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| Didax "Class Ideas" Newsletter Archive |
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It's that time of year again...Back to School. The scramble to organize supplies, gather lessons and plan, plan, plan is on! Things are hopping around here and I'm sure you're busy with getting ready for the big day.
To make things just a bit easier, this issue of Class Ideas includes great classroom organization ideas, some wonderful games to use as icebreakers and get-to-know-you activities, and a special offer from didaxinc.com. As always, there are downloadable activity pages and some Internet links to take you to even more Back to School hints and tips!
I hope these features ease your stress a little as you prepare for the excitement and rush of the first day of school. Please feel free to email me if you have success with any of the included ideas or if you have any suggestions for future Class Ideas issues. I love to hear from you!
Anna Mullen, Editor |
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| Surviving Back to School: Organizing your Classroom |
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 Back to School time is here again! It's time to organize your classroom and create class routines. Below are some suggestions to help you through the first weeks of school and beyond. If you try one or more, we?d love to hear about it!
? During the summer and through the school year collect magazines, board games, containers, old shirts, books, used birthday cards, Popsicle sticks, shells, buttons and anything else that can be used in the classroom.
? Write the name of each student on thick colored cards and laminate them. Add Velcro to the back. Set up a wall with a list of monitor jobs such as lunch orders, tidying the book corner, putting away smocks, etc. The cards can be picked out of a ?hat? each week and placed on the wall next to the assigned job.
? Place signs around the classroom reminding students to put things back in their correct place and pick up objects that they have used.
? Sew pockets onto a brightly colored sheet. Place the sheet under the board. The pockets can be used for books, spelling lists, worksheets and much more.
? String lines across the walls and windows and have pegs ready to display finished work.
? Keep small notebooks that you jot notes in when you listen to students read. These will come in handy when writing progress reports.
? Prepare a folder for substitute teachers with emergency lessons, a weekly schedule and the discipline strategies that you use. Include a class list, seating chart, map of the school and school handbook.
? Have upper- and lowercase alphabet charts and appropriate number charts displayed. Write the alphabet and numbers to 20 on colored card and laminate. Students can place these on the displayed charts to practice their alphabet and counting skills.
? Have supplies on hand and organized before school start. These could include:
Pencils, scissors, erasers, string, pens, glue, rulers, stapler, push pins, rubber bands, masking tape, trimmer knife, tissues, scrap paper, colored paper, white paper, lined paper, teacher?s scissors and a manual for the classroom computer. |
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| A Fun Start: International Games |
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 Is there anything like a game to break the ice and get kids laughing? Not that I can think of! Games are played all over the world. Many of these have been handed down through successive generations or have traveled from country to country, making their origins difficult to trace. Here are a few international games you can adapt and play with the students in your class ? let the games begin!
Muk (Played by Inuit children in northern Canada and Alaska)
One player picks a partner to join him or her and stand in the center of a circle of players. The player chosen must stay silent and serious. The other player must try to make him or her laugh by making faces. If one of them laughs, that person must stay in the center and the remaining player selects a new partner, and so the game continues.
Leopard Trap (Africa)
Two players make a ?trap? by joining their outstretched hands. Others form a line that passes, one student at a time, under the trap, while chanting the rhyme:
?Lion and leopard
Lion and leopard
Two night hunters
Lion and leopard
Lion and leopard
Hunt their prey!?
On the word ?prey,? the trap falls. If a player is caught, he or she is out of the game. Once two players have been caught, they make a second trap for the line to pass under. The game continues until only two players remain. They make a new trap to restart the game.
Boules (France, also called Petanque)
A small ball, the cochonet, is thrown onto a piece of level ground. Two teams throw larger steel balls as close as possible to the cochonet. The winner is the person who gets his or her ball closest to the cochonet. He or she earns a point for the team, and gets to throw the cochonet to start the next game, as well as having the first throw of the steel ball.
Hit it Off (Brazil)
A piece of wood about one yard high is banged into the ground. Two circles are drawn around it, one about one yard from the pole and the other about a foot and a half away. A coin is placed on top of the pole. Each player has five pebbles. Standing outside the larger circle, each player attempts to knock the coin off the pole. If it falls into the inner circle, the player scores one point; if it falls into the outer circle, he or she scores two points. The player with the most points wins.
The Doorkeeper (Afghanistan)
Players stand in a circle with their legs apart and their feet touching the feet of the person on each side. One player stands in the middle with the ball (the older the child, the smaller the ball). He or she tries to roll the ball through the legs of the other players, who will try to block it with their legs, stopping the ball from passing through. A player is out if the ball goes between his or her legs. When everyone is out, the game begins again. |
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| Free Activity Pages from Daily Mental Math |
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 Looking for a way to jumpstart your mental math program for the 2003-4 school year? Try our Daily Mental Math series for grades 2 through 7 with these downloadable pages. Included are two weeks' worth of activites for each grade. |
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| Back to School Internet Resources |
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 To help you get ready for the start of school, we've rounded up some great websites with helpful tips and hints. Get some bulletin board and icebreaker ideas and much, much more! |
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| September Newsletter Theme: Fall |
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 Next month, Class Ideas will provide you with great ideas and resources to use the Fall theme in your classroom! |
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