The first day of school is always a little anxiety provoking for most teachers. You will start the year long journey with a group of new students and you want to start out on the right foot. You will hear a lot of suggestions from different people, both good and bad. Here are a few ideas for getting you know your students and some freebies to help you get started!
💗Morning Activity
Students may trickle in on the first day of school. There are the students who will know exactly where your classroom is and arrive right on time! Then, there will be late buses and students who walk as slowly as possible to the classroom.
One recommendation for morning activities is to keep it simple! You don't want to have to explain the activity over and over again to the students as they come in while you are trying to take lunch orders and finding out transportation paths. I like to use a coloring page where they tell about their hopes and dreams for third grade by drawing pictures. I also like for them to draw a picture that tells about their family. You can find that activity in this resource.
💙Have Supplies Readily Available
You students, if they did not drop off their supplies at BTS Night will come in (hopefully) with bags of supplies. If your students are anything like mine, they come in with supplies still in packaging. If you have supplies out on the table for them to use when they come in, you can go through the rest of the supplies when you have more time.
💚Ice Breakers
Get to know your students through Ice Breaker activities. These are some great activities for the students to get to know you and each other. Here are some games for younger kids:
Name Game: Create a beat by clapping on your legs one at a time and then snapping each hand (4 beats-clap, clap, snap, snap). As the teacher you can begin by singing to the beat "My Name is Ms/Mr ________. Your name is Elani (choose a student name). Then they can go around and do it throughout the group. You can give them name tags the first day to help them remember each others names.
This or That: Showing a google slide show or power point slide show that give options of This or That are great ways to get to know your students. There are some great options on Teachers Pay Teachers of activities for this, or you can have the students make their own ideas for This or That. If you choose that option you can use this free printable below!
💛Review the Schedule
Going over the daily schedule and morning routine is a great way to make sure students know what is goin to happen throughout the day. Many students feel more comfortable and less anxious knowing what is going to happen each day.
💜Read Aloud
Here are some great books to read aloud on the first day of school. If you are looking for some activities to go along with these books check them out here or click the Shop button at the top of the page! (The following links are affiliate links)
Growth Mindset:
💗The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizzi
💙Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
💚Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: A Growth Mindset Books for Kids by Joann Deak
The First Day Of School:
💜A Letter From Your Teacher by Shannon Olsen
💛The School's First Day of School by Adam Rex
💚How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague
💙How to Get Your Teacher Ready by Jean Reagan
💗First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg
Check out these great resources for the beginning of the school year that can be used year after year!
Homework Choice Menus for the whole year! The students only need a pencil, notebook and coloring utensils.
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