I wanted an assignment for my first day back that would be both structured and help me to get to know my new students. ![]() This mini-lesson on emailing a teacher is a great one to kick-off the school year because it has two important objectives: students learn to craft an appropriate email to a teacher, and you get to know a bit about your students! I actually created this lesson for when I returned from my maternity leave halfway through the school year. Here, they can receive and give feedback to make connections with their peers and with you! Then, they download their Brown Bag Biography slide and insert it into the Class Gallery where they explain why they chose each of the items. For this digital version, they can find pictures of things of ANY size to include in their brown bag! After choosing their words and items, students create an avatar of themselves to place in the frame. In the classic version of this activity, students would go home and search around to find four items at their house to represent their interests, hobbies, achievements, memories, favorite things, etc. Students choose three words that their family and friends would use to describe them, and they choose four items that represent something about them. The Getting to Know You Questionnaire and Science Interest Survey (above) is a great tool for learning about my students… but this Brown Bag Biography activity goes beyond the “What’s your favorite color?” questions and digs deeper! I’ve learned that the MOST important thing to do during the first weeks of school is to get to know my students! Knowing little things about my kiddos like the sports and instruments they play, their favorite place to visit, and their individual talents is gold for building authentic connections with them. The students will each have their own lab packet, which contains 8 sheets that can be copied back-to-back, plus the ‘science montage’ graphic on which they will color based on the Social Task directions at each station (this can be used as classroom décor or as a cover page for a science notebook!). Each station has a sign containing the directions for the Science Task that the students complete first at each station and a set of colored pencils that contains the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and brown. Each station includes both a science task and a social task. There are 8 stations set up around the room. Your students will appreciate the chance to talk about themselves and complete small coloring tasks along with engaging with interesting science content! This is also a nice early-assessment tool for you to assess your students’ collaboration, writing, and higher-level thinking skills! It takes about 2 to 2.5 class periods for the students to complete all 8 stations! Then, I sometimes use colored highlighters to highlight important things that I want to remember about certain students and I make notes next to students’ names as I learn more about them! I always peak at this reference sheet before parent conferences and when I need to tap into the world of one of my students. ![]() It takes a little bit of time, but what I like to do is export the data to a spreadsheet, print it out, tape the pages together to make a big reference sheet of all of my students’ answers. Once your students have responded, you can see trends in your students’ answers to how they learn and what types of science they like best! You can also export their responses into a spreadsheet. ![]() Click on this link to grab a copy of the Getting to Know You Questionnaire/Science Interest Survey Google Form. ![]() I created a Getting to Know You Google Form and added a Science Interest section to the bottom of it. I have two easy, no-prep activities that will each fill 15 or so minutes of time on one of the first days of school! In this blog post, I’ve rounded up a handful of my favorite activities that will grab your middle school scientists by their brains from day one! All of these activities are appropriate for middle school students regardless of the specific type of science that you teach because they get kids practicing important, relevant skills! #1: Science Interest Survey and Decorate a Virtual Locker If you’re like me, you want to have engaging activities during the first days and weeks of your science class that will set the stage for a great year.
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