The first week of school can be a daunting time, especially for us language assistants. Not only are we meeting brand new groups of students and co-teachers that we need to get to know, but most of us are also dealing with mountains of government paperwork, finding a “piso,” and adjusting to a whole new country, culture, and language. This means that getting into a routine can be R.O.U.G.H So, I’m sharing my “first week of school” activities to, hopefully, make this transition time a little bit easier.
This year, I’m working in the same school that I was in last year, so I decided to forgo the typical “All About Me” presentation because the kids all know me already. Every class screamed “CHRISTINA” when I walked in and asked me tons of questions on my first day back, which confirmed that re-introducing myself was unnecessary (and also warmed my heart).
So, instead of introducing myself, I decided to create “Back to School” time capsule activities with typical questions (favorite color, favorite animal, etc.) for my classes. This way, I can learn more about them in an interactive way, they’re practicing writing in English, and, hopefully, we can laugh when we re-do the activity and read their original answers on the last day of class.
I made 3 “levels” of the activity, one for 1st-2nd grade, one for 3rd-4th grade, and one for 5th-6th grade, each with increasingly “advanced” questions. I also wanted to include some way to see the students’ physical growth between the first and last day of class, so the 1st and 2nd graders traced their hands and feet onto their papers; I measured all of the 3rd and 4th graders with string, and they taped their strings to their papers; and the 5th and 6th graders measured each other with a tape measure and recorded their heights.
Click here to download the activities from GoogleDrive.
¡Buena suerte!
Inglés con Christina 