Beginning of the Year Mrs. Terry 2010-2011

Day One: Welcome! On your half sheet of paper: Write your first and last name at the top. Then, write three things about yourself. Ideas: your nickname, your BFF, your pet’s name, a hobby, interest, or sport you play, how many kids are in your family, a favorite (food, celeb, color, school subject, etc.), something that annoys you, your beliefs (religious, political, etc.), something you did over the summer, anything interesting about you!

Day Two: Getting to Know You Today’s Goal: You will work cooperatively with a group to compare and contrast each of your characteristics. Activity: Three and Four-Circle Venn Diagrams With your tablemates, create a three or four- circle Venn Diagram (see examples up front). In the segments, list the similarities and differences of your group members.

Day Two: Assignment On your half sheet of paper, write the following: [in the upper right hand corner] First and Last Name Hour Date Three expectations that you have for me or for the class (what do you expect to learn, how do you expect to learn, how do you expect to be treated, etc.) in three complete sentences please.

Days Three: Reading Assessment Today we will be taking a reading pre-test. It is not for a grade. I will use the data to discover your strengths and weaknesses. This will help me to decide which topics we need to focus on and which we can just review. You will use the data to set some academic goals for this school year.

Days Four and Five: Group Activity Today’s Goal: Students will work with their teams to create their own holiday for the month of August. AZ State Standards Writing 1.1.1 Generate ideas through a variety of activities. (prewriting, ideas and content) Writing 3.4.1 Write persuasive text

A Month With No Holidays? Make Up Your Own! August is a boring month! No Holidays!

January has Martin Luther King Day. February has President’s Day March has Saint Patrick’s Day and the first day of spring But what does August have… No Holidays

Create a special holiday that might be celebrated annually in Arizona Some examples are: Children’s day- a day when kids can do anything they want and parents can’t tell you what to do Goof off day- a day to do silly things and no one looks at you funny Repeat day- a day to say everything twice(this might help with learning new vocabulary words)

Get to know your fellow classmates Break into groups and come up with an awesome holiday for the month of August. Have fun and be creative!

Get to know your fellow classmates As a group, write a persuasive paragraph or an advertisement to convince the class that your holiday should be put on the calendar. Select one person to write the draft and one or more people to present it to the class. Everyone should be involved in some way. After the presentations, we as a class will vote for the best one. Have fun and be creative!