1:45 Switch classes - my other class will come in for an hour. We'll sort supplies and repeat the read aloud and failure video from the morning. 

2:45 Switch classes and get ready to go home

2:55 We made it!! 

I'm exhausted just thinking about all of this....

Okay here is my regular class schedule for 2016-2017:

7:35-7:40 Students arrive, unpack and read

7:40-7:45 School announcements

7:45-7:50 Circle Up (like a morning meeting, but following a district mandated format)

7:55-8:45 Specials (Art, Music or PE depending on the day - this is my planning time)

8:50-9:40 Personalized Learning Time (this is our intervention/enrichment block. This is when students who receive special services like G/T or dyslexia get pulled)

9:45-11:45 Instructional Block One 

11:55-12:50 Lunch/Recess

12:50-2:50 Instructional Block Two (math/science with the other class, an hour for math & an hour for science)

2:55 Dismissal

What does your schedule look like this year? Tell me in the comments below!