Another First Day or Week Activity
Read the short picture book titled Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor.
http://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Needs-Rock-Aladdin-Book/dp/0689710518
Ask students to listen carefully as they will be using what they learn from the book.
After the read aloud take students out for a walk in the school yard where they can find a rock that fits the rules. Going outside the first day is helpful as they are not used to sitting for long periods of time after having the summer off.
Then return to the classroom with your rocks. Have students share with their classmates why they selected their rock. Maybe it fits their hand well. Maybe they love its texture. Or perhaps the color is what made them pick it up. Then discuss the differences in all the rocks. Make a connection that just like all the rocks, the students in class are different.
Tell them you are now going to write each child's initials on their rock with a permanent marker. Each rock in the display will represent or symbolize their owner. Then you will help each child arrange them in a clear bowl.
Plastic is better and you need a bowl that has a fairly large diameter but one that is not real deep. This way everyone's rock will show in the arrangement even though they overlap some.
Discuss how the rocks look good together. It would be a boring arrangement if all the rocks had the same shape, size, color and or texture. Ask if this would be true of students in a class as well. What if they were all the same size? Same shape? Same color? Discuss embracing one another's differences.
At the end of the year reread the story. Then give everyone their rock back.
If a child moves during the year they get their rock back at that time.
Leave the bowl of rocks on display in your classroom at all times as a reminder that it is good to be different!
