First Day Seat Finder

I teach 5th grade science. Last year, I thought of a fun way for the kids to find a seat but also has a little educational fun to it. I put a science tool at each seat, 24 total. I printed off and laminated descriptions of the function of that tool. For example, a card said "used to find direction" so they had to find the compass and that was their seat. Another card said "used to protect your hands" and that person would find the gloves and sit there.

Before I introduced myself or did anything else, I went to each tool, read the card and asked that person if they knew the name of their tool. It was fun to see the curiosity for those that didn't know and the excitement for those that did.

I thought this was not only a fun way to get seats but a great introduction to science tools. Hope you can use something like this in your classroom, perhaps with pictures of math objects (parallelograms, cylinders, hexagon, etc.). With reading you could do parts of speech, or figurative language. You could give them the definition of an idiom or an example of they have to find the idiom card on the desk. The ideas are endless! Happy teaching!