First week of school ideas

I am still looking for more activities to do in the first week of school that focus on team building and skills of inquiry/ the scientific method.

I plan on doing the MESA paper tower activity on the first day of school to build on teamwork. The second day I will focus more on classroom routines (draw a scientist: http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/sket.sci.html) , and the third and fourth days I will have the students start to get into the mood of inquiry. It is days 3 and 4 I am still kind of stuck on when it comes to lesson planning.

Ideas for inquiry activities:
- What is inside the box/ bag (http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/mys.box.html)
- Nature of science paper puzzle (http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/genscience/Choi04.html)
- Nature of science cartoons (http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/sunsets.html)

For more ideas see this blog: http://blog.sciencegeekgirl.com/2008/08/14/activities-for-the-first-day-of-class/

Today, my second day in my class (even without students) was really tiring. Lots of meetings, and meeting people. How will I lean my students' names if I can't even learn my co-workers'!! I am dragging my brother to help make a BIG push to set up my classroom tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the butcher paper up and decorate it with sayings and stuff.