Getting Acquainted and Learning to Work Together

For the first few days of school we played some "interview" type games to get acquainted with each other. This got us up and moving around the room, helped us learn each other's names, what we did over the summer, and our favorite foods, colors, sports, etc. These activities helped to create a feeling of community in our room from day one.

 

We graphed our names to compare how many letters were in each.  This helped us learn how to recognize and spell each other's names.

We practice spelling words with a variety of partners to help get better aquainted and to feel more comfortable working with each other.

 

During journal time the boys and girls confer with partners.  They read their writing to a partner who then asks questions and offers suggestions for improvement.  The two also edit each others journal writing for the conventions of capitalization and punctuation.

As shown in an earlier post, students read with each other at times, sharing favorite books and coaching each other to become better readers.

 

During math students play games with partners and work with each other to solve problems.

 

Our little classroom is really beginning to feel like a team in which everyone is working well together and our year is off to a great beginning!