First Week of School Activities | Fourth Grade | The Lettered Classroom 

My favorite first day activity: I have my students write a letter to themselves detailing their thoughts/expectations/hopes/fears, etc. about the upcoming school year. When done they place it in an envelope, seal it, and address it to themselves. I take them up and put them in my filing cabinet. On the last day of school I hand them back out. They love reading them and laughing about the things they wrote.

My kids love Sherlock Holmes. One student goes out into the hall to play Sherlock. Another student hides under my desk. The remaining students move around changing their seats. Sherlock comes back in and has 2 minutes to figure out who is missing. Another game is Alibi. Again a student goes out into the hall to be the detective. In class we choose one child to be the bank robber. Every child needs to create an alibi about what they were doing during the time of the crime. The detective comes in and listens to each child state their alibi. And then there is a second round of stating alibis but this time the bank robber slightly changes it. For example: In the first round the bank robber might say ..I went to the doctorś. And the second round ...I went to the dentist. Very subtle change. The detective must listen carefully to the change to determine the bank robber.

On day two I had students write in their journals. I had a sentence stem about voice levels and the morning procedure. I asked them to write about how it looks and sounds. It was nice and quiet. I have 32 kiddos.

I love all the game ideas. Especially ones that you can use at anytime. Thanks for sharing. I teach special education students with autism. I always like starting the year making class books about how we go to school and the things we do at school. I take pictures of the students doing the activities and we make books to read and then share with the families too so they can see what their child is doing at school. (I can read, I can eat, I can play. Etc.)

Scaffolding routines and following the first days of school are excellent ideas. Thanks so much! Hope that you are enjoying your new position!

I’m going to try a bunch of these ideas! I always love four corners for a brain break too.

I really like your Routine stuff posted all clear bac and white, never seen posted in any classroom or displayed so simply as a reminder for teachers too!!! I think with everything you needed to do, your room looks great, go give yourself a hug, relax and family time!!! I love the quiet timely stuff the first week of school activities for admin items stuff!!!!!

Bridget, this is such a phenomenal video jam-packed with ideas for the first week of school! It reminds me of a greatest hits album...all of the ideas are quality! Our students start tomorrow, so you are helping me get excited. I hope that your school year has started off well!

This was a fantastic video….once again!!! Thank you for posting despite the stressful time of BTS! Have a great school year!!!!

A perfect 10!! I absolutely love this!!!! Thank you for sharing Bridget!

Thank you so much for sharing all of these terrific ideas! I plan to use many of them now in my first days. Loved all of the game ideas (low to no prep & so fun; can be used whenever I need something fun throughout the year). I find it amazing how so many in the teaching community are sharers. Keep spreading the love teachers☺❤

Loved all the activities you’ll be using. Your students are going to have a blast! I hope your first week back is as stress-free as possible:)

I’ve enjoyed seeing your back to school prep at your new school. I’ve followed you for years and have gotten so many ideas from you. I, however, resigned from teaching in December of 2018 after 12 years of teaching. I still enjoy watching you (and Pocketful of Primary)! Best wishes for the new school year

Professional, educated, organized, engaging and caring all wrapped up in one awesome teacher!! Have a super year!! :)

Love the first week ideas. I am new to 4th grade so excited to try some of these!

Excellent video Bridget! Hope you have an amazing year.

Omg thank you so much! My students loved the puzzle group activity today. Thank you! 🙏🏾

Thank you so much for this video! It gave me so many idea for this week!

Thank you.👋 I also love to be ahead of the curve.👍

Hello Bridget, Maryam from Toronto! What an amazing video...thank you for all the wonderful tips and activities. We start on Sept 7th. Your classroom looks very beautiful and welcoming. All best for 2022/2023...cheers!

I can’t wait to try some of your games! Thank you so much for sharing

I am a 4th grade DI teacher and I most definitely plan on using those activities! Thank you for sharing!(:

Always a pleasure. Thanks for the activity reminders.

Nails looking good! Have a great year 💕

Theses are some awesome ideas. Thanks for sharing

I don’t know if it’s possible, but would love to see your anchor charts that you showed, once completed 😊 great video!

Loved your 3 time fillers at the end ❤

Thanks for sharing all these great ideas. I love videos like this.

I'm very excited watching you in your new classroom!!!😍👏👏👏 Haven't even started the video yet! haha

I loved everything!!

Wow, nice job on this video! Thank you!

Kind of similar to the drawing critic game, we do it with spelling words- the kids can write the spelling words in fun fonts. The judge has to see if its spelled right and if theyre both right then they choose which one looks better

Awesome activities!

Such great ideas! I taught 4th grade for 16 years and they would have loved these games and activities. I am starting my 8th year teaching 2nd grade, and I think that most of these would be too hard for beginning of the year 2nd graders. However, I think they would be able to play the SNAKE game in a few months! I am looking forward to it! Thanks for sharing and I hope you have a great year!

I loved the puzzle game!

Thank you so much for all these ideas! I wasn't able to find your anchor charts for voice level, transitions, give me 5, etc. in your store. Are those available? Thank you!

Hi Briget 🌄, I hope your new school year in your new location is a great one. These ideas 💡 are fantastic and extremely useful. 👏. I've always enjoyed watching you from Kindergarten to third, fourth and fifth grade(I hope I'm right about the fifth grade). I'm wishing you the very best. Warm thoughts I send your way Raquel 🙋🏻‍♀️🙈🙉🙊🌬🌳🌳🏫🌳🧘🏻‍♀️🍵🍎

Great video! Love all the low prep ideas! Where did you get the blue shelves hanging under your 40 book challenge?

Hi. Great video! Is there a place where you share/sell those first day/week teacher anchor charts you show at the start of the video? I looked through your store link but didnt find them. Thanks in advance!

Where is the name tag activity that you created? Love that!

Can you do more teach with me Vlogs? They are so interesting to watch and I like them because in the future I want to become a homeschool mom and teach. Thank you for sharing

I am using name tents. Which is basically what you are doing. This helps me and the students to learn everyone’s name.

I really like the Hello introduction worksheet with the mazes but I can not find it on TPT. Can you guide there, please?

I like Nameball. It's a fun way to learn names. Everyone stands in a circle and before you use the ball go around the circle and say names. After saying names person A says throwing ball to person B and it stays like that til it gets back around to A. The key is to remember whom you received the ball from. When you go backwards you throw it to the person you received it from initially. I also really like my name is and I like to. Someone starts with their name and what they like to do. Then the person next to them says person A likes to _____. I'm person B and I like to________. Each time it goes the next person needs to repeat all the ones that were before them said before adding their own

Fantastic video 👏👏👏⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hi! I am moving to 4th grade next year after 10 years in 2nd. Your videos are so helpful!! Do you have your routines and procedure anchor charts for sale anywhere?

I see the benefits of having different types of seats for the children. I am curious if cliques form? I can see advantages and disadvantages depending on the activity. A teacher may need to make adjustments. Thank you so much for sharing your blog. I graduated with a degree in elementary education but I have never been employed FT as a teacher.

Do you have the anchor chart on your TPT store?

I left teaching in the classroom I switched over to teaching Spanish to first grade, second grade, and third grade the other Spanish teacher is teaching fourth grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade

Excellent video! New subscriber

Do you have a link for the behavior anchor charts?

Where did you get your easel?

Hello I' m a teacher ftim Algeria Thank you for inspiring me to develop my students speeking skill by "Jenge Talk" that i will adapt to the level & age of my students.

Where did you get those anchor charts for expectations? Those are amazing!

Where can I get these procedural posters?

Bridget please keep me in your prayers I have prostate cancer

Where can I access the rules and procedures worksheets?

Like snake 🐍 I am going to use it with my 7th graders

😛😛😛😛😛😛😛😛😛😛