What to do with Long Advisory Class

When I was first hired to teach 6th grade, I was so excited for the opportunity to have an advisory!

​What is an advisory? An advisory, at our school, is a place where students from grades 6-8 come to my classroom for 15 minutes before heading to first period. It’s mandatory and a great opportunity to connect with kids in different grades. We have check-ins where I might share with them a quote and we discuss the meaning and relevance, or I will read them a story. I read them The Witches by Roald Dahl in October because I love that story and wanted to share it with them. I am their advocate if they ever need an adult for something. Or, if they are struggling in a subject, I will meet with them and their teacher and come up with a plan together for improvement. 

What is Long Advisory? Long advisory happens a couple of times a month where I will have the students for 45 minutes at the end of the day (their last period). It can be a struggle to come up with ideas as far as how to keep them engaged, excited and most importantly, connecting with each other during that time. So for that, I came up with a calendar of ideas throughout the entire school year. Some of the ideas are “seasonal” meaning it might make sense to use during a certain time of year and other ideas are general and could be used whenever. 
I hope these ideas serve you well! And if you don’t have an advisory, these might be ideas you’ll want to use with your regular classroom students! I would love to hear from you in the comments about ideas you have to share!