I have just completed my first week of the new school year! Yeah! There is such excitement in the air all around school. The new backpacks, supplies and stories to tell about summer have made getting back into the school routine a lot of fun. The first week is always jam packed with procedures, team building and getting to know you activities. Each year that I teach I begin to understand the importance of this time more and more. While the temptation is always there to rush through some of the "boring" rules and expectations...we have all learned that this only leads to disaster. I have also learned that there is nothing more valuable than finding time to learn about student's learning styles and interests. Through interest inventories and getting to know you games (bingo being a class favorite) we can get insight into how each student will best be motivated to learn throughout the year. This year I decided to do a learning style profile with each student online (since I will be working with students in small groups). Wow! This made the task more motivating for my students (who couldn't wait to get their hands on the school's new laptops) and so easy for me since the results were automatically calculated. I am sure there are many great online resources out there, but here is the website that I used: http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml To help celebrate this exciting time of year I made a quick freebie to share with you! This is an activity I used with my students to help get to know them a little better. Simply buy the individual packs of M&Ms or pass out a handful to each student and use the guide provided to learn more about each student. Getting To Know You Candy Activity I would love to hear about some of your fun first week activities! Happy first week of school!