I survived the first week (actually 2 weeks now)!!!! Woo Hoo! We started on a MONDAY (whose idea was that?!?!?) and ended on Friday. Needless to say, both kids and adults were exhausted! We hit the ground running, learning about one another as well as procedures and expectations. It's absolutely VITAL to teach, model, and practice these things repeatedly for the first month or so of school. In fact, I continue to review these procedures daily for the first several weeks of school and then on an as-needed basis after that. Today I am sharing some of the activities I did with my students the first day of school! Get ready for photo overload! I'll try to link everything for you guys throughout the post.
My teammate always takes a 1st day photo for me because I'm a nerd! Here is this years:
As the kids arrived, I had them work on a coloring page. This always helps keep them occupied while I am checking paperwork and putting away any extra school supplies that kids brought. This is a freebie from Kidsrcute.
Next we jetted off to specials because 1st grade has the worst specials schedule ever. Kids arrive at 8:00 and we go to specials at 8:20. During the time they were gone, I was scrambling around putting things away. Once they returned, we did a little ice-breaker using Starburst candy. I gave everyone a piece of candy and we sat in a circle. I used this printable that you can get HERE. In fact, most of the activities I post about today are included in that pack. The kids took turns telling a little something about themselves. Everyone spoke! No one was shy. I may or may not have told them that they had to speak in order to eat their candy.
Next, we worked on learning some of the classroom procedures. I selected a few from the list for us to learn and practice. This came with lots of modeling and practicing. Grab the free paper full of procedures HERE.
We also read The Kissing Hand. Click HERE to grab this book. We created these fun Chester puppets! I've had these for many years, but I found one on TpT to link HERE. I introduced my visual direction cards that I found HERE. I've used them for many years and I really love them!!! I always count on Elmer's Glue to help with crafts like these! It's the best for sure!
We also colored and read our First Day Mini Book, found HERE. This is always a great, low-key activity for the kids to work on (and it takes forever, which gives the teacher a little break!). Again, I used the visual direction cards.
Although I don't open our classroom library until the third week of school, I still always have books for my kids to look at those first two weeks. I call my local library a few weeks prior to school starting and request a teacher collection. I ask for back to school books, color/number word books, and easy readers. I divide them up into buckets for my tables. The kids get about 5-8 minutes each day to browse the books in their bucket.
As a fun activity, we played "I Have Who Has:" School Supply Edition. This can be found HERE. This is a really great game for building vocabulary! The kids always love playing it.
Have you started back to school yet? What are your favorite first day activities???
xo
Megan
My teammate always takes a 1st day photo for me because I'm a nerd! Here is this years:
As the kids arrived, I had them work on a coloring page. This always helps keep them occupied while I am checking paperwork and putting away any extra school supplies that kids brought. This is a freebie from Kidsrcute.
Next we jetted off to specials because 1st grade has the worst specials schedule ever. Kids arrive at 8:00 and we go to specials at 8:20. During the time they were gone, I was scrambling around putting things away. Once they returned, we did a little ice-breaker using Starburst candy. I gave everyone a piece of candy and we sat in a circle. I used this printable that you can get HERE. In fact, most of the activities I post about today are included in that pack. The kids took turns telling a little something about themselves. Everyone spoke! No one was shy. I may or may not have told them that they had to speak in order to eat their candy.
Next, we worked on learning some of the classroom procedures. I selected a few from the list for us to learn and practice. This came with lots of modeling and practicing. Grab the free paper full of procedures HERE.
Next I read First Day Jitters. Click HERE to grab this book. My mom and dad gave me this book right before my student teaching 15 years ago! I read it every year on the first day. We read a poem to go with it and the kids got their own copies to take home. Next we wrote about how we felt on the first day of school. The writing activity can be found HERE. This writing activity is a great way to see what kids know about writing when they first start first grade! I like to keep it and show it at conferences to show growth. We finished by having some "Jitter Juice." I mix Sprite Zero with a little green food coloring in a pitcher. I made labels found HERE for the cups.
We also read The Kissing Hand. Click HERE to grab this book. We created these fun Chester puppets! I've had these for many years, but I found one on TpT to link HERE. I introduced my visual direction cards that I found HERE. I've used them for many years and I really love them!!! I always count on Elmer's Glue to help with crafts like these! It's the best for sure!
Although I don't open our classroom library until the third week of school, I still always have books for my kids to look at those first two weeks. I call my local library a few weeks prior to school starting and request a teacher collection. I ask for back to school books, color/number word books, and easy readers. I divide them up into buckets for my tables. The kids get about 5-8 minutes each day to browse the books in their bucket.
As a fun activity, we played "I Have Who Has:" School Supply Edition. This can be found HERE. This is a really great game for building vocabulary! The kids always love playing it.
In addition, we took a Play-Doh break (click HERE to see how I use Play-Doh in my classroom) and an extra recess. Before I knew it, the day was over. The first day always flies by!
Mr. Wheeler surprises me with fresh flowers and this year these were the ones that he sent me! Aren't they pretty?
Have you started back to school yet? What are your favorite first day activities???
xo
Megan
I love your directions with the pictures and the words! Do you have those available? This is my first year teaching first grade and I would not have thought of writing the directions like that!
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