I think I managed to greet everyone at the door today and hand you a half piece of paper. What did we talk about yesterday? We used an two words starting with R... Class R________ and R__________. Please take your seats and then write your name and date on the slip of paper. We will often take the first 5 - 6 minutes of classes and talk about yesterday's class. Raise your hand and tell me why we might want to review material from the previous day? Is that another R word? Ooops. Ok, here is the trick. Write down both R words that we talk about yesterday and then write down what part of speech both words are most commonly used as.... Let us give ourselves a moment of silence while we write and think.
Now, please pull out your journals. I have a hand out for you. The hand out is a list that you fill out with the rules that we are creating this week. Look for key words that start with R this week. There are ten words on the list and we already covered rules and respect which are most commonly used as nouns. Oops. Sorry, I just gave the answer for the slips you turned in... did that show you respect? That I gave you an answer that you should have figured out on your own? Why or why not? Raise your hand if you think what I just did showed you respect or was it disrespectful? (Discussion for one or two minutes).
Ok, we are going to talk about responsibility today. Turn to the next page in your journal and write a short story about a cat named responsibility. How would picture the cat? Is it a large cat or a small one? Is it neat and tidy and uses the litter box or does it spray a bit? I know, ew. What does responsibility mean and describe whether the cat lives up to its name. Let us give ourselves twenty minutes to write the story on our own and then we will split into the same groups of three that we did yesterday.
The last part of class we will focus again on class rules. In your groups, write down three rules that you would like to see used in class. Remember that the rules will be seen by both your parents and our principal. Remember. Is that another R word? Again, take the last few minutes of class and write down three rules. Again, we are using complete sentences and staying positive in our words. Rules, Respect, Responsibility, Remember, .... what 'r' you thinking about? Next week, we will agree upon our rules as a class and write a letter.