First Day Activities with the Gingerbread Man

Well summer is officially ending and everyone is scurrying to their classrooms to prep for back to school. How do you spend your first day back at school with the kiddos? Do you spend most of the day going over rules and procedures? If you do, DON'T! Why don't you save all that nagging and boring stuff for the 2nd day of school. Okay. Okay. I know you can teach rules and procedures in a fun way and I hope you do, but why not make that 1st day fun and engaging for your new little ones.

I have been doing First Day Activities with the Gingerbread Man since my first year of teaching. I can't take credit for the whole idea. I am not even sure where this idea originally came from. I do know that a very experienced, veteran teacher who is amazing at what she does taught me about how students can create Gingerbread Man cookies, read the book and then go on a school tour in search for their precious missing cookies. This teacher was my mentor teacher and team teacher so she taught me a few tricks. I then added some cute rhymes as clues during our Gingerbread Man search and other goodies.
Then I came to Canada.... where guess what? My partner kinder teach also shared that they create G-man cookies & search for their cookies through out the school allowing the children to get to know the school. Obviously this activity has been around for years and all over different places. It's am OLDIE BUT GOODY I'd say!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-Activities-with-the-Gingerbread-Man-1938761

So you might be wondering what I have to offer then in the First Day Activities with the Gingerbread Man. Here's what it has to offer:

• A detailed description of each activity and how I use these in my classroom on the 1st day.
• A Gingerbread Man recipe sheet for yourself or to provide to parents
• A note from the Gingerbread Man that falls out of your book while you are reading it to your class letting them know that their cookies are missing.
• Rhyming clue notes for you to read as they are posted around the school so that the children can guess where their missing G-man went.
• A Gingerbread Man & Girl for each child to decorate using materials of your choice, as well as a strip to create their own sentence.
• A G-Man reader.
• A G-Man class book.
• A G-Man hat so that their parents will ask them about it & also helps the children remember what they did on their fun-filled 1st day.
• A First Day of School Newsletter that is editable to tell the parents all about the fun their child had.

Some years I choose to provide the children with a construction paper cut-out of a Gingerbread Man cookie to decorate instead of the white printed sheet.

Here are a few of books we read the first day of school and through out the first week that relate to our Gingerbread Man hunt.

Words cannot describe the look on each child's face once we open the oven and discover that their cookies are missing. It's pure heaven!

At last! We find our cookies in the principal's office. What better way to get to meet and know your school principal on that first day of school. :)

The children also create a self portrait on the first day. This is a wonderful keepsakes for their class portfolio that they get to bring home at the end of the year.

Just creating her Gingerbread Man hat.

I don't set rules for how children decide to decorate their Gingerbread Man. It's a free for all on the decorations and I love to see what they create! We have a lot of fun on our first day of school and I hope you do too!

The Monster Who Came to School

 On Friday we had our first full day with all of the kinders. I am glad we have a staggered entry so that it's not so overwhelming for the students. We read The Day the Monster Came to School and worked on class expectations.

 We read a beginning reader at my guided reading table.

Students also created their own monster.

You can find these monster activities here. 

Back to School with the Gingerbread Man

 I never thought going back to work after a year maternity leave would be so difficult. I have to admit. I cried myself to sleep the night before I went back to work for our first professional development day. I never thought I would be one of those emotional moms but my baby girl gets to me. The first morning I was trying to get ready to go to work my baby girl kept wrapping herself around my legs.

We started school this past Thursday. I am teaching kindergarten and grade two this year. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to teach grade two. I am lucky to have a fabulous grade two teaching partner that teaches the class Mondays, Wednesdays & Friday while I am teaching kindergarten. Since my teaching partner has been teaching grade two for many years she is an expert and had everything set up for our second graders Thursday.

Isn't this classroom bright, fun and inviting? My teaching partner set up the classroom. She has always had such a fun classroom.

 I love how organized and fun this classroom is. If you were a student wouldn't you love to learn in a classroom like this?

 My teaching partner introduced a fun get to know you skittles game to the class. Each student got to pick two skittles and for each colour there was a different question for them to ask. For example, if a student picked a red skittle then they could tell us their favourite food. The students really seemed to like it.

 This is my "I survived the 1st day of school" face! No matter how long you've been teaching I feel like there's always a reason to celebrate a successful 1st day of school.

Now, on to meeting my kinders on Friday. I had my parents fill out this student information form which you can find in the Let's Get Meet the Parents Ready.

We are so lucky that we have staggered entry for our kinders. This Friday I only had 12 of my kinders and this Wednesday I will have the other 10 kinders come for their first day.

After coming in the classroom and playing with play-doh, we start our morning by making & baking gingerbread man cookies. 

We then go back to the classroom to read The Gingerbread Man. While reading The Gingerbread Man a letter falls out from the gingerbread man. The letter states that we can't catch the gingerbread man.

After reading the letter we then had to go search for our gingerbread men. We searched the gym, library, playground, music room and the office. We finally found our gingerbread man cookies in the principal's office.

 On Friday students drew a self portrait.

 Students also created a gingerbread man hat.

 We had fun creating a gingerbread man craft.

 We ended our day taking a photo for their first day of kindergarten.

All of the first day of school gingerbread man activities can be found here. 

Ready Confetti

Thank you Pinterest again! I found this adorable and amazing Ready Confetti idea over at First Grader at Last thanks to Sarah.

These were super easy to print and prep.

I put a little bit of confetti in a clear small jewelry bag and taped it in the inside.

I folded the Ready Confetti poem and placed it in the "Do Not Open" sheet.

I used a hole punch & ribbon to keep the poem in place and add a touch of cuteness. :)

I absolutely love this! I just found out our meet the teacher night got cancelled so now I have to find out my parents' addresses so I can mail these to my soon-to-be kinders before the first day of school on Thursday.

It's All About Them Pineapples

If I could use one word for this summer it would be- pineapple. Every where I looked this summer I saw fruit but the pineapple was the center of attention. Whether you ate it, decorated your house with it, wore it or threw a party in style with pineapples, they were every where.

 Head to my Pinterest to check out these 

adorable pineapple pins for the details on each.

 I love this summer's pineapple trend and when I saw Tracey Gurley Designs' pineapple 

paper I just HAD to make it into one of my Lovely Little Planners. 

 If you are looking for a teacher planner / lesson planer that will save you time and money then you don't have to look any further. It's all right here! If there is something that you would like added to this planner all you have to do is let me know and I will do my best to create it for you. 

I just love this pineapple print! It is so much fun and bright. <3

This planner includes: cover page, info. page, events page, holidays & special dates page(s) that includes American & Canadian holidays, birthday lists pages, a glimpse at the year page(s) for long year planning, email list, transportation list, schedule sheet, monthly overview page(s), weekly meal plan sheets, make a note of it sheet, lesson plan pages, guided reading recording sheets, guided math recording sheets, writer's workshop recording sheets, checklist pages, notes page(s), spine covers.