Thursday, August 2, 2012

Favorite Back to School Activity, FREEBIE, and Giveaway Reminder!

Happy Thursday Friends!,
Today I want to share my favorite back to school activity with you!! I saw this linky from Jodi @ Fun in First and was so excited to share my ideas & get some new ones for that F-U-N first week of school!
Every year, I begin the year with a friendship unit for social studies. I feel it is so important to establish respect and friendship in our classroom from the start so we have smooth sailing throughout the school year. We have a week of friendship fun!! We make friendship bracelets, we make a classroom friendship book, friendship portraits, and we end the unit by making "Friendship Salad". Some of you may have heard about friendship salad before. If not, here is the recipe & an activity to go along with it! Click on the picture to download it from my TPT store for FREE!
Each item that we add to the salad is a positive aspect of our classroom (i.e. use kind words, share). Then there is the "rotten banana". We discuss that the rotten banana are the negative aspects of our classroom (being unkind to others, not listening, etc). We agree not to add the "rotten banana" to our salad. Following the friendship salad, there is a friendship writing sheet that students can complete on how they can be a good friend. This is always a fun activity for my students to do. They love making and eating friendship salad and it really gets the point across about making good choices in our classroom. 
Do you have a great back to school activity? Go and link up with Jodi over at Fun in First Grade! :)
Also friends...don't forget!! My 650 follower giveaway ends tonight at midnight! Click on the picture to head on over & enter~
Don't miss out!! There will be 6 gift cards given out to 6 winners!! :)
Come and join me again tomorrow for another edition of Fabulous Blogger Friday!! 
Have a Thrilling Thursday!!,

9 comments:

  1. I love that activity. I have done that in the past and it does it the point across.


    Ms. Fiorini’s Stadium

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Lisa! Long time since I've been by (or at least feels like it)...Love the friendship salad idea. In fact I was going to try it my first year, but chickened out. I had a particulary challenging group and didn't think they could handle it - I had it scheduled the first few days. I like the idea of doing it with the unit, plenty of time to practice those procedures first. :-)

    Crystal
    Teaching Little Miracles

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great ideas! Love the way you use friendship salad to build the culture in your room!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have never done the friendship salad but planned on it this year! I can't wait to try it

    Tonya
    Tonya’s Treats for Teachers
    I’m having a 40% off sale at my TN store! Come check it out!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We have decided to start out our year in 2nd grade with a similar unit this year! Thanks for the freebie!

    Feel free to stop by my blog!
    Heather
    Keeping It Core

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am your newest follower and can't believe it took me this long to find your blog!! It is amazing! Stop by my blog if you get a chance and enter my giveaway:)
    ~Holly
    Fourth Grade Flipper

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a sweet back to school activity! Thanks for sharing! I'm hosting a great giveaway and I'd love you to stop on by!

    Kate
    Second Grade Sparkle

    ReplyDelete
  8. I too love talking about friendship in the classroom--thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love the idea of a friendship unit week one. I think I have been doing it, too. Just not officially! The book "Yo! Yes!" would be great for your unit!
    Thanks!

    New follower.
    Sara

    ReplyDelete