The first week of school after winter break can be challenging for students…and teachers! However, you can also look at this time as an awesome opportunity to “reset” and set your students up for success for the remainder of the school year! In this blog post, I will share with you my top 5 activities to do the first week back from break.
A preview of what to do after your first week back from break:
- Review behavior expectations
- Use winter-themed reading and writing activities
- Build classroom community
- Recommit to expected reading behaviors
- Plan winter crafts or art projects
Ok, let’s get started! First up…
- Review Behavior Expectations
Teaching rules and expectations is not just something that needs to be on your lesson plans for August, but also for any time during the school year when students need a refresher about good and poor choices in the classroom and school.
Have you heard about the Ninja Life Hacks Book Series, by Mary Nhin? If not, you are in for a treat! This book series (perfect for grades K-3) was created to help teach children about important life skills, such as listening, dealing with difficult emotions, goal-setting, developing self-control, and overcoming anxiety. Other books share a message about the importance of gratitude and kindness.
There are currently 65 books in this series and my students LITERALLY just can’t get enough of them!
These books are an awesome refresher for behavior expectations. I love to read aloud the story, Quiet Ninja, to review expected behaviors for walking in the hallways and using a quiet voice during independent reading and writing time.
You can get your copy of this awesome book by click here, by clicking on my Amazon Affilate link: Quiet Ninja
After reading the story, the students write a written response to the story. You can snag FREE printable by clicking below:
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2. Winter themed reading and writing activities
Snow, gingerbread, winter…oh my! For my guided reading groups, I love to pull out all my winter-themed stories to read with my readers. I love how my students are easily able to relate to these reading passages and make connections to what is happening with the characters in the story.
I make sure to use both a mix of fiction and nonfiction texts with my readers. Reading about how to make a snowman? Go outside and make a snowman or have your students make a snowman craft during indoor recess!
3. Build Classroom Community
All educators know how important it is to take time at the beginning of a new school year to establish a welcoming and inviting classroom environment. Our goal is to help all students feel safe, welcomed, and included. One way that I do this is to read aloud different multicultural picture books, all with similar themes- each book promotes inclusion, diversity, justice, empathy, compassion, love. The week after winter break is a great time to provide time and space for students to reconnect with each other. Encourage students to share stories and pictures about something they would like to share about their break.
Or, do students celebrate a different holiday? You can also use this time to share different holidays that your students might celebrate, such as Diwali.
Have you heard of the picture book, Binny’s Diwali? The story begins with Binny waking up nervous but happy because today was her day to share about Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Her teacher asks each student to talk about their favorite holiday. Binny taught her classmates that Diwali is the Festival of Lights, a Hindu holiday that lasts five days and celebrates the victory of goodness and hope.
If you would like to learn more about how I use this story to build a welcoming classroom environment, click on the video above!
I have a FREE printable for you to use with this adorable story! Click below to download your copy of this reading response about Binny’s Diwali!
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#4. Recommit to expected reading behaviors
At the beginning of the school year, it takes me at least 6 weeks to teach procedural and management-based minilessons, which allows me to successfully implement reading workshop in my second-grade classroom. When we come back from break, I make it a priority to revisit 5 very important minilessons, to ensure that the reading workshop is running smoothly in my classroom.
The 3 minilessons that I reteach after break include:
- Readers show expected behaviors during reading workshop
- Readers shop for “just-right” books that fit like a glove
- Readers treat books, other readers, and reading time with respec
As I revisit these lessons, I make sure to refer to the anchor charts that we created as a class at the beginning of the year. We review what reading workshop looks like and sounds like in order to create an environment that supports all readers.
Want to read about my other must-teach reading minilessons? You can check out my blog post here: 5 Must-Teach Lessons for Creating a Class of Independent and Engaged Readers
If you are interested in learning more about how to teach expected reading behaviors to my students, you may want to check out my YouTube video:
#5. Plan a winter craft or art project
Art projects with winter themes are a great activity to do for your first week back! Not only are they a great way to ease into the “back to school” routine, but they are also a great way to motivate and engage students.
On the last day of school before winter break, we watched the movie Polar Express. After reading the book and watching the movie, we created the train with pastels on black construction paper. For the “snow” I mixed together glue with shaving cream. In doing so, it creates a “puffy” effect. The kids LOVE this project and it is so simple!
If you want to remember these ideas for your back-to-school lesson plans, pin the image below!
