We played one game where we passed around toilet paper! This got so many laughs and giggles. They were supposed to take what they "needed" from the roll.  The amount of squares they took were how many facts they had to tell us about themselves. Five squares=5 facts. This was the most they were allowed to take for my kids, I have some stinkers so it wouldn't have ended well if I didn't make a limit!

Students need to get to know their classmates as well as their new classroom. I have my kids become {Classroom Detectives}. This is kind of a scavenger hunt to locate items around the room, such as how many trash cans our classroom has. I set the timer for 8 minutes. This gives students a goal to work for. I make sure they understand the objective of the activity so they don't stress if they aren't totally done after the time limit. This also lets me know about their reading abilities. 

We worked through our first set of task cards! It is always exciting to introduce them to task cards. They love that they are able to move around and skip around while doing their work. My {Beginning of the Year Task Cards} cover five different skills. (ABC order, word problems, place value, number order, and pronouns) Another easy assessment to give me some kind of indication of where they are in their abilities. 

We also did the wrinkled heart activity from Pinterest! This was great! I had students draw things they loved in their heart. They thought I was totally kidding when I told them to wad it up!! It was so funny watching their faces, some were confused and others were just horrified at the thought at wrinkling up their artwork. (Even though they wouldn't have given a second thought if it would have been homework! LOL) I explained how words and actions can hurt us and cause a wrinkle in our hearts. Those wrinkles are hard to get out, and the hearts really drove the message!

I LOVE LOVE using {Scaredy Squirrel} to start our year. Scaredy Squirrel has so many fears, just like students do that first week of school. These books help us laugh at the silly things he is afraid of, and work through the things the students are afraid of. I love how this gal gave the "me" long curly hair, just like she has! So cute!

We also started to {Get Back in the Groove} with my beginning of the school year book. This book covers several math and reading skills BOY 2nd grade students should know. This helps bridge that summer gap and get their brains thinking again. We are only doing a few pages a day, so far so good! 

This week we are diving into our reading series and starting to get our new routine down. It went really well today, even though we didn't quite get to our Daily groups today. I'm pretty flexible with our schedule, so we will try for Daily 5 tomorrow!