Back to the grind!

Well ready or not, today was the first day back after a glorious and relaxing two weeks off for the holidays! I don't know about you but I was a whole mix of emotions Sunday night and early this morning when I woke up to face reality… excited to see my sweet babies {I really missed them} and hear about their breaks, anxious I had forgot something when lesson planning for this week, sad that my days of sleeping in and waking up without an alarm were over but then so overjoyed when I saw my kiddos faces and they hugged me as they walked in the room!

I can totally relate to each and every one of these emojis today…can't you?! 

On top of all of these mixed emotions, it wouldn't be a great first Monday back to school without the heater going out! {Brrrrr…It's cold in here!}

Coming in today, I knew all 19 of my students would want to tell me ALL about their two weeks off so late last night, when my brain wouldn't shut down and let me sleep I whipped up this quick "Find Someone Who…" activity to allow them to get all their sharing out! 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByxHpVur5C_uSEoySHhleHRacDQ/view?usp=sharing

I instructed students to get a clipboard and a pencil, handed them each a copy of the first page { a 20 box grid full of different Christmas break activities they may have done during their two weeks off } and let them loose! I set the timer for 6 minutes… then added 3 more …  I was amazed with how well they communicated with each other! They were so polite and engaged in learning about what their classmates had been up to! As they "found someone who…" had done each activity they had that friend sign their name to their grid sheet!

This activity lead perfectly into part II where students partnered up and continued their discussions, while creating a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast their breaks. Once they completed their Venn diagrams, they used them to construct two paragraphs: one explaining how their breaks were similar and one about how their breaks were different!

This was a great way to channel my students excitement and be able to hear all about their breaks while they continued working hard without even realizing it! {Sneaky teacher}  

I hope you enjoyed having your babies back today as much as I did! Happy New Year!