My Favorite Back to School Activity!

One of my favorite Back to School Activities is Back to School Monsters!  I always make unpacking our book-bags into a group project.  For me it helps control the chaos and also allows me to organize during the day and not hours after school.  I set out tubs labeled with the school supplies the students should have in their book bags.  As they open packages and start putting their supplies into tubs I also ask them to place all empty packages on the floor by my Chat Chair.
 We then meet up in a big circle together and discuss how much trash there is to throw away.  We also brain storm some used for the trash.

Some how we always decide to make Back to School Monsters, with a little guidance from me. I make a monster on my SMARTboard and we talk about how that piece of trash might help our monster be a good friend.

I give the students a yellow piece of construction paper and they then choose their favorite piecse of Back to School Trash.  I love seeing what they come up with and their ideas for how to be a good MONSTER friend.
Glue legs to help friends stick together & colored pencil hair to show that we all come in different shades are two of my favorites. 

This activity gets the class thinking right away about friendship and we recycle too!