Everyone in first grade has a job to do at the end of the day. I turn on some peppy, fun music, and as chores are finished, everyone meets in the gathering space for a dance party. Students get their chores done quickly so they can participate. It ends the day with fun, laughter, and a little exercise.

There are several fun things we do that come to mind in first grade:

• Playing various Dr. Jean’s songs during brain breaks and mini lessons to enhance learning skills and promote activity and motion with learning
• On April Fool’s Day I asked the students if they wanted to have a “brownie” and they soon found out I had offered a “brown E” (a di-cut of the letter E that is brown)! The next day I offered them a true brownie
• Cooking and baking together is always fun. Blends math with language arts. One time I had parents bring in food to cook from their country of origin. This was a great success!
• Last week we took our math test on Time on the outside steps with our clipboards and pencils.
• Play all sorts of chimes, maracas, bells, etc, as consistent messages throughout the day to mark transition times.
• We created kites with fractions on them and wrote about the fractions we made. We then got to fly our own kites outside for a 5 minute break!
• Playing classical music from all over the world during Writer’s Workshop time.
• For our poem of the week, one day every week we read the poem using silly voices of our choice (slow motion, country style, British style, super fast, monster style, baby, etc). This is a big hit!

These are just a few ideas!