I hope all of you had a wonderful, restful winter break. I go back to school tomorrow. Lucky for me I took care of my lessons before I left for the break so I could have a more restful vacation. I know that the work of a teacher is never done, however, prepping a little extra before vacation started has allotted me more time to spend with my little family. And I get to return prepared for the first week back.
So if you are asking yourself “what am I going to do when I return from the break?” I have a few ideas for you that can work with any level. Here are a few of my ideas to kick off the New Year with your students.
First Day Back From Break Plans
- In ASL, welcome back your students. Show a few pictures from your vacation. Tell what you did. Make note of high-frequency key vocabulary and phrases by writing them on the board and using them in communication. You can even invite students to bring in pictures on the second day back and do the same thing as you did on the first day. And just like that, lessons for day two are completed.
- Give students a few minutes to brainstorm what they did over break and prepare a short presentation for day 2 back from break. This will allow you to answer any of their questions so they are better prepared for their presentation.
- Now revisit some of the activities from the first days of school just to get students back into the groove of things after two weeks off. I am starting off with a roll-the-dice activity.
- Students will then have some time to ask each other about their vacation using the WH question cube as a guide.
- Then we will work on some task card activities to keep the flow moving along in ASL 2 – 4.
- ASL 1 will be practicing some vocab with a dice activity. Then they will work on numbers 30 – 100 by using number code activities.
Optional Extention Activities
You can add these activities on the first day back or sprinkle them in throughout the first week. Some people only have a 2 – 3 day week back with students so these will be helpful to finish up a short, awkward week.
Try some of these activities:
- Have students tell each other what they did over the break in the target language while the partner draws it.
- Review vocabulary by playing a game like the 5 Parameters Board game or turn your classroom into a large board game.
- Play Jenga.
- Tell stories using Rory’s Story Cubes or create your own painted rocks to represent the vocabulary you are currently working on.
- If you were in the middle of a unit before break started, try Roll the Dice Review to help review what was learned before the long 2-week vacation started.
Have a great New Year! Finish the year strong. You can do this. Follow your dreams and keep your goals.
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