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My First Week of School Plans

By Mary Montero

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Have you already started your first week of school plans? I’ve always spent hours upon hours upon hours perfecting my first week plans. Then I usually get about half of what I planned done, which usually makes the second week a breeze! Those first few days offer such a crucial time for building community among classmates, relationships with individual students, and setting the groundwork for classroom management and your routines.

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I have several posts about the beginning of the year, but never before have I provided my complete plans for that important first week.  Now, here they are!  Before you take a look at my plan, it’s important to understand my thinking about the first week of school…

I know my planning philosophy differs from some of the more popular philosophies and advice given in certain books. I’m okay with that. I tried taking that advice for a few years, and the first few days felt slow. My students weren’t engaged or excited about what was happening. I never really felt like it was setting groundwork for the rest of the year.

Instead of baby steps, we dive right in to our normal schedule. As I plan for the first few days, I keep our schedule almost exactly as it will stand for the rest of the school year. That means we have morning work, morning meeting, reading, math, writing, and science or social studies.  I infuse discussions about expectations as we move throughout the first week. We reflect on what is going well and what we need to improve upon, and we start to learn specific routines to be successful for the rest of the year. While we do this, though, children are engaged in exciting and academically challenging tasks.  We are getting to know each other well, as humans and as learners. My goal is that my kids leave school excited and are eager to come back the next day.

Every single thing I do during this week is to prepare my class for the upcoming academic year. They learn the procedures that we need to have in place to accomplish all of those rigorous academics that will be facing them. This set-up has always worked quite well for me, and I end the first week with solid relationships with most of my students. Our classroom has a foundation of trust and expectations for the year to come.  They know what to expect from me, from our schedule, and from many of our daily routines. Do we have moments where we have to stop, take a breath, and reflect on a little chaos? Absolutely! But we learn from those moments, and we understand why they don’t work.

You don’t need to squint to read these plans! I have them compiled in a big document, complete with explanations of all the activities. A few notes as you begin looking through all of these plans…

• Plan Big! If you get through all of these plans in the first week, YOU ARE MY HERO! I have this set up as what would happen in an ideal world, but keep in mind that there is a lot of front loading expectations that must go into this plan before it can all be implemented . You can’t expect your students to know how to function in centers, in morning meeting, etc. so anticipate needing to take time to set up expectations as you move through the plans. I briefly touch on expectations and procedures in the plans, but you will need to fill in a lot of blanks that fit the needs of your classroom .
• YOU DO YOU. I mean it. Please don’t take these plans and implement them 100% into your classroom. You have amazing ideas that will bring your own personal touch into your first week of school. Some of these activities won’t resonate with you, or they won’t help set up your classroom routines. For example, I use Topple Blocks and Task Cards during the first week of school because we use those a lot in my classroom. If you don’t use that type of resource, replace my plans with resources you DO use.
• Expectations are Key. I kind of sound like a broken record here, but please make sure that as you implement these activities. You are focusing more on setting up expectations than on the activity itself. I simply can’t stress this enough. What you do during this week (and the following weeks) will set a precedent for the rest of the year.

• If you don’t do workshops/centers/rotations…   First, I’d implore you to do a bit of research into this style of teaching and see if you can perhaps implement it at least one or two days a week. It is so beneficial. BUT, if you are not accustomed to running workshops or you don’t anticipate running a workshop model for the rest of the year, adapt these plans to work for your schedule and routines.  You don’t need to spend time setting up a workshop model if you aren’t going to use it later on. Instead, just pick and choose some of the ideas to implement whole class.
• Where’s the Tech? We use a lot of technology in my classroom, but slow and steady wins the race on this one.  I don’t introduce iPads or laptops during the first week for a few reasons.  To begin, it never fails: The first time using iPads or laptops always results in a little bit of anxiety for some kids. It’s just never a seamless process. Second, I want us working face to face and building relationships without the distraction of technology.
• On Differentiation: This is the one week of the year that I don’t do a ton of differentiation. I want this week to be accessible and exciting for all of my students, so I choose activities that most students can participate in and feel successful. That being said, with some adaptations, these plans would work best for grades 3-6.

• What You Need: I have done my best to make a list of exactly what you need to have prepped for each day.  Some of the resources include products in my store or others’ stores, or may include an Amazon Affiliate link to books or supplies. Most links are clickable to make it easy for you to find what you need!
• Still not enough? If you find that you still need to supplement some more ideas, check out this huge post about First Week of School Activities for Big Kids !
• What’s next?   After the first week is over, we really dive into our normal routines and academics.  This is when I begin my formal math and literacy mini-lessons, start our typical workshop/center routines, and get my curriculum rolling.
• EXPECTATIONS!   Really, though.  The number one thing you should be focusing on during this week is expectations.  My favorite saying is the 3As. Again and again and again until we get it right.

The plans are FREE, plus you also receive a free Minute to Win It game, and TWO free sets of task cards that are for purchase in my store.  Sign up to receive all of this goodness HERE .  Please share all of your wonderful activities on Instagram or Facebook. Be sure to tag me so that I can join in on the fun!   While I do include a blank planning template in the file, if you’d like an editable one to use digitally, you may download that  HERE . ur Lesson Plans

Mary Montero

I’m so glad you are here. I’m a current gifted and talented teacher in a small town in Colorado, and I’ve been in education since 2009. My passion (other than my family and cookies) is for making teachers’ lives easier and classrooms more engaging.

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The countdown is on! Teachers , it’s almost time for you and your students to go BACK TO SCHOOL! Are you ready for a fresh crop of young minds? The beginning of each year is always exciting. In order to get the BEST out of your students, it’s important to start the year off RIGHT! I thought I’d show you my lesson plans to help you make the MOST out of your Back-to-School experience this year. Check out my FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL LESSON PLANS AND ACTIVITIES!

Before students walk into your classroom for the first time, they should have an idea of who they’re going to be spending their year with. Because of that, I like to send a little “about me” in a newsletter to welcome my students before the school year begins . When you have MEET THE TEACHER night, students AND parents will comment on something from your newsletter. It is a great way to break the ice! Then hang it by your door. If you have a large class and are short on funds, send a postcard instead of a letter. It may not have a ton of information, but the students will certainly appreciate hearing from you!

PRIOR TO STUDENT ARRIVAL

First and foremost, make your students feel comfortable! I like to begin by letting the class know that we’re not just a class…we’re a FAMILY ! And since I like to rock out, I always play “We Are Family” as they are walking in the door. Choose a song that resonates with you and have it playing! I also like to have a little treat bag waiting for them. It doesn’t have to be candy. It can be class supplies or something in that vein! It will give them a warm, fuzzy feeling about being with you all year. Then put directions on the board regarding what to unpack, what to put in cubbies, what they should keep at their seats, etc. (I usually have them keep supplies at their desks, so we can go through them together.)

AS STUDENTS ARRIVE

If you want to wait to get to know the students a little more before assigning seats , get a deck of cards! If you have 4 students per group, assign each group of desks a number or face card. Pull out the right number of cards for the number of students from the deck. If they pick out a K, they go to the King’s Table, etc. Then after the first week, you can assign seats that best works for your new group of students!

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED

Double, triple-check transportation cards and emergency cards.

GET TO KNOW YOU:

• TIME CAPSULES: Your students know who YOU ARE, now it’s time for you to get to know THEM. There are a lot of different ways to do this, but time capsules are one of my favorite ways. What are time capsules? Students write about their favorite things, write a paragraph or essay, write down goals and dreams, and create illustrations. We place them in a decorated Pringle’s can. We also add student photos from the beginning of the year. Then at the end of the year, we do the same thing and compare their growth from the beginning of the year! On the first day, I have them decorate the Pringle’s can to look like a time capsule.
• MEET THE TEACHER:   At the beginning of the first day of class, I like to go over my “about me” just in case any students missed out on the newsletter I sent home. (Hopefully, they pay attention, because there will be a related activity later in the week!)
• SCAVENGER HUNT: Create a list of things about the students. Have them find someone who is an only child, has 4 siblings, was born in another state, likes sports, etc. They cannot write the same name in any of the blanks. Participate with them! They will love it!

RULES AND ROUTINES

• THE BASICS : Create a list of rules and expectations. This is important because your students need STRUCTURE. Be sure to explain to your students what you expect when it comes to homework, lining up, what to put in cubbies, how to turn in work, when to be quiet, recess rules, and signals you will be using to get their attention
• Raise your hand for permission to speak.
• Keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
• Be prepared.
• Follow directions the first time.
• Be polite to others.
• REWARD SYSTEM:   Explain your rewards system. Do you have individual rewards or class rewards or both? For individual rewards , I like to have a treasure chest of items anywhere from snacks, to pencils, to homework passes. Once the students obtain 5 coupons, they get a trip to the treasure chest. Set a specific time of day to do this like the end of the day so it doesn’t break up instruction time. For class rewards , set a goal together and choose what the reward will be. Filling up marbles or checkers in a jar? Once that happens, what does the class get as a reward? Movie? Extra recess? Every time the class is on track or impressing you, move a marble or checker into the jar! Positive classroom management works like a charm!

READING WORKSHOP

• CHRYSANTHEMUM: Read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Discuss bullying and different names. Count letters and syllables in each student’s name and create a graph. Discuss how your class is a safe place and no bullying and teasing will be tolerated. (See lesson plans document for questions to ask.)
• GENRE STUDY:   Show the class library and review the different types of genres. Hand out a genre study guide and quiz them at the end of the week.

WRITING WORKSHOP

• SETTING UP WRITING NOTEBOOKS : Hand out instructions to decorate the cover of their writing notebooks and assign it for homework.
• GREEK AND LATIN :  Point out the GREEK AND LATIN Word Wall. Explain prefixes, suffixes, and root words. – We will begin Unit 1 next week.
• 180 DAY JOURNAL OF POSITIVE THINKING:  Get started in 180 DAY JOURNAL OF POSITIVE THINKING. Explain how to look up word meanings and analyze quotes.

END OF THE DAY

Go over dismissal rules, send home notes of any supplies still needed for class and hand out a happy note to take home.

Send home parent homework. This is a survey so parents can share information about their child. Then decorate the writing notebook. Have them turn it in on Wednesday.

Write information on the board: Where to put homework, where to put parent homework, etc.

Then play music as students are walking in.

THINGS TO CHECK IN THE AM

• Take attendance and review any parent notes.
• Note any transportation changes.
• Collect any parent surveys or supplies that come in.

GET TO KNOW YOU

• TELEPHONE:   Don’t forget, some of your students may not know each other yet. Icebreakers and team-building activities are a good way to get your students involved with one another! An example I’ve used over the years is playing a game like ‘telephone’ where you whisper something into one person’s ear, they whisper it into the next person’s ear, and so on. In the end, the secret you whispered will come back to you, but it may have changed through the telephone line. This usually gets everyone laughing!
• STUDENT SURVEYS:   Student and parent surveys are important and beneficial to you, your students, and your students’ parents. This gives your students and their parents the opportunity to tell you anything they need you to know before the start of the school year.
• WHO’S WHO:   On a piece of paper, ask students to write down three things about themselves. Then you read off each one and have students guess who it is.
• TIME CAPSULES: One page to put in the time capsules is a favorites page. Have students list their favorite color, friends, books, etc.
• WALK AND TALK:   Your classroom is where your students will spend the majority of their day, so show them around! I like to walk and talk, making my way around the room, showing my students where everything is and how I like to keep it. Explain student mailboxes and the teacher’s mailbox. Explain the centers, bulletin boards, and where to put supplies, etc.
• TEAM JOBS: Since I look at my students as my family, I also expect everyone to pitch in and help out around the classroom. Let your students do the cleanup! The best way to do this is by assigning TEAM JOBS in the classroom every week. Team jobs means multiple people get the same job and everyone gets a job except who is on vacation!

• HUNDRED DRESSES:   Start reading Hundred Dresses together. Read chapters 1 and 2 together. (See Lesson plans document for questions to ask.)
• FLY EAGLE FLY: Read this as a read-aloud. Discuss goals and perseverance. (See Lesson plans document for questions to ask.)
• DEVELOPING GOALS: Add students’ goals to their time capsules.
• WRITING CENTER: Explain how they will use writing notebooks and the writing center. Talk about what the supplies in the center are used for.
• WRITING PROMPT:   Pick a prompt from the monthly writing prompts. Ask students to just write. Writing instruction will start next week! Add this writing sample to their time capsule!

180 DAY JOURNAL OF POSITIVE THINKING:  Work together as a whole group or in small groups to get students used to the process. Tell them about the person who is quoted. (This is included in the teacher notes!) Share and discuss their thoughts. You can slowly let go and let them work on it independently.

Research the meaning of your name and why your parents chose it! This goes along with the Chrysanthemum story.

• Have directions, what you will be covering today, and what they should put in their agendas on the board.
• Hand out paper bag book report
• Have a website available in case a student couldn’t find the meaning to their name last night
• Help students get in the routine of unpacking, turning things in, etc.
• Check student and teacher mailboxes
• TIME CAPSULES : Have students trace their hands to compare sizes at the end of the year. Then create an illustration to put in the time capsule.
• CHARACTER TRAITS : Pineapple bulletin board or door décor. Introduce character traits and explain how each month you will focus on one of them. Then either hand out names to different students or have students write about themselves- “I wear a crown because I am ____(character trait) because I ____.  He/She wears a crown because …”

Walk around the school and show them different places they need to know. (nurse’s office, special area, office, different halls and grades, etc.)

• READING NOTEBOOKS:   Set up the reading notebooks by adding the table of contents.
• CAUSE AND EFFECT:   Explain cause and effect and give examples. Add interactive notes on cause and effect to the reading notebooks.
• HUNDRED DRESSES:   Read chapters 3-4 together or in groups. Discuss the chapters together.

• PARAGRAPH OF THE WEEK: Explain the guided paragraph of the week so they can start tomorrow for first work.
• SET UP WRITING NOTEBOOK:   Set up writing notebooks with the table of contents and first tab.
• BRAINSTORM IDEAS:   To start writing notebooks, we brainstorm ideas that can be used in their writing throughout the year if they get stumped. Today, work on the “I am” and “I love” pages.

• Paper Bag Book Report due in 4 weeks
• Write about a current event for time capsules.

Write morning directions, what you need them to write in their agendas, and what you will be covering today on the board.

THINGS TO CHECK IN AM

BIO-POEMS:   Do one line at a time and walk around to help students. Have students write adjectives, things they feel, like, needs, etc. Use the word lists to help students brainstorm. Allow students to share and discuss in groups as they are working to help them with more brainstorming.

Talk about mentor text and how we will use it for reading and writing. Always be on the lookout for the author’s craft! 

• HUNDRED DRESSES:   Read chapters 5-6 together and discuss the chapters.
• CAUSE AND EFFECT:   Point out the causes and effects in the chapters. Pull passages from the READING COMPREHENSION PASSAGES AND QUESTIONS for the cause and effect standard. 
• BASKETBALL REVIEW: Play a game to review genres and cause and effect. Have a mini-basketball and trash can. Divide the class into two groups. Each person gets a question. They get one point for the correct answer and one point for making the basket.
• PARAGRAPH OF THE WEEK:   Guided paragraph of the week. All the instructions are there for them. Let them get started while you are taking attendance, but do this first one together.
• BRAINSTORM IDEAS:   Brainstorming Ideas Unit
• I wonder and feelings pages. Place in notebooks. (Use bio poem word list of feelings)

Bring in a picture of you for time capsules .

• TEACHER BINGO:   Now that your students have had the chance to get to know each other, let’s see how much they remember about you! Add questions to a bingo board for students to guess the answer. Go over your answer with them and as they get them correct, they can X out the box. See how many bingos they get!
• TIME CAPSULES: Add a photograph or draw an illustration of yourself and add it to your time capsule. Add anything else (not food) and keep (or bury) them in a special place! Leave them there until the end of the year!
• WEEKLY READING LOGS:   Explain the Weekly Reading Logs that will start next week. Decide on the minimum number of minutes you want them to read each night. I also like to include a written response for students to write about what they read. Include a variety of reading skills to use in the reading response . 
• REWARDS:   Hand out coupons or rewards for the week

• HUNDRED DRESSES:   Finish the last chapter of Hundred Dresses . Discuss the lesson learned. Get out a beach ball. Toss it. Whoever catches it answers a question about the story. Then give them a quiz on the story.
• GENRES: Quiz on genres.
• BRAINSTORMING IDEAS: Finish the brainstorming unit on “my family” and the treasure map. Tell them that next week you will focus on Sentence Structure.
• GUIDED PARAGRAPH WRITING:  Continue writing on this week’s guided prompt. 

Play heads up, stand up game.

No homework. Happy weekend! 

Learn more about EXPLICIT TEACHING HERE!

Keep it rockin’,

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First Week of School Lesson Plans

Lesson planning is always a bit tricky, but coming up with lesson plans for the first week of school is extra challenging! How much time should we spend teaching procedures? How can we get to know our new students? What can we do to make the first week fun? When should we start with the curriculum?

Every year, I notice multiple posts in my teacher Facebook groups (for 2nd grade , 3 rd grade , 4th grade , and 5th grade ) asking others to share their first week of school lesson plans. So, I thought I would show you my ideal first week of school plans.

Keep in mind that every classroom will be different! It might take your kids twice as long to complete an activity as it took mine. It might take my kids twice as long to master a particular procedure as it does for your class. Heck, we all have a different list of procedures that we must teach!

This is just a suggestion. You can start with my ideas and adjust them to work with your time and student needs.

Let’s jump in…

8:00-8:30: Enter the Classroom and Make Play Doh Creations

Walk students into the classroom and greet each student as they walk into the classroom. Allow students to choose their own desk. Have a small container of Play Doh on each desk. Tell students that they can create anything that they want with the Play Doh. It can represent a favorite hobby, animal, vacation, or something completely different! While students are creating, take attendance and do any administrative tasks that pop up on the first day. Give students 2-3 minutes to share what they created with their neighbors.

8:30-8:45: Put Supplies Away

Put labeled containers around the room and have students put their supplies in the correct bin. If you want them to keep certain supplies in their desk, put a list on the board. This is a great time to give students labels for their folders and/or notebooks, too.

8:45-9:15: Morning Procedure

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for coming in the classroom and unpacking in the morning. Make sure they know where you want their backpacks, binder, and homework. Give the class a couple opportunities to practice the procedure.

9:15-9:30: Read Aloud

Read We’re All Wonders aloud to students.

9:30-10:15: Saving Fred Collaborative Activity

Have students work in groups to complete the Saving Fred activity. Start by splitting your class into small groups. I like to have 3-4 students in each group. You will need plastic cups, 4 paper clips per group, gummy worms, and gummy lifesavers. 

Fred, the worm, was riding in his boat, the cup, when it tipped over. Fred is on top of the boat and he doesn’t know how to swim. Lucky for him, he brought a life preserver, the lifesaver. The problem? The life preserver is stuck under the boat. 

Students will work in groups to plan a way to get Fred inside the life preserver. They cannot touch the worm, the boat, or the life preserver with their fingers. The only tools they can use to help are the four paperclips. 

You can grab the FREE printable I use for this activity by clicking  HERE .

10:15-10:30: Specials Procedures

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for lining up for specials.

10:30-11:15: Specials

The teacher lays her head on her table and takes a nap because back to school is hard! Just kidding! Teachers don’t have time for naps.

11:15-11:40: Lunch Procedures

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for going to lunch, eating, lunch, recess, and returning from lunch.

11:40-12:20: Lunch and Recess

12:20-12:35: read aloud.

Read The Name Jar with students.

12:35-1:05: Growth Mindset Activities

This is one of my favorite activities to do during the first week of school. It is so important to cultivate a growth mindset in students. Student who believe they can succeed work harder and achieve more.

The Growth Mindset Activities resource include five days of brain-building exercises. On day one, you will introduce students to their amazing “BIG BRAINS.” Use the interactive PowerPoint to guide discussion about how their brains work and complete the hand-on activities and brain teasers.

1:05-1:30: Classroom Library Procedures and Choosing Books

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for borrowing books from the classroom library. Make sure students know where to keep their books, how many books they can borrow at a time, and when they can get a book from the library. Give students time to choose any book that interests them. They can use these books during the week when they finish something early.

1:30-1:50: Fire Drill & Emergency Procedures

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for fire drills. Take students outside for a practice fire drill.

1:50-2:05 Recess

2:05-2:30: end of day procedures.

Pull students to the carpet and discuss the procedures for packing up and going home at the end of the day.

2:30-2:45: Release Students

Have students pack up and release them to carpool, buses, etc.

Celebrate! You survived Day 1!

8:00-8:20: Enter the Classroom and Morning Procedures

Before entering the classroom, remind students how to complete your morning procedures. Have reminders written on the board for morning procedures as well. Walk students into the classroom and greet each student as they walk into the classroom.

Students will be practicing the procedures you taught yesterday; such as turning in forms/homework, hanging up backpacks, where to place water bottles, and take out their self-selected reading book to their seat for silent reading warm-up. While students are reading, take attendance and do any administrative tasks that pop up on the second day.

8:20-8:50: Pipe Cleaner Challenge

Hand each student a closed paper bag with 2 pipe cleaners, a piece of foil, and a popsicle stick inside. Instruct students to create anything that they want with only the items inside the bag. It can represent a favorite hobby, animal, vacation, or something completely different! Give students 2-3 minutes to share their creations. They may then place the creation inside the paper bag to take home.

8:50-9:15: Classroom Supply and Bathroom Procedures

Pull students to the carpet and discuss procedures for classroom supplies. Discuss procedures for pencils and sharpening and where to find extra supplies. Also discuss bathroom procedures at this time.

9:15-9:30: Teacher’s Quiz

Send students back to their desk and announce, “It’s time for our first quiz!” You are learning a lot about your students, but it is important for them to know a lot about you as well.

Pass out the Teacher’s Quiz and allow students to guess the answers for each question. After students have had some time to guess, go over the correct answers. You can find this free activity  HERE .

9:30-10:15: Read Aloud and Activity

One of my favorite books is called  Words and Your Heart  by Kate Jane Neal.

After reading the story, place students into groups at their desks. Give each group a small tube of toothpaste (grab these at the Dollar Store), one toothpick per student, and a paper plate. Tell your students to squeeze out all of the toothpaste onto the plate.

Then, have your students try using toothpicks to put the toothpaste back into the tube. Pull your students back together and have a conversation about how the toothpaste is like our words. Discuss your policy in the classroom with unkind words, behaviors, and bullying. You can find a free recording page for this activity  HERE .

10:15-10:30: Beach Ball Introductions

Write several sentence stems on a beach ball that will help students tell more about themselves. Suggestions include, “This summer I…,” “My favorite pizza topping is…,” “I’m really good at…,” etc. Make enough to have one ball per group of students. As students throw the ball to each other, they can either answer the question that their right hand touches, or their left hand touches.

11:15-11:40: Binder Organization

Take this time to discuss how you would like students to organize their binder. You can also hand out any reference papers that you’d like students to keep inside. Pass out a binder cover, have students color it, and place on the front.

12:20-12:40: Read Aloud

Read Wordy Birdy with students.

12:40-1:20: Growth Mindset Activities

Pull students to the carpet and show them day 2 of the Growth Mindset interactive slides: Parts of the brain. Discuss how the parts of the brain work together and allow them time to complete the daily activities. Give them a few minutes at the end to pair-share something amazing they learned today.

1:20-1:50: Classroom Behavior Policy

Pull students to the floor and explain your class rules and rewards.

1:50-2:05: Recess

2:05-2:20: find someone who.

Every student will need a Find Someone Who board. Students will walk around the room and find someone who can accurately explain the procedure. That student will write their name in the box. The catch is that students must find a different person for each box.

You can find this free activity  HERE .

2:20-2:30: Review End of Day Procedures

Pull students to the carpet and remind them of the procedures for packing up and going home at the end of the day.

Before entering the classroom, remind students how to complete your morning procedures. Walk students into the classroom and greet each student as they walk into the classroom. Students will be practicing the procedures you taught Monday; such as, turning in forms/homework, hanging up backpacks, where to place water bottles, and  take out their self-selected reading book to their seat for silent reading warm-up.

8:20-9:15: Beginning of the Year Assessments

Take this time to administer any beginning of the year assessments that your school may require. You may consider having students color notebook covers when they complete their assessment. You may also consider pulling individual students for assessments as they complete other assessments given.

Read Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun with students.

9:30-10:00: Spaghetti Tower Collaboration Activity

Place students in groups of 3-4. Give each group 1 box of spaghetti noodles and 1 bag of marshmallows. Students will work together to build the tallest tower out of these materials. You can grab a recording for this activity  HERE .

10:00-10:30: Class Discussion on Collaboration

Pull your students to the carpet and discuss what it looks like to work together. Discuss your expectations for collaboration. What will group work sound like? How will students participate? What should you do if students disagree? Have students model correct and incorrect behaviors for the class. Make an anchor chart about what group collaboration will look like and sound like.

11:15-11:40: Independent Reading Stamina

Bring your students to the floor and discuss how marathon runners must train in order to run long distances. They do not just go out one day and run 26 miles! Instead, they have to train to build up their stamina. Discuss that readers are the same way. They need to practice building their stamina for reading independently for long periods of time without getting distracted.

Start a graph to show how long your class can read without getting distracted.

Students should grab their independent reading books, find a comfortable spot to read, and begin reading as you time them. You should do the same, model how to read independently without getting distracted as well! For the first day, I suggest giving your students about 5-10 minutes to practice independent reading. Stop timing students and discuss what you noticed students doing when they were focused on reading, and what they were doing when they started getting distracted. Challenge your class to beat that time by 3-5 minutes the next day.

12:20-1:20: Back to School Escape Room

Engage you students with a fun, collaborative back to school activity. This escape room requires kids to work together to solve puzzles and unlock clues to complete the challenge before time runs out.

The great thing about this escape room is that it’s easy to prep and use. No complicated supplies needed. All you need to do is print and teach. Begin by presenting the story: it’s the first day of school, but the school is locked. The principal lost the keys. Luckily, there is a back up lock that can be opened with a code. If only you could figure out what the code is . . .

This activity comes with four different versions, making it super easy to differentiate. There are two options for 2nd and 3rd grade, and 4th and 5th grade, one with hints and one without.

You can also get this activity together with the Growth Mindset Activities, Back to School Classroom Procedures Game, and Meet the teacher slides as part of my money and time-saving back to school bundle.

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Back to School Escape Room – Printable

Back to School Bundle

1:20-1:50: writer’s workshop day one.

Bring your students to the floor and explain the three parts of each of your writing workshops: mini lesson, student work time/conferences, and share time. Discuss what students will be doing during each of these times and what the teacher will be doing. Together, make an anchor chart about what it will look and sound like during writing time. To keep kids engaged during this lesson, I suggest doing lots of “turn and tell your partner….” and have them create their own anchor chart in their writing notebook.

Click  HERE  to learn more about how I introduce writing workshop.

2:05-2:35: Growth Mindset

Use this time to continue working on the Growth Mindset Activities. Day 3 is a fun lesson about growth versus fixed mindset. After showing the PowerPoint mini lesson, give students a few minutes to reflect on the questions. Then have a class discussion about positive self-talk. Brainstorm positive and encouraging thoughts. This would make a great anchor chart to keep up all year.

2:35-2:45: Release Students

Walk students into the classroom and greet each student as they walk into the classroom. Students will be practicing the procedures you taught Monday; such as, turning in forms/homework, hanging up backpacks, where to place water bottles, and take out their self-selected reading book to their seat for silent reading warm-up.

Take this time to administer any beginning of the year assessments that your school may require. You may consider having students color notebook covers when they complete their assessment. You may also consider pulling individual students for assessments at this time.

Gooney Bird Greene (This is our first chapter book read aloud!)

9:30-10:00: Responding to Reading- Day One (I Do- Whole Group)

Pull your students to the carpet and model the process of responding to reading using the class read aloud that you just read (Gooney Bird Greene). Model the entire process while thinking out loud. Students will listen as you talk about finding text evidence. Model how you start writing your answer by using part of the question. Talk about how you extend your response with some of your own thinking/examples. Finally, model how to edit and make corrections to improve your work. When you are done, ask students to share what they noticed. Create a class list of things that you did to make your writing the best possible response.

You can find my Reading Menus and more information about this process by clicking  HERE .

10:00-10:30: Writing Workshop Day Two

Send students back to their desks and discuss the different types of materials that they will be allowed to use during writer’s workshop. Show students where they can find these materials. Place several different types of writing utensils at each group, along with scratch paper, and allow students to write their name with different writing utensils to discover what they enjoy using. Students will find writing time more enjoyable if they are allowed to use pens! Next, teach and practice your procedures for putting writing materials away.

Remind students how long they were able to complete independent reading yesterday and pick a goal for today to increase that stamina. Remind your class what it should look and sound like. Have your students grab their independent reading book, find a comfortable spot in the room, and begin reading while you time them.Stop the clock a few minutes after yesterday’s time and graph it on your chart.

12:20-12:35 Read Aloud

Read Mae Among the Stars with students.

12:35-1:10: Read Aloud Connection

After reading Mae Among the Stars, discuss a growth mindset, believing in yourself, and working hard for your goals. Hand out blank pendants to every student. Have students draw a picture of what they’d like to be when they grow up and write their name across the top. These can be displayed in your classroom.

1:10-1:30: Math Center Instruction

You will want to take your time teaching and practicing math centers. Plan to spend about 8-10 days practicing and explaining math centers. You may begin day one today.

Pull your students to the rug and explain what math centers are. Don’t worry about teaching them how to complete each center today. Instead, help them to understand that they will be divided into small groups and how many centers they will be completing each day.

Explain that the reason you are doing these centers is so that you can meet with small groups of students and help them practice new math skills. Make an anchor chart with students that shows how center time will look and sound.

You can find more information about starting math centers  HERE .

1:30-1:50: Math Game Review

Teach students how to play Addition War with a deck of cards. I suggest having several deck of cards to use throughout the year. You can find two-packs for $1 at the Dollar Tree. Divide students up into pairs and students will play Addition War.

Students will shuffle the cards and divide the cards in half. They will then turn over the top cards at the same time from their deck and add the numbers shown. the first person to say the correct sum will take the both cards. The person with the most cards at the end of playing-time is the winner. You will want to inform your students that an Ace card is 1 and all face-cards are worth 10.

2:05-2:35: Growth Mindset Activities

It’s time for Day 4 of the Growth Mindset activities. Today’s lesson is all about Famous Failures (and it’s a student failure). Today you will be teaching kids that it’s okay to make mistakes. And to prove it, you will introduce them to some famous people who failed a lot before they succeeded. Take a few minutes to share their ideas about how to reframe mistakes into learning opportunities. You can add these ideas to your positve self-talk chart if you want to.

Walk students into the classroom and greet each student as they walk into the classroom. Students will be practicing the procedures you taught Monday; such as turning in forms/homework, hanging up backpacks, where to place water bottles, and take out their self-selected reading book to their seat for silent reading warm-up.

8:20-8:45: Class Meeting

Pull your students to the carpet and discuss what Friday class meetings will look like in your classroom.

I used Friday meetings to distribute reward tags to my students. It was a great way to reward students for meeting academic and behavior goals. They LOVED them! To keep it simple for me, and increase the excitement, I only awarded the tags on Fridays. I usually gave about a dozen tags each week.

If you choose to use reward tags, you will want to use this first week to discuss how students can earn reward tags in your classroom and the procedure for distributing them. Model how to cheer and clap for each student as they receive a reward tag during these meetings. If you’d rather not use reward tags, you can use this meeting time to share other important classroom community information.

8:45-9:15: Writing Workshop Day Three

Pull students to the floor and discuss places where they will be allowed to write during independent writing time. Discuss how they will move to these locations and what it should look and sound like. Give students a few minutes to walk around the room and sit at the different places that they will be allowed to write at.

Bring students back to the floor and record on an anchor chart your transition rules. Ask a student to show the class how NOT to go to their writing spot. As a class, discuss what that child did wrong. Then, ask the same student to go to their writing spot the correct way. Do this a couple of times with different students, many students love modeling the what not to do and what to do!

Read Be Kind with students.

9:30-10:30: Procedure Board Game

Place students in groups of 3-4 to review the classroom procedures you have been practicing all week. My back to school procedures board game makes this activity super simple.

The Back to School Procedures game comes with a game board and four different color cards: “Great Job,” “Uh-Oh”, “Application,” and “Act it Out.” cards. Each card asks students to recall or apply a classroom procedure in a different way. It’s a fun and silly to test there knowledge of the classroom procedures.

You can also get this activity together with the Growth Mindset Activities, Back to School Escape Room, and Meet the teacher Slide as part of my money and time-saving back to school bundle.

Back To School Classroom Procedures Board Game

Remind students how long they were able to complete independent reading yesterday and pick a goal for today to increase that stamina. Remind your class what it should look and sound like. Have your students grab their independent reading book, find a comfortable spot in the room, and begin reading while you time them. Stop the clock a few minutes after yesterday’s time and graph it on your chart.

Read the next chapter of Gooney Bird Greene with students.

12:35-1:00: Responding to Reading Day Two

Model the procedures again that you taught yesterday for responding to reading. You can find out more information about teaching these procedures by clicking  HERE .

1:00-1:50: Math Center Instruction

Today is the day that you will be teaching students how to complete the independent center activities. I always start with the back to school set of centers because they are a review of the skills from the previous grade level. This takes the pressure off of learning a new math skill and allows students to focus on learning the routines and procedures. It is also a great way to get a feel of your students’ math level.

Gather your students in a circle on the floor where everyone will be able to see you. Start by modeling the first center. Read the directions and talk through how you would complete the work. You don’t have to tell them every answer, but give them enough of a model to know what you expect of them.

Do this for each of the ten centers. I would do lots of “turn and tell your neighbor…” during this time to keep students engaged and to demonstrate that they understood your directions.

You can find the rest of my first 8 days of starting math centers by clicking  HERE .

Back to School Math Centers

I’ve also created done-for-you back to school math centers for grades 2-5. Each grade includes 10 hands-on math centers and a student recording book. Fun activities like sorts, matching, writing about math, and task cards keep kids engaged in learning.

Back to School Math Centers Second Grade

Back to School Third Grade Math Centers

Back to School Fourth Grade Math Centers

Back to School Math Centers Fifth Grade

2:05-2:25: growth mindset activities.

You can end the week by finishing up your Growth Mindset Activities. Today’s lesson is on developing grit. When students have grit, they are more likely to persevere on hard tasks. Complete the mini lesson and have students do the activities. Then spend some time talking as a class about how they can develop grit during the school year.

You can also get this activity together with the Back to School Escape Room, Back to School Classroom Procedures Game, and Meet the Teacher Slide as part of my money and time-saving back to school bundle.

Growth Mindset Activities

Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the weekend. Week one is done!

I hope this post is helpful and sparks some ideas for you as you begin planning for you first week of school. Remember to be flexible! Your students may take longer to complete an activity, or they may be quicker! I always found my first week lesson plans scribbled on with time changes as we went along.

You can click  HERE  to grab a cheat sheet of my first week lesson plans.

Most importantly, DON’T RUSH teaching procedures and building a community. You can read more about practicing procedure by clicking  HERE .

These first few weeks will set the tone for the rest of your year. Do you need a pep talk about this first week? Check out this  POST  for some words of encouragement.

Have a Not So Wimpy Day,

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Reader Interactions

28 comments.

June 5, 2021 at 7:21 pm

What do you do during the “specials” time block?

June 5, 2021 at 11:14 pm

Hi Sandra, Specials time is planning time. Well, let’s be real after a bathroom break THEN it’s planning time! The time students are out of the classroom for art, music, PE, whatever it may be is the perfect time to prepare future lessons and materials.

August 10, 2023 at 4:58 pm

How much does it cost to buy all the materials for this one week? Great ideas, but need the books and activities.

August 10, 2023 at 9:03 pm

Hi Stephanie! I’m glad you enjoyed the ideas. We included popular books that are in many classrooms. If you don’t have the books listed, you can easily substitute other fun read alouds. You can use the links in the post to grab some FREEBIES and view the items for purchase to determine which ones you would like. I hope that whatever activites you choose your year is off to a great start!

July 27, 2021 at 1:50 am

As a new teacher, this was SO HELPFUL, and gave me a lot of new ideas! Thank you for sharing! 🙂

August 4, 2021 at 11:40 pm

Jamie, Thank you so much! I’m moving to third after 20 years in first and this was so helpful to see what third graders will enjoy!

August 8, 2021 at 6:10 pm

So many amazing ideas for the first week. I love small group collaboration and you gave me so any ideas. Thank you for posting this!

August 14, 2021 at 7:01 pm

All great ideas as usual. I think I am an obsessed “Not So Wimpy Teacher!” I wanted to know what is your Binder Organization? It that for like the take-home stuff like the BEAR (Bring Everything Always Readt) or OWL (Organized While Learning) notebooks.?

August 16, 2021 at 2:13 pm

Hi Cassandra, That time was set aside to organize the student take-home binder. I had students add a cover that they designed, added in reference pages, such as a multiplication chart and fraction bar page, agenda, etc. and a pocket folder for homework and take-home papers, etc.

August 16, 2021 at 12:23 pm

Thank you so much for this! I tried clicking the link to read more about your reward tags, but nothing came up. Would love to read more about them! I’m constantly looking to improve my behavior management system.

August 16, 2021 at 1:52 pm

Hi Hillary, I’m sorry, that post is not currently available. We are updating many of our posts. My students always looked forward to the reward tag celebration. I made sure I was the biggest cheerleader for the ceremony. Throughout the week, when I noticed student behavior or improvement I would make a note of the tag to give them on Friday. I didn’t keep track of who received what tag, nor did I worry about if a student received the same tag more than once. I usually had about 10-12 tags I would give out in a month. Students could NOT ask to receive a tag that’s a big NO-NO! I laminated and hole punched the rewards and had students keep them on a chain necklace. Hope that helps! You can find my reward tag bundle through this link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reward-Tag-BUNDLE-2615821

June 21, 2022 at 5:59 pm

Do you have lesson plans for 4th grade? Like recommended books to read and fourth day in fourth grade?

June 21, 2022 at 10:20 pm

Hi Neoshea, This blog post has my favorite resources for fourth grade. https://notsowimpyteacher.com/2019/07/my-favorite-resources-for-fourth-grade.html

July 26, 2022 at 12:02 am

Do you have resources and book suggestions for second graders?

July 26, 2022 at 12:31 pm

Hi Colette, The blog post has my favorite second grade resources. https://notsowimpyteacher.com/2019/08/my-favorite-resources-for-second-grade.html

August 2, 2022 at 7:13 pm

Love the Saving Fred activity. Do you just give each group one cup?

August 2, 2022 at 7:36 pm

Hi Katie, Yes, each group gets one cup which is the boat poor Fred was in when it tipped over.

August 3, 2022 at 10:17 pm

This is amazing

August 13, 2022 at 9:06 am

Do you have a pdf version of this first week lesson plan available for easy printing?

August 23, 2022 at 10:05 am

Would these lessons and read alouds be too young for fifth graders?

August 23, 2022 at 11:04 pm

Hi Kelly, I found that fifth graders enjoyed a good picture book read aloud just as much as younger students. They also loved the activities!

August 23, 2022 at 11:06 pm

Hi Christina, Right above the last picture on the post, you’ll see a link to grab the cheat sheet for the week’s lesson.

August 22, 2022 at 10:18 am

Would you be able to send a PDF or form like the picture at the top of the lesson plans?

August 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

Never mind I found the cheat sheet link. Thank you!

October 15, 2022 at 9:56 pm

Hello Jaime, I have appreciated all of the resources, tips, and tricks you have been sharing over the last few years! I first found your resources on Teachers Pay Teachers and I still enjoy exploring your store to see what new materials you have created. My newest addiction is the writing workshop video series that you have posted. I felt that I was not effectively organizing my Writing Block as my district switched us from Grammar to more authentic writing pieces, which I have not taught in more than 5 years. I started to implement your suggestions and saw an immediate improvement in both the behavior and productivity of my students. So many more are getting into the writing process as they practice the mini-lesson skills. Thanks for all you do! -Beth

October 21, 2022 at 2:29 pm

I love hearing this, Beth! I’m so glad the posts and courses have been helpful for you and made an impact on your students. Thank you for sharing.

August 22, 2023 at 12:56 pm

first time stopping by… wow i wish you had something for first grade! you are amazing 🙂 so helpful 🙂

September 6, 2023 at 12:40 am

Thanks for stopping by, Angela! I am so sorry, but Not So Wimpy Teacher only creates resources for grades 2-5 because those are grade levels we have the most experience teaching. We want our resources to be the perfect fit. I am confident that there are other teacher authors on TpT that create quality resources for first grade.

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Not So Wimpy Writing Masterclass

Do you struggle to find time to teach writing? Do you find it a challenge to deliver lessons that help all of your writers? Would you like to learn a simple and effective way to teach writing? The Not So Wimpy Writing Masterclass is an online professional development course for grades 2-5. In this course, you will go from feeling overwhelmed to feeling confident and excited about teaching writing.

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

• Connecting with Students Online with Jennifer Serravallo
• A Simple Problem-Solving Strategy That Works Every Time
• Giving Students Feedback About Their Writing
• Virtual and Socially Distant Valentine’s Day Activities for the Classroom
• How to Use Project-Based Learning in the Classroom

Grab a snack and join the discussion over on Facebook!

We have four separate groups for grades 2-5

Get even more great tips and tricks on my YouTube channel!

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Check out the books, supplies, and other products that we use in our own classrooms. We only recommend those things that we absolutely love and swear by!

Hello! I’m Jamie

• I believe that students need to be the leaders of the classroom. Even third graders are old enough to be held accountable and to take responsibility for their learning.
• I do not believe that kids were made to sit in seats. They need to get up and move around.
• Differentiated instruction is a must. I use guided reading and guided math groups to meet the individual needs of my students.
• Helping a student to discover their love for reading is a privilege that I never get tired of.
• School should be fun! We party in my class!

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June 15, 2020 By On Lemon Lane

First Week of School Activities that are a Must

📣psa: this blog post is huge and full of fun ideas, activities, and freebies for the first week of school….

LET’S DIVE IN!???

Ask any experienced teacher, and you will quickly realize how pivotal those first few days of school are. During those first few days of back to school you will set the tone, and build the foundation for the rest of the year. As with anything you hope to build upon, the foundation is critical.

If you are a new teacher make sure to check out this blog post that includes my first day script, as well as a few of my favorite things! 

During those first few days of school learning the curriculum is arguably at the very bottom of the totem pole. Instead, you will be focusing on:

• Creating connections
• Setting expectations
• Reviewing routine
• Building rapport

Below you will find some of my favorite activities, ideas, and products that do just that. I’ve thought a lot about the type of activities we should implement during those first few days and even more about the purpose behind them. As you read you will find some of my favorite activities that check the following boxes…

To help with the organization of this GIANT blog post…

The activities will also be sorted by the following categories, I strongly believe you need at least one activity from each.

✏️.  Activities that Create Connection

✏️.  activities that create belonging and encourage community (🍋 free download), ✏️.  activities that require interaction with classmates (🍋 free download), ✏️.  activities that require teamwork, collaboration & communication, ✏️.  activities to review & reinforce procedures & expectations (🍋 free download), ✏️.  activities to get to know you the teacher, ✏️.  activities that introduce grit and growth mindset (🍋 free download), ✏️.  activities that introduce digital skills in non-threatening way, ✏️.  activities to encourage betterment and school community **helpful not helpless, ✏️.  activities that encourage fresh starts & goal setting (🍋 free download), ✏️.  activities that assess student’s needs and learning styles ( 🍋 free download).

As with any On Lemon Lane post, you know I LOVE Freebies! Throughout this post you will find a handful or great back to school freebies that you can have delivered straight to your inbox, or access through your FREE On Lemon Lane Membership!

If you find this post helpful I would love to hear from you in the comments! Do you have a favorite activity that I failed to mention, please share it below or connect with our community through our Private Facebook Group or on Instagram! 

Lastly, if you’ve been here long you know that along with high-quality freebies, I also love to offer high-discount BUNDLES.

So high TPT actually warns me about my discounts ? If you want to try them all, I want you to be able to justify trying them all! There are few things that make me as happy as seeing my products in your classroom!

Click Here to Learn More about My Back to School Bundles

Activities that Create Connection

Phew, let’s dive in! Starting with activities that create connection. Connection is necessary to well-being. “Social connection improves physical health and psychological well-being.  One telling study  showed that lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity,  smoking and high blood pressure…

“People who feel more connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression . Moreover, s tudies  show they also have higher  self-esteem , are more  empathic to others, more trusting and cooperative and, as a consequence, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them. Social connectedness therefore generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional and physical well-being.  Click Here to Read the Article

If Social Emotional Learning is important and a priority to you, one of the first places to start, is to start creating and facilitating moments of connection in your classroom.

The first week of school is the perfect time to create moments of connection and camaraderie. It’s a time when everyone’s anxiety and vulnerability are at a similar level. During those days especially… everyone is longing for friendship. Your job as teacher is to facilitate those moments of connection.

The following activities center around connection and are a few of my favorites! If you want to learn more about them, make sure to click to read the product description.

1. All About Me: Elementary – High School Options

A great way to make connections in the classroom, is by facilitating moments of commonality. Having students create and share All About Me’s is the perfect place to start! When looking for an All About Me, look for activities that go deeper than, what’s your favorite color. A good All About Me activity will allow you to get to know your students beyond the basic list of favorites.

I personally LOVE these digital All About Me Templates, I have one appropriate for both your Upper Grades, and a more simplified template for your Primary Grades.

For your Upper Grades, students will share:

• 8 Facts about themselves
• Can insert a selfie, animated GIF or even a virtual avatar of themselves
• Notice the Boarding pass. Here, students can share about a dream trip or a favorite trip they have gone on. Students can even insert a QR code that brings their classmates to a website that tells about their vacation spot.
• The ticket stub is a fun way for students to share about a favorite or dream concert, show, rodeo, event…etc!

This Get to Know you goes BEYOND the basic… and really allows YOU and your older students to get to know one another.

If the Digital Format scares you… or if you don’t have the tech capabilities necessary, Click Here to check out the printable counterparts to these pretty little things!

**PLEASE don’t let the DIGITAL products intimidate you, I’m known for making digital products that are as easy to use as they are beautiful! 

Click Here to Learn More About this Best-Seller

2. My Life in Pictures: Upper Elementary – High School

I have been blown away by the love shown to My Life in Pictures! This activity has been successfully implemented and thoroughly enjoyed in grades as low as 3rd and as high as 12th! Use the printable version and draw pictures, or the digital version and insert pictures into my EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY templates to create a beautiful visual representation of yourself, and your students!

Again, this Get to Know You goes BEYOND the basic what’s your favorite questions, and really allows students to connect with one another through shared commonalities.

Students can share their ACTUAL pictures, or use a quick google search to instantly add pictures of their interests into the template.

3. Decorating Writer’s Notebook | Interactive Notebook

GREAT example picture from @msrojasthirdgraders

Another one of my favorite activities that I assign during the first week of school that allows me to get to know my students better and them their peers, is to decorate Writer’s Notebooks! We use their writer notebook’s daily for both Guided Reading, and our Literature Circles, so it’s a fun way for student’s to make their notebook theirs, and create excitement to start writing in it!

I simply send the notebooks home with students with a due date of when to return them completed. I ask that they create a collage of what makes them, them! They also know that they will be required to share 3 details that they added to their notebook with an explanation of the significance!

When students return with their newly made over notebooks, I break students into small groups to show and share their notebooks, after a gallery walk of their notebooks proudly displayed around the room with a brief write up of the 3 details they want their classmates to notice!

Don’t teach writing… no problem, you can do this with ANY notebook your student will be using!

Interested in learning more about Writer’s Notebooks…. This is a GREAT summer read!

4. Play Make a Connection

This is a fun activity I was introduced to in college, that I have used as an ice breaker when teaching or presenting in different settings! The game is simple and requires no-prep. This is a great time-filler, or transition game to have in your back pocket during those first days of back to school!

To play simply divide students into partners. Ask each partnership to talk until they find something in common with each other. Challenge them that if they find something in common before the timer goes off, to try and find something even more unique! Set the timer for a few minutes and let them talk…. (Setting the expectation and demonstrating appropriate voice levels before setting them loose of course…)

STOP them if they don’t meet the voice level expectation, demonstrate and practice the appropriate voice level… then try again. REMEMBER, just because your primary goal is connection, you should still be stating, practicing, and reviewing expectations, procedures, and routines. 

At the end of the few minutes ask a few partnerships to share what they think was the most unique commonality found.

NOW, combine partnerships so you have groups of 4-6 students. This is where things start to get fun. Give them the same expectations with voice level, notice the voice level may need to be a little louder for group work…

Set the timer for a few minutes and see if the groups can find something unique that they all have in common. At the end of the timer share and discuss. You can continue this timer by adding more and more to the groups.

As you add more people to each group, students will find it more and more difficult to find connections with the entire group… However, that’s not really the point is it. The point is to form connections with their classmates, which by the end of the activity they will have.

***Notice this activity makes a lot of marks:

✔️ Making connections

✔️ Requires interaction with classmates

✔️ Requires communication

✔️ Reinforces procedures/ expectations

Activities that Create Belonging and Encourage Community

1. one word classroom collaborative quilt and bulletin board:.

This is a digital activity that is REALLY cool. The end result is a beautiful classroom display, (Digital or Actual Bulletin Board) That serves as a reminder of each student’s goal, as well as a beautiful visual representation for each student’s unique place in the classroom!

This activity lends itself well to discussion based on the need for each student, and the beauty and diversity each student brings to the classroom. Without them something would be missing, with them the classroom is a more beautiful space.

Due to feedback of this digital activity being a little more on the techy side than some students or teachers were used to… I updated it to include a video tutorial where I walk you through each step making this EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY to implement!

This is another activity that checks more that one category! 

✔️ Introduce Digital Skills in Non-Threatening Way

✔️ Encourage Fresh Starts & Goal Setting

✔️ Create Belonging and  Encourage Community

I print out each student’s digital quilt piece and display their collaborative quilt using the Bulletin Board Kit that is included. I also choose to display this activity with my FREE, “In Humanity’s Name” poem. More info on this found below!

Click Here to Learn More About This Activity

2. FREE: In Humanity’s Name Poem, Poster, and Puzzle Activity 

In order to access this poem, as well as the puzzle activity that can accompany it, simply put your email in the form below! Delivered straight to your inbox FREE… Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

I wrote this little poem after searching for a book or song, or something that described the need to come together in the classroom despite differences. I needed something to create a sense of belonging.

After coming up short handed, I decided to try and create the piece I was searching for.  The writing process was very therapeutic, and the words seemed to come from a place that I had been holding on to, and pondering on for a while. This felt more personal to share than I imagined it would, but I think the message is so desperately needed today.

I display the poem with the Collaborative Quilt Activity mentioned above, however this FREE download also includes puzzle piece templates that you can have each student design, and cut out. The assembled pieces make a really beautiful and striking display that illustrate the idea of the poem and the idea that every student in the classroom is needed.

****TEACHER TIP****

Picture by @adifferentiatedclass CLICK on image to Follow

As you are setting up for the new year and dividing up student supplies, MAKE SURE to make a few extra kits for New Students as they may come at any point during the school year! Include one of everything, including things like:

• Printed nameplates
• Meet the Teacher Newsletter
• Classroom Procedure Printouts
• Classroom Supplies
• AND the whole reason I’m mentioning this… If you choose to do the Puzzle and Poem Display Activity… MAKE sure to include a puzzle piece in the new student kit.

That way when they come… and they always do… when things are CRazY… You won’t have to search high and low for ALL. THE. THINGS. and that sweet little new student will feel right at home as you add their puzzle piece to the classroom. Again reinforcing the idea of belonging.  ***Side note: One year I got 5 new students. Consider the growth of the area you teach in when trying to estimate how many New Student Kits to assemble. 

3. When We Learn We Grow: Student Height Classroom Display

The concept is simple. Track your student’s height on the first day of school, then observe the difference on the last day of school! This can be done with a simple sheet of bulletin board paper, or you can use this fun kit, or a mixture of BOTH!

I like the idea of keeping this display up for the entire year, and to keep things current and relevant, you can add any of the following extension kits. ***These extension kits make AWESOME kick-offs to Biography Units.

Click Here to Learn More About My Favorite Biography Resources

How Do We Measure Up Extension Kits:

• Picture Markers of past presidents and their different heights to chart!
• Picture Markers of influential women and their different heights to chart!
• Picture Markers of influential men and women throughout history their different heights to chart!
• Picture Markers of Basketball players with their different heights to chart!
• Perfect for the winter Olympics

Using this kit you can edit the text to whatever you want, and customize the look to your own style with over 20 different themes to pick from. If that’s not enough you can add your student’s ACTUAL pictures into the student height markers!

Click Here to Learn More

Activities that Require Interaction with Classmates

It’s not enough for connections to be made amongst your students. Often times these connections can be silent. Students also need to have moments facilitated by the teacher where the expectation is to move around, talk with, work with, and interact with their peers! The following activities are GREAT options, where interaction isn’t just encouraged… It’s the expectation.

1. Who’s in My Corner (A FUN Spin on the Popular 4 Corners Back to School Game) 

This activity comes with 10 pre-made ready to use questions. However, the real magic happens in my easy to use templates. Instead of you coming up with all the questions to create connection, put that responsibility back on the students!

Each student creates a fun multiple choice question. Students can move game pieces on the collaborative slide to show their response to the question, OR you can project the question and have students move around the room (Each Corner of the room) to physically show their response.

Have each student introduce their question and back up their answer with their own opinions and evidence! You and your students will LOVE this one.

Display and discuss a question each day to start the class, find one the students are passionate about… turn it into a writing prompt! Give students the opportunity to notice who is in the corner with them, as well as opportunity to discuss and respectfully debate with those that see things differently.

***Most importantly, POINT out that we can still be friends, still respect, and still be kind to those who view things differently than us, despite what we see in today’s world.

2. FREE Classmate Scavenger Hunt

This is a classic back to school activity and for good reason. Again it is a soft and safe approach for students to try interacting with one another. They have a simple task with a simple approach to break the ice with every one of their classmates. Maybe they can’t find someone for every square… but again, that’s not the point.

This is a fun and FREE activity that can be delivered straight to your inbox! All you have to do is add your email to the form below!

This activity is editable in Google slides so you can edit ALL the questions to your needs, and even add your students name to the roster, allowing students to check their classmate’s names off their lists as they go!

3. Desert Island Survival

This is another fun activity that works as a great time filler or transition during the first few weeks of school. Like the connection game, it requires NO prep on your part. Simply divide the students into groups of 3-4. Then, tell the students they are going to be stranded on a desert island, but before they go they can pick 6 things from the classroom to help them survive. Allow the students to walk the room and work together to discuss and decide what they will bring and why.

After the allotted amount of time allow the students the opportunity to tell what they would bring with the class. As a class come up with a new list of 6 items that the majority of the class agrees will ensure your greatest chance at survival!

Remember the point of this activity is interaction.

Don’t forget to use this activity as an opportunity to practice procedures, and state expectations!

4. Peer Biography Report

Students are paired off into partnerships using my Pick a Pair: Match Cards. From there, students learn to interview, take notes, organize and refine their data. They work together with the partner to clarify questions, assign character traits, and support those traits with experiences.

This activity includes anchor charts, interview questions, graphic organizers, draft pages, peer edits, and writing checklists. It is also editable through Google Slides so you can customize it to your needs!

This always ends up being a favorite activity. Students love the opportunity to talk about themselves, and often end the project with a new friend that they may not have had otherwise!

I like to display the biographies with a mixed media art project, can be done digitally or by hand! In the past, I’ve even had the partnership design an avatar to represent their partner. The art project though it looks complex is really simple and creates a really beautiful display!

We print off the avatar and hang the biography with it in a hallway display for students to read and enjoy! I include links to my favorite student-friendly, create an avatar sites in the product!

5. Jigsaw Puzzle

Divide students into groups of 4 and give them each a puzzle to complete. Here’s the catch. Do not show the students the final picture of the puzzle. Instead give the students the puzzle pieces in a brown paper sack.

Variations:

• Starting projects without the big picture in mind
• Scientists collecting data
• Judging or making assumptions about others without knowing everything
• Have them switch puzzles with another group and allow they to talk for this round. Discuss the difference in their experiences.
• Discuss the importance of not giving up, and thinking outside the box to solve problems.

Activities that Require Team Work, Collaboration & Communication

Nothings says team work, collaboration and communication quite like a good STEM project…

Rainbows, unicorns, powder sugar clouds.  I was sold on all things STEM |STEAM challenges in the classroom.

That is until I tried it in my own classroom.

My nerves were popping. Full disclosure, for a teacher that runs a pretty tight ship, and is wound a little tight, STEM made a few of my screws come loose.

I loved the idea of it, my students LOVED it, but the practice challenged me. Based on my assessment, fun was had, but there was little to no substance gained. I knew I needed to make changes to the process, I needed my students to SLOW down and actually think about what they were doing, back up what they were doing with their thinking, and process the challenge. Then after completing the challenge… I NEEDED them to reflect. In my mind the reflection is the meat of the lesson, that’s where learning and application can be solidified.

1. Stem | Steam Challenges

Most stem resources I came across required a lot of printing, prep, and laminating for ONE stem challenge. I am a very low-prep, low maintenance teacher. All of this unwillingness and thinking lead me to create the  STEM | STEAM Planning and Reflection Sheets. Pair them with any of these AWESOME stem challenges below for a favorite activity by both YOU and your students!

• Balloon Rockets: Give students a few straws, masking tape, balloons, and other miscellaneous classroom supplies then challenge them to create a balloon rocket that will propel itself from one end of string|yarn to another. Use a smartphone camera in slo-mo to capture the photo finish at the end of the line!
• Marble Roller Coaster:  Head to Home Depot and snag some insulation piping, cut the piping in half to really get some bang for your buck! Give students the same amount of piping, tape, and marbles, then challenge them to create a roller coaster that includes a loop de loop that can get the marble from one point to another. Too easy? Next, challenge them to add a jump!
• Spaghetti & Marshmallow Tower:  A classic stem project. Give the students the same amount of uncooked spaghetti noodles, and marshmallows. Then challenge groups to build the tallest structure!

2. Save Fred

Another Back to School classic! Challenge your students to save poor Fred. In this activity, students work to save Fred. A gummy worm on a capsized boat. To rescue Fred, students will work in groups of 2 – 3 to flip Fred’s boat right side up and get Fred into his life preserver, without dropping him into the water, or injuring him. This all must be done with paperclips. Students can never touch Fred, or his boat, or his life preserver with their bare hands. Watch the video below for more details or clarification.

To complete this activity you will need:

• 1 gummy worm (Fred)
• 1 gummy circle candy (life preserver) think gummy life savers, peach o’s, sour rings…
• 1 small, clear plastic cup (boat)
• 4 paper clips (rescue materials)
• Optional: piece of blue paper (lake)

3. Cup Stack

Another fun challenge that encourages teamwork, collaboration, and communication! Challenge your students to stack cups in a pyramid. The catch?? They can’t use their hands! To complete this activity you will need:

• 10 feet of string | yarn
• 5 rubber bands

The challenge is for the group to build a pyramid out of the paper cups (3 on the bottom, 2 in the middle, 1 on the top – can be adjusted for more cups).  Group members cannot touch the cups with their hands or any other part of their bodies, even if a cup falls over or on the floor… See the video below for clarifications!

Once they’ve figured out the challenge, challenge the groups to see who can build the tallest tower!

HALF WAY THERE!

I told you this blog post was giant how are we doing friends, stay with me, we are half way there, keep reading for more freebies, including a whole month of morning meetings.

If you like the activity suggestions mentioned so far and would like to try more than one, OR maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed with which activities to try, or where to start…

DON’T forget about the BUNDLES!

Bundles are a great way to try a variety of activities at a STEEP DISCOUNT. Remember, TPT actually warns me every time I price my bundles… I can’t help it. I’ll go through a few different BUNDLE options at the end of the post.

You can also check out this bundle I just created, it includes at least one activity from every category including best-sellers! If you’re not sure where to start, this is a great option!

This particular Bundle includes:

• Activity that Create Connection: Digital All About Me & My Life in Pictures
• Activity that Create Belonging and Encourage Community: Collaborative Quilt 
• Activity that Require Interaction with Classmates: Who’s in My Corner
• Activity that Require Teamwork, Collaboration & Communication: STEM|STEAM Sheets
• Activity to Review & Reinforce Procedures & Expectations: Pick a Pair Cards
• Activity to Get to Know You the Teacher: All About My Teacher Test
• Activity that Introduce Grit and Growth Mindset: Grit & Growth Mindset Challenge #1
• Activity that Introduce Digital Skills in Non-Threatening Way: Digital Me in a Bag
• Activity to Encourage Betterment and School Community **Helpful Not Helpless: You’ve Been Schooled! 
• Activity that Encourage Fresh Starts & Goal Setting: Vision Board: Computer Wallpaper Version
• Activity that Assess Student’s Needs and Learning Styles: Partners in Learning | Learning Inventory

If you were to purchase each activity listed above separately you would pay over $60.00 This Bundle discounts each activity right around 50% off!

Click Here to Shop

Ok… Let’s jump in to the second half!?

Activities to review & reinforce procedures & expectations .

Second to creating connection and building relationships, your next goal and primary focus for the first WEEK of school.

That’s right, week.

Not one day…

Spend that time:

• Stating expectations,
• What does it look like/ sound like?
• What does it not look like/ sound like?
• Practicing procedures
• Vocally praising expected behavior
• Vocally discussing when behavior is not meeting expectations and giving examples why…

Rinse & Repeat. 

Remember, those first moments together set the tone for the year with what is acceptable and what is not. You can set clear expectations and still be warm and kind. You’re building your classroom management for the year on top of those first few days.

Below you will find some of my favorite activities and ideas that can help create order, & organization, routine, and reinforce your procedures!

1. Pick a Perfect Pair: Match-Up (1st – 6th Grade)

This is the fun little activity I mentioned in the Peer Biographies above that you can use to quickly assign random partners in the classroom! Students LOVE these and the anticipation created as the cards are passed out. Once each student has their card they must find the “peanut butter to their jelly,” or the bacon to their eggs!

The second version of these cards allow you to add text!

This version of the cards really shine when it comes time to reviewing my classroom procedures!

I type up IF | THEN scenarios on each one, hand them out the cards to the students, then allow the students to find the match!

Once students find their match, I ask them to come up with a quick 10 second skit that demonstrates what the procedure is AND what it is not. We then go around the room and each pair shares, and presents to the class!

***TO MAKE YOUR LIFE A LITTLE EASIER, I have updated the Pick a Pair: Match-Up Cards to include some of my favorite procedures to teach, like the one shown in the picture!

Use what I’ve got, or edit the text to your own routines and procedures… That’s right, this cute little things are editable, and include 3 additional style templates including blank, so you can use them over and over again! I even included a fun game board and spinner to put a fun “SPIN” on your reviews!

2. Morning Meeting (4th – 12th Grade)

Having a slide that I displayed every morning in my classroom that would display important information, allow students to check-in and self-start, was something I dreamed about having in my classroom from the moment I began teaching. However, my schedule simply wouldn’t allow it at the time. I finally found more time and that pretty little, efficient thing I dreamed about… Well she’s here, and she is grand. ?

If you want an in-depth look at what’s included Click Here

I. LOVE. THESE. MORNING. MEETINGS.

I’m so convinced you will too…

I’m actually giving away the ✨✨ ENTIRE MONTH OF AUGUST FREE! ✨✨

In a nutshell this morning does it all:

• Digital Daily Attendance
• Daily Assignment/Subject slides with over 50 school supply icons
• SEL Learning & Awareness
• Grit & Mindset Challenges
• Daily Interaction & Connection
• Build Classroom Community
• Improve Organization
• Daily Challenges & Class Games
• Set-Up Routines & Structure
• 100% Paperless
• 100% Virtual Classroom Ready
• 100% Any Classroom Ready
• Over 50 ready to go slides, all editable. Use the slides I’ve prepared, or quickly customize them to your classroom’s needs and curriculum.
• Month View Schedule | Calendar (with easy to use Calendar Icons includes icons specific to the Month)
• Weekly View Schedule (2 Versions)
• Mindset Monday and Mindful Monday
• Trivia Tuesday and True or False Tuesday
• Wonder Wednesday and Would You Rather Wednesday
• Thoughtful Thursday: Includes Kindness Challenges or Opinion based challenges
• Fun Friday: Includes List it & Boggle Games
• Daily Slides include School Supply Icons to quickly show what students need for the day
• Daily Social-Emotional Check-In
• Weekly Student Response Page

Put your email in the form below to have ALL of the August slides sent directly to your inbox!

3. Student Planner:

If you follow me you know that I love to use student planners in the classroom. I also LOVE to have a planner for myself. Be warned… I’m not a digital planner type of girl, I’m a 30 tabs open, 30,000 emails in the inbox kinda girl. Not proud, just honest. With that being said for those of you that would like a digital version of this… Stay tuned. It’s. coming.

I really advocate using a student planner in the classroom. It’s a great way to increase student accountability, organization, and open up the lines of communication from the home to the school.

If you’re a 5th Grade Teacher… You’re gonna want to CLICK HERE

The inserts I’ve included in this student planner are the real stars when it comes to your sanity… My personal favorite is the Password Tracker…

Take the time during the first week of school to fill out every date, student’s birthday, and holiday breaks into the calendar as a class.

4. Quizziz | Kahoot

If you haven’t tried Quizziz or Kahoot in your classroom, make it a goal to do it this year! Both are the perfect way to add a little excitement and fun to reviewing procedures and routines which we all know can get really dull and repetitive! Click on the links to learn more, both are FREE! You can even search for PRE-MADE quizzes, even pre-made quizzes about procedures and routines! Start with a pre-made one and make it your own!

Activities to Get to Know You the Teacher

Your students are just as excited to learn about you, as you are to get to know them. Creating opportunities for your students to get to know you is the OPPORTUNE moment to start building rapport with your students. My favorite way to introduce myself to my students is through TEST FORM.

In fact the first test my students take, is a test “All About Mrs. Doxey.” The fun part about this test, is that I build it up in a way that creates a little anxiety…

***Making sure I know my students well enough coming in that this little jest will only result in smiles) If you have a student coming in that you know may have test anxiety, pull that student aside, let them know about your little joke, and have that student help you pass out the papers. ***Notice moments like that create rapport, and trust with that student. 

Your other students may need a few more experiences to build trust after this one ?

I use this fun little test as a way to introduce my test taking procedures and routines. 

I create a little buzz with the students telling them how important this test is, how they need to do their best, how the content of the test may have year long impact. I also tell them that in all of my years of teaching no one has ever gotten 100% on this test. ?

My Script for Test-Taking Procedures/ Routine includes the following

If you would like to read my entire script for the first day of school, click here

• When we test I ask that you have a book on your desk, a red pen, and your pencil. When you finish the test simple turn it over on the left corner of the desk and place your red pen on top of it so I know that you are finished. 
• Keep in mind that cheating will only hurt you not benefit you. This test is a way for me to get a better idea of what you know, but most importantly what you need to know. If you look off your neighbors I will have no idea how to help you better understand a concept. Math like other subjects is like a building block in order to build a tall steady strong tower I must have blocks if there are gaps or blocks missing in the tower what happens? Exactly never cheat, you only cheat yourself. As your teacher I need to know which blocks are missing. 
• If you feel like you need to cheat to get a good grade that is nonsense. Remember I give the grades here. If you give it your best effort, and fulfill your responsibility as a student you will get a good grade.

I then hand out the paper version of this BIG, SCARY, TEST. ?

Imagine the student’s relief when they learn its just a fun True or False Test about me!

1. All About My Teacher Test: The MOST Important Test of the Year!

I love this activity! This is what I use for introducing my test taking procedures that I mentioned above. The template allows you to create different types of get to know you questions, however my favorite is to use the True or False version and make all of the questions TRUE.

This makes the test easy to check, and a little mind blowing for my students, it also ensures everyone gets at least one thing wrong.

Use my easy to use templates to completely customize the look of the slides, AND use a quick google search to insert images DIRECTLY into my picture place-holders!

My favorite part about this test, is that it comes with a fun EDITABLE slide show template to go through the test and show the answers! This is where your students really get to know you better! As with all of my digital products you can edit the template is EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY. You customize the answer presentation through Google Slides. You can EASILY add your own pictures from your device, or pictures from a quick Google Search into the picture placeholders!

This is such a fun activity that is great for introducing and practicing your test taking procedures, while creating rapport with your students in the process!

2. Meet the Teacher

***Yes I also make sure to include one of these forms in my New Student Kits mentioned above!

I have a lot of fun options for Meet the Teacher Forms. You can learn more about the different versions here:

• These are a great option to send out to parents and students through email!
• These are the forms I print out on a SINGLE double sided page. These simply pages include EVERYTHING students and parents need to know about my classroom, along with a fun get to know your teacher on the other side!
• Make sure to check out this FREE accompanying activity that introduces making inferences and connections based on your Meet the Teacher Form!

CLICK HERE TO SHOP

Activities that Introduce Grit and Growth Mindset

These activities are designed to make your students struggle and fail, tossing them into the depths of the learning pit.

Sounds a little harsh?

But I can’t think of a better place, then the safety of the classroom, in a controlled environment for students to exercise grit and growth mindset than under the watchful eye of a loving teacher. 

By facilitating failure you and your students are able to pinpoint those tough emotions, negative thoughts, and capitalize on them.

My team and I would introduce this type of activity during the first week of school. This thoughtful idea to introduce failure came from one of my favorite colleagues.

Based on what we observed, experienced, and discussed this type of activity will forever hold a spot in the first week of school lineup. There is so much value in these lessons, the discussions and experiences they bring. It is simply not enough to define what Grit and a Growth Mindset is. It must be practiced, and it needs to be practiced in a controlled environment where you can mentor them through their thought process. Instead of hoping they apply what you discussed in a lesson when their trial comes along.

Click Here for a FREE Challenge and to Learn More!

Activities that Introduce Digital Skills in Non-Threatening Way

1. digital me in a bag.

One of my favorite activities to introduce new skills and review the basics is the Digital Me in a Bag. I was shocked by how well this product spanned across grade levels, just check out the reviews! The classic (printable) Paper Bag Biography is typically reserved for primary grades, however putting a digital spin on this classic really opened the doors to upper-grades!

Students will insert 3 items “into” their bags and give a brief video explanation or typed explanation behind the significance of each one! This template is so cool because it looks like the items are actually IN the bag. Depending on how you set up the assignment students cans can cover their clues or video and their classmates will interact with the slides and guess who the bag belongs to by guessing through the comments before revealing who created the bag.

I REALLY love how this one turned out!

Activities to Encourage Betterment and School Community **Helpful Not Helpless

One aspect that I think we forget to include in our back to school activities is one that builds SCHOOL-WIDE Community and belonging.

One way to do this is by simply teaching the idea that as a class:

We leave things better than we found them.

This was one of our classroom rules, and one of my favorite skills to teach. If there’s a paper on the ground… pick it up. If the computer lab is a mess, pick it up. This applies to their specialty time, lunch time, recess…etc. Teaching students to not only notice BUT to then ACT,  is a life skill that will carry them. We are helpful… not helpless.

To learn more about my classroom rules, click here to read the post. 

1. You’ve Been “Schooled”

Another favorite way to build community and belonging School-Wide is to incorporate some sort of School-Wide program! My favorite School-Wide tradition to start at the beginning of the year is, “You’ve Been Schooled.”

If you haven’t participated in this type of activity you essentially drop off a small gift to another classroom or faculty member. They then have two days to pass on the act to someone else in the school. Once you’ve been “Schooled” you hang a poster in your workplace, letting others know you’ve participated, allowing them to pass it on to someone who has not.

Unlike other “You’ve Been” activities, my version is different because:

• Student involvement is encouraged
• Service in encouraged (Give a Coupon for service instead of a treat) ***Think of an older grade offering to be reading buddies with a younger grade…etc!
• QR CODE: Each purchase is for a SCHOOL WIDE license. Teachers and Staff are able to make a copy of this EDITABLE through GOOGLE download by scanning a QR Code.

When you scan the QR Code or purchase this product Everyone at your school gets access to:

• 4 Different Editable “You’ve Been Schooled” Posters
• Student Brainstorm Page
• Service Coupon Ideas
• “Punny” Inexpensive Gift Ideas
• Editable Coupon Template
• Over 15 Different, EDITABLE Gift Tags

Activities that Encourage Fresh Starts & Goal Setting

If ever there was a time for a discussion on fresh starts… It’s the beginning of the year. It is so important to address that student performance in past grades does not impact their potential in your class. Yes there may be learning gaps or behavior issues that will need to be addressed, however if they are willing to do their part and fulfill their responsibility as a learner, you will fulfill your responsibility as an educator.

Two of my favorite activities to introduce the idea of fresh starts, and goal setting are:

• Creating Vision Boards
• The Big Scribb Activity (🍋FREE DOWNLOAD)

1. Creating Vision Boards

I LOVE the idea of creating a vision board at the beginning of the school year! You could very easily assign students to decorate their writer’s notebook or interactive notebook, or whatever notebook they are going to be using daily, with a traditional vision board look, as opposed to the general get to know you vibe.

Example of Digital Vision Board created using one of the Digital Computer Screen Templates. Save as your Computer’s Wallpaper or Lock Screen for Visual Reminder.

A vision board essentially is a visual representation of your goals and affirmations. Vision boards are intended to be viewed often, at least daily. This daily viewing of your vision board acts as a small, and simple, yet POWERFUL visualization practice. Consciously, or subconsciously you are telling your brain what matters most, and I don’t think we need to be reminded how powerful our minds can be.

Click Here to Read the Blog Post

If you’re like me and the idea of gathering magazines, and supplies, then the stress of putting something together that would be visually appealing stresses you out… Stress no more…

Digital. Vision. Boards.

Here’s the kicker. Remember that in order for a vision board to work its magic, it needs to be in a place that you see it often. I don’t know about you but I see the screen of my computer, phone, or tablet… often. So I created BEAUTIFUL, EASY TO USE, digital templates that allow you to save your vision board as your new wallpaper, or lock screen!

These templates work for: Computers, Chromebooks, tablets, smart phones…etc!

1. The Big Scribb (🍋 Free Download)

This activity is a CLASSROOM favorite… and it’s completely FREE! Click Here to learn more . Essentially this project is a mural that is created in pieces by students in your class. Students have no idea what the end result or picture will be and instead are asked to focus on their small tile and to recreate the image assigned to them with as much accuracy as they can.

I’ve included two options for the mural. Based on which tile you have students recreate their assigned design will result in either a 3 x 3 ft mural, or a 5 x 5ft mural! One of the wonderful details about this project is that up to 64 students can be involved in this project. You are also able to easily differentiate with the tiles because the designs on the tile vary from all levels of difficulty.

Any lesson that includes a little mystery immediately means ENGAGEMENT. Your students will be excited and interested in the sheer unknown factor. This project leads to MEANINGFUL discussion. I’ve included a poster and discussion questions to guide the discussion.

This is a great lesson to use when introducing setting goals. This project illustrates why it’s important to set small attainable goals in order to achieve their big goals or dreams. It’s also wonderful for talking about teamwork, and unity in the classroom.

I love that at the end of this project you are left with a mural that can be used as a classroom display or bulletin board that MEANS something to your class. You can refer to it throughout the year when students come across a tough concept that feels like an “elephant”. Remind them of the power in taking it one small bite at a time.

Click Here to Learn More about this FREEBIE

Activities that Assess Student’s Needs and Learning Styles

LAST CATEGORY!!!

PHEW, I told you this post was GINORMOUS.

The last type of activity to include in your back to school activities is one that assesses your student’s needs and learning styles. I have 2 favorite activities for this. One is completely digital and completely free, and the other can easily be edited and even assigned in Google Slides!

1. Parent Survey & Student Interest/ Learning Style Inventory (🍋 Free Version Available)

Parent Survey: “The primary goal of parent surveys  is to collect and understand  parent opinions, perspectives, attitudes, and perceptions towards their students.”

Learn more about my Favorite Parent Survey Here **Free Google Form Available

Student Interest Inventory: “ The purpose of using interest inventories or surveys in your classroom is to gain information about your students. The beauty is that what you do with the information can greatly impact the rest of your school year.”

Learn more about my Favorite Student Interest Inventory Here **Free Google Form Available

Learning Style Inventory: The term learning styles is widely used to describe how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and “store” information. As spelled out in VARK these styles are often categorized by sensory approaches:   visual, audio, verbal [reading/writing], and kinesthetic . Using a learning style inventory can better assess the student’s preferred learning styles and give the teacher a better idea of how to introduce and teach to the student’s needs! 

Picture of Editable Segment from the Paid Version of the Parent Survey & Student Interest Inventory

With my Student Interest Inventory, I make sure to include on the paid printable version questions that give a quick glimpse into your student’s learning style! The paid version includes (editable) printable versions of both the Parent Survey, and the student survey, as well as links to the Free Google Forms I’ve mentioned above!

You could also assign students to take a quick learning style quiz online to better hone in on how they prefer to learn. Below are a few of my favorite online options:

• VARK Quiz for Younger Students
• What’s Your Learning Style Quiz

2. Student Assessment (K-12)

This LAST resource is one near and dear to my heart. In one way I hope that I’m the first to introduce you to it, and in another, I hope you’ve been utilizing it in your classroom for years. I began using this website when it was first known as Front Rowed, now Freckle . Funny name… Powerful tool.

Freckle is the “first and only differentiation platform. It works with students at THEIR level. All teachers everywhere, cue happy tears. The user-face is adorable and fun, yet appropriate for older students (K-12). Based on student’s performance you receive data telling you exactly where your student is, WHAT THEY NEED, and where they are going.

Here’s the kicker… IT’S FREE, and its now available for students k-12 for MATH, ELA, SCIENCE, and SOCIAL STUDIES. 

I love this so much, this program became my student’s homework assignment throughout the year, allowing me to use my Daily Math & ELA Workbook & Student Planner Hybrid as a Bell Ringer instead of homework!

One of the first things I have students complete during that first week of school is the pre-assessment/placement quiz on Freckle. If you are a general ed teacher, you now have a digital ready to go pre-assessment tool for MATH, ELA, SCIENCE, and SOCIAL STUDIES…!

I use these digital assessments as our time to state and review expectations for our time in the computer lab, or when using Chromebooks!

***TEACHER TIP: Because students work at such a wide range of rates, as well as technology being limited I always had a Printable About Me, or Digital About Me Assigned or on hand for students to work on once they have finished their pre-assessment, or while they are waiting to get started.

I hope that even if you didn’t “enjoy” this GINORMOUS blog post, you were at least able to find value in it. That is my goal as a teacher content creator. To bring you VALUE and to save you time. Because as a teacher, time is your MOST valuable and LIMITED asset. If you did enjoy this, or found value in this post… PLEASE comment below or connect on:

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***Remember:

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• Each activity can span across a WIDE level of grades so you can be confident your assignments are meaningful, and age-appropriate.
• Don’t forget, I discount my BUNDLES, A LOT.

***I’m often asked what this bundle does not include… The Activities that are a Must BUNDLE does not include the following activities mentioned in this blogpost:

• Morning Meeting Bundle
• Meet the Teacher | Classroom Information Forms
• Student Planner
• Peer Biography
• When We Learn We Grow

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10 First Week of School Activities & Lesson Ideas to Build Community

As teachers, we are always looking for new ways to engage students and build classroom community during the first week of school. There is often a lot of anxiety for both the teacher and the student as they get reacquainted after the summer break. You want your new students to feel right at home. You want them to feel connected to the class, to each other, and to you.

While the first week tends to be filled with enthusiasm, it's important students get to know their new classmates, but you don't want to overwhelm them with too much at once! The first days of a new school year can be overwhelming enough for shy or introverted students without adding stress.

If you're looking for fun activities for starting the year off on the right foot, you'll love these ideas for engaging students and building classroom community with all about me activities during the first week of school.

This post contains affiliate links. While purchasing from these links does not cost you anything additional, it does mean I earn a small commission.

What is the purpose of doing All About Me Activities during the first week of school?

First week activities, such as All About Me, can seem like a time-filler during the first weeks of school when working with older students. However, they have an important role even in upper-level classrooms. First, they help students get to know one another during the first weeks of school.

In addition, All About Me activities are critical for allowing you to interact with students and learn more about their interests, strengths, and goals. This will help you give each student personalized attention and help you know all the basics you need to know about learners by the end of week 1.

Third, All About Me activities provide an opportunity for students to practice self-reflection and communication skills and can build classroom community among students who sit next to one another.

All About Me activities can also help students learn about others who are different from themselves. This can lead to more inclusive classrooms and stronger connections for all students. Lastly, they also help students practice being comfortable talking to their classmates in new ways and can be used as an ice breaker during the first weeks of school.

Great Read-Aloud Ideas to Introduce Your First Week of School Activities

One great way to introduce these community-building activities is with a high-quality read-aloud . If you typically avoid using picture books with older students, I challenge you to try it. You might be surprised to discover just how engaged they are as you read, and you might just find a new favorite book!

Here are some of my favorite back-to-school picture books to read aloud during the first days of school.

• Most Marshmallows by Rowboat Watkins
• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
• Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
• Mary Wears What She Wants by Keith Negley
• Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller
• All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell

If you're looking for more great options, I've shared a whole list in this post:  26 Great Back-to-School Books to Build Community.

10 Great First Week of School Activities to Build Classroom Community

As you start to write those first-week lesson plans, you might be struggling to figure out what activities you want to incorporate into your plans. It can be hard to come up with something that students haven't already done year after year, especially as they begin to reach upper elementary.

If you're looking for new All About Me activities for the first week of school, try these ideas. They each have a unique focus to help students build classroom community and engage with their teachers and classmates.

1. Use Venn Diagrams to find similarities and differences with a classmate.

It's never too early to introduce your students to graphic organizers, and the Venn diagram is one that you'll use again and again. So this year, introduce your students to a Venn diagram for All About Me activities.

Begin by reviewing the purpose of the Venn diagram – to compare and contrast two things. Then pair up students with their classmates and have them work to brainstorm ways they are similar and different from one another.

These make a great display on a back-to-school bulletin board, and it's one of those practice activities that also help introduce several important academic vocabulary terms that students will need to understand. In addition, this offers a hook that you can refer to throughout the year when you work with Venn diagrams.

2. Get poetic with your writing activities on the first week of school.

I love using poetry as a way to help students share about themselves and their experiences. Poetry can be an excellent vehicle for self-reflection since it asks students to look inside themselves and discover something unique about their lives. Writing poetry is also a great way to build personal connections between students and their lives outside school.

Acrostic poems can be a great All About Me activity for a writing class. Students can create their own poems using the letters of their names to begin each line. If they have difficulty thinking of things to include, here are a few ideas that you can prompt them with:

• Share something unique about yourself that you haven't shared before.
• Indicate your favorite thing to do.
• _______ is my favorite subject in school.
• I like to play with ________. 
• A place I'd like to visit is ________
• My favorite food is ________.

Alternatively, you can have students create an “I Am” poem to share about themselves and their hopes for the year. These can be an excellent way for students to introduce themselves to others, and they also make an incredible display if your school has an Open House or Parent Night.

How to make it work:

There are two typical formats for this type of poetry, so you can select which one you prefer depending on what grade level you're teaching and the needs of your learners.

• Option 1: Formulaic “I Am” poetry offers students basic sentence starters for each line of the poem. Each line should follow the pattern of “I (verb) ________.” They fill in the blanks with their answers to create the finished poem. Jen Runde from Runde's Room shares a great example she used for her 6th graders on her blog  here . 
• Option 2:  Free verse gives more flexibility and is great for older students or creative writing classes. In this situation, each writer can create their own idea of how each line should begin rather than a template. While the poem still follows the pattern where each line starts with “I (verb)…”, this offers more opportunities for students to express themselves as individuals.

3. Try a unique spin on a Math About Me activity during the first week of school.

Add a little arithmetic to your All About Me activities by creating Math About Me sheets. You might have already created a Math About Me sheet to introduce each student to the class, but if you haven't, it's a great addition to a first-week activity, and it makes a fun display. Alternatively, you can put them together to create a fun class book!

Math About Me is fun because it goes beyond the basics of listing favorite movies or book characters as you might use in another class discussion activity with elementary students. Instead, your learners get hands-on with math to describe themselves and share with their classmates.

Here's a version I've used in my own classroom as an introductory math activity:

4. Have students film a commercial – Great for remote learners.

If you've got a tech-savvy group or you're meeting virtually via Google Meet, it can be fun to have your students write a short commercial about what makes them a wonderful friend to have. It also provides an opportunity to introduce some basics of media literacy and the art of persuasion right from those first days.

The goal is to make a 30-second video telling about themselves and why they make a great friend. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the art of storytelling, and you can use it as a light-hearted icebreaker. Plus, it can be fun to have a showing of all the commercials students made.

You never know! You might spark a new friendship!

5. Do a Find a Friend Activity to help students meet their classmates.

We've all done a “Find Someone Who” activity before, and there's a good reason why!

These offer a great opportunity for students to mix and mingle while learning about their classmates. The first days of school can be a lot of sit-and-get. Listening to rules, learning procedures, and getting acclimated.

This activity is an opportunity to get up and moving!

The goal is to find a classmate who meets each of the criteria listed on the provided sheet, and you can design these to be as basic or deep as you want. For example, have students find someone who has the same favorite color, or you might see if they can find someone who speaks another language.

This can be a great activity to incorporate into your morning meetings for elementary students because it offers a chance for conversation. You can direct how deep or basic the questions are. Since these meetings are all about relationship building, students need the opportunity to talk to one another, and this type of activity is a great way to do that from the first day of school.

Take a peek at the photo above, and enter your information to get the activity I used as part of my classroom icebreakers for free.

6. Play Four Corners to get kids up and moving.

Speaking of getting kids moving, you can also try a game of Four Corners as an All About Me first day of school activity. It's a kind of “Simon Says” game, but instead of following the directions, students have to move to the spot that best describes their answer. So, for example, students may go to different parts of the room depending on their favorite subject or how many siblings they have.

The game will require students to get up and move around and it might help them to put aside their fears and just go for it! This is also a great way for you to get some time to observe your students and see who would be a good match for your small groups. 

By observing where students are, you can get a sense of their interests and strengths. For example, you might find one or two students who always go to the same spot every time. If so, they might be a great fit for a small group activity focused on that subject area. This can help you make some quick determinations about how you'll organize your small groups and work with your kids throughout the year.

A handy hint is to pre-label your corners with colors or letters to make the game run smoothly. Then you can put the answer choices on your projector (like above) and have students move to the right corner without much hassle.

7. Complete an All About Me Book as a part of your first week of school activities.

Having students create an All About Me Book can be a fun way to get to know your learners while making a purposeful end product.

You can use the 8×8 booklets from the Target Dollar Spot with blank pages and let students write about anything they want. Alternatively, you can provide a more structured framework using a book template that has students complete pre-made pages and templates to share information about themselves.

Here's a fun example I've used with my learners in the past:

Read more about this resource here:  All About Me Books: A Back-to-School Activity.

8. Have students write a letter to their future selves. 

This can be a really meaningful one, especially if you're teaching a grade level that is the start or end of a big transition year. For example, the fifth-grade teachers at one school I worked at did this with their students. Then, when the students went to middle school the following year, they would mail the letters to them at the end of the school year.

One of the great things about having students write a letter to their future selves is that it gives them the chance to think about their lives differently and be more intentional about their education. It can also be a great way to make predictions about how they will get along in middle school.

9. Make Getting to Know You Fortune Tellers 

At some point, most students get into making fortune tellers, so why not use it to your advantage and make it into a fun getting to know you activity. Have students create their own fortune teller using a pattern or template in the classroom. You might even consider using some of the prompts I've shared in my post 20 Questions to Get Kids Talking .

You can pre-write some questions onto the template before copying it, or you can allow students to add their own questions. If you have students add their own questions to the template, be sure to remind them not to write anything too personal. Fortune tellers are fun, but you'll need to monitor students to ensure the questions being asked are school-appropriate.

When they use their fortune teller with a peer, the classmate must answer the question under the flap they selected. Then they can mingle again and repeat the process.

Add a little music, like Musical Chairs, to make it extra fun. Of course, whoever they are standing near when the music stops is their partner that round.

Covid hint for First Week of School Activities – This is also an awesome idea for reducing germs that often spread during some team-building activity ideas commonly used at the beginning of the year – like the questions on a beach ball activity.

10. Create All About My-Selfies! 

The 10th activity I want to share is one that upper elementary students and middle school students love! If you're working with a grade level interested in social media, this can be a fun way to tap into this. You can grab this project here.

I've done this activity in two ways in the past.

Option 1: Have students identify what makes them unique.

First, I've had students draw a selfie showing something about them that makes them unique. Then they write a caption and hashtags to match. We did these on phone templates and used them to make a cute display. However, they were also a great talking point between students.

Option 2: Play Secret Selfie

The other option is a guessing game, which can be fun if students have been together for several years and think they already know one another pretty well. In this case, prompt students to draw a picture that matches various likes and dislikes into each square. For example, you might say, “Draw something that represents your favorite color in the first frame.” Continue this until you've done the entire 9 or 12-square.

Once all the boxes are complete, students draw a secret selfie (or take a picture of each student) to place underneath and attach their clues over the top, like in the image below. Then display them with numbers attached and have students try to guess who is who!

This is also a great one for displaying during Open House! It is entertaining to watch parents try to guess which one their child made!

The benefits of taking time for All About Me activities during the First Week of School

Classroom community matters. Students who feel connected to their teacher and classmates are more likely to do well and less likely to drop out.

In addition, all About Me activities create a safe environment for students to share personal information and build relationships. It is surprising how much safer it is to share personal opinions when your class feels safe and comfortable with one another.

By including all about me ideas as part of your first week of school activities, the classroom transforms into a community, and your elementary students become less nervous when it's time for them to share their ideas and opinions.

How do you foster classroom community from the very first day?

The First Week in First Grade

I wanted to stop by today and share some a few of my “go-to” activities during the first week of school to build our classroom community and set expectations for the year!

During the first few days of school, we are setting the tone for the rest of the year. Our students are looking to see what kind of teacher we will be and making judgements about their school year. They’re deciding if school is a place they want to come or a place they dread. The choices we make at the beginning of the year can have a lasting impact!

As instructional demands increase each year, it’s easy to want to jump right into our curriculum as soon as possible. We think we can teach routines while we’re teaching other things, and that we can build community during our district mandated curriculum. While it is possible to review routines and procedures in the middle of instruction, our students aren’t getting the necessary TIME to practice. I believe that starting slow lets us go fast later in the year. When we make sure every student knows exactly what’s expected, and they get the time to discuss and practice, we will have less interruptions when we finally start our regular schedule and instruction.

I’m including tons of ideas in this post for you for you to add in when it makes sense! But if you’re looking for a detailed schedule of the first week in my classroom, you can download it for free by clicking the picture below!

Each day includes a daily schedule, to-do list, and activities to include! All of the activities can be found in my First Week Survival Kit.

Teaching Transitions

If I was honest, I would say that a LOT of the behaviors I have to correct happen during transitions. Once my kiddos are engaged, I typically am only having to remind my most challenging students what’s expected. But transitions are less structured, and my students struggle to control their impulses. Once I realized that, I knew I needed to EXPLICITLY teach what is expected during transitions during the first few days. We can do entire lessons on transitions just like we would on a language standard.

In the hallway, for example, my students know exactly what they should do and how it should look. Before we go on our first bathroom break, we come to the carpet and talk about hallway behavior. We not only discuss how it looks, we also discuss the why . I ask how it feels when you’re concentrating hard on something, and you hear kids playing in the hallway. (It feels distracting, it makes me want to go play too, I forget what I was working on.) Even in teaching transitions, I’m helping my students be empathetic. We don’t want to be the reason another student can’t do their work.  Then we’re ready to discuss the specifics about expectations. Together, we create an anchor chart. (Before the lesson, I have cut the pieces out but only the title is on the chart.) As I add things to the chart, I’m having students model inappropriate and appropriate. (I like to have my challenging students be my models…they usually love the attention, and I can remind them that they DO know how to do it.)

We practice, practice, practice and for the first several weeks (possibly months) this chart is hanging by the door for us to review before we leave. We also have this poem hanging and read it often.

 Some days I might choose to reward students who are doing a great job, but I’m constantly coming back to our discussion about helping other students learn. We want THAT to be the reward and motivation. 🙂

Even though we don’t have an anchor chart for “Coming to the Carpet,” or “Lining Up” I make sure to give clear directions. I hold up my fingers for each step and it works like magic! We use this anytime we’re leaving our desk. (MOST students don’t need this. They just know not to act crazy, hahaha. But you will have some that do, and it’s best to just start off strong. This (***hopefully) keeps our energetic little buddy from jumping out of his seat and running to the line full speed.) We practice over, and over, and over…until you want to never practice it again. That’s when you know you’ve practiced it enough!! 🙂

• Push My Chair In
• Walk Silently

Once we start workstations, and rotations we’ll have specifics for that as well. During the first week, we DO start Reader’s Workshop so I make sure to decide ahead of time if they should have their book box at their desk or pick it up on the way to their spot. We also practice finding a quiet reading spot a LOT. We discuss problems that might come up (what if we both want the same spot) and how to resolve them (in my classroom, we use paper-rock-scissors to resolve those types of conflicts.)

Lunch/Recess Time

Before we discuss expectations, I wanted to share my opinion about lunch and recess. I truly believe it is my students’ time, and my expectations should respect that. I don’t think it’s fair to ask students to eat silently…I would never want to eat silently. I also don’t think it’s fair to take recess time on the first day to practice expectations and safe play at recess. I think that’s additional time we find during the first few days (which is why we don’t start our curriculum.) . On the first day, our students need recess more than they need ANYTHING. They’ve gone from hours and hours of free time to a very structured setting. Most likely, the first few days won’t be full of fun science experiments and group work…they’ll be full of lots of read-alouds, discussions, and modeling. It makes it even more important that we give our students this time. BUT…it means I need to find time before lunch and recess to talk about playground safety, lunch expectations, etc. In my classroom, we go to the cafeteria in the morning and I show them where their table is, where they get lunch, etc. Then we head out to the playground and talk about how to use the equipment, and what it looks like to play safely. Before their recess time, I will remind them but that is their time to play. After that, we come back to the room for our discussion about lunch room expectations. I love using sorts for this type of discussion, because they find the “silly” choices hilarious. (Unfortunately, they will probably all happen haha!)

(I believe in using natural consequences. If a student has trouble with the expectations after several reminders, I’m not going to have them move their clip or lose a privilege. They’re just going to keep practicing until they can get it right. If they’re being unsafe at recess, I will give them a few reminders. Then we will have to use their recess time to practice appropriate behavior.)

Classroom Community

Before we start our curriculum, it’s so important that my students know our classroom is a safe place for risk-taking, and that we are all learners. I love to ask “What do you need from your teacher?” I get insight into their experience in school, and what motivates them. But it also shows them that I am learning with them, and we are all in this together.

I feel like when I let them tell me what THEY need, it’s alot easier for me to explain what I need. My FAVORITE read aloud for this is My Teacher is a Monster by Peter Brown. If you haven’t read it, please do!! The little boy thinks his teacher is a monster, but he learns she isn’t at all! After our teacher discussion, we can have a discussion about what makes a good student (doesn’t give up, tries their best, is kind.)

Because we spend about 45 minutes each week on character education , I typically just do read-alouds and discussions each day during the first week on kindness, friendship, etc.. I actually start teaching HOW to be kind and respectful the following week…during our morning meeting and character education lessons.  We DO read The Recess Queen  and talk about being a good friend.

Classroom Materials 

During the first few days, I build in lots of time for free exploration with math tools. I think if we jump right into them as manipulatives, our little ones will be dreaming about all the cool things they could do with them. I typically do this for about 30-45 minutes, which gives me time to organize my paperwork and things.

We also talk a LOT about using supplies correctly (pushing the marker cap down until you hear the click <—-Monica Geller). During this week, it’s so important to remember that saying “put it up” isnt enough. They need to know…WHERE do I put it up? HOW do I put it up? WHO puts it up? If I don’t teach it explicitly, I can assume it’s be a time sucker for the rest of the year. I try to find opportunities to use lots of different supplies during the first week so we can talk about how to use them!

After reading Chyrsanthemum , I love to do a directed drawing and them let them paint their work. It gives me the opportunity to really talk about how to use the paint, how to clean up, etc. When we use it later in the year, I don’t have to waste time on the procedures and we can jump right in! (I love to let my kiddos paint…I try to do it at least once a month. It truly doesn’t take that much longer than coloring, and they take SO much more pride in their work.)

We also talk a LOT about using glue. I go over this poem with them and then we practice a LOT on this little craft. I pre-cut squares and they make their name with the squares. It gives them the opportunity to practice using one drop of glue…if they don’t, their paper is super messy and it’s a good natural consequence. It’s also a great fine-motor assessment! You could also cut out bigger squares and let them make the first letter in their name if that works better for your kiddos! 🙂

To make sure I cover everything I need to, I make sure to check them off my routines checklist. I love having this sheet to make sure I hit everything!

All of the photos in this post are linked to my First Week Survival Kit , with the exception of a few other ones. 🙂 Thank you SO much for reading! I hope it was helpful in planning your first week of school! Don’t forget to grab your FREE lesson plans at the top of this post!

Copyright 2024 Teaching with Haley. All Rights Reserved.

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Powerful, Evidence-Backed Ways to Connect With Students in the First Week of School

Start the new school year on the right foot with these research-backed tips.

The first day of school often arrives with a mixture of anticipation, excitement, and dread. It’s natural to worry a bit and take a mental inventory of every possible scenario that could transpire over the course of a year in your classroom. While planning for that pivotal first day, consider setting aside the lesson plan, forgoing homework, and dropping the lecture on rules and policies. Your time and energy are better spent making a strong first impression, laying the groundwork for positive relationships with your students, and designing your classroom to be welcoming and inclusive.

“Creating a ‘just right’ classroom environment where all students feel they belong is key to a successful school year,” writes former elementary school teacher Cheryl Abla. “The first five days can set you and your students up for a joyful and successful year or semester.”

Here are six tips to help get the school year off to a fantastic start.

1. Start With a Clean Slate

Teacher expectations exert a powerful force on how students behave in the future, a recent study indicates, and starting the school year labeling some as “troublemakers” can undermine relationships from the get-go and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the first day of school, give every student a chance to start with a clean slate. It’s a crucial step in establishing—and repairing—relationships, researchers explain in a 2020 study , and ignoring it can cause relationships to quickly deteriorate, the researchers warn.

“No matter what, give that student a clean slate, a chance to start fresh,” suggests fifth-grade teacher Lisa Mims. She recalls getting a note from one student who thanked her for sticking by him despite getting on her nerves. “If I had treated this child according to the behavior he had exhibited in previous years, he would have never have had the amazing year he ended up having.”

2. Tackle the First-Day Jitters Head-On

If you skip the emotional work at the start of the year, you’ll pay for it down the line, especially if your students are in the midst of crucial transitions. In a 2019 study , researchers from University of Wisconsin–Madison and Stanford asked incoming middle school students—who face circumstances marked by “decreased social belonging, waning academic performance, and increased risk of dropping out”—to read stories from older students describing their own struggles to fit in during middle school.

In one example, a former student wrote that they were “scared of taking big tests” but then discovered that it’s a normal—even common—feeling. In another example, a sixth grader described how they didn’t feel like they fit in at first but then made an effort to talk to other students. “It took time, but I ended up making some close friends.”

The incoming middle school students then participated in short writing exercises, reflecting on what they had read and thinking about how they could manage and even overcome their own challenges. By the end of the school year, these students were absent 12 percent less of the time, had 34 percent fewer behavioral referrals, and received 18 percent fewer Ds or Fs, compared with their peers.

Consider setting aside time early in the year to allow students to journal or talk about the stresses inherent to the start of a year: How will they handle busy schedules? Do they have good study habits—and if not, how might they improve them? What plans do they have for making friends?

3. Mind Your Visuals

Are your classroom walls warm and inviting? Do they reflect your students’ backgrounds and interests? A strong first impression often starts with the visual elements of your classroom—the posters, decorations, and learning aids that make students feel welcome while sparking their curiosity.

Putting up images, short stories, and quotes that feature heroes and leaders from all walks of life can signal to students that they’re “valued learners and belong within the classroom, with far-reaching consequences for students’ educational choices and achievement,” researchers explain in a 2014 study . Curricular material should also reflect the student body. For example, researchers discovered that adjusting images and examples to mirror students’ own cultures boosted course grades by nine percentage points, according to a 2019 study .

Meanwhile, make an effort in the first few weeks of school to showcase student work—doing so can “create a sense of ownership” that’s “significantly correlated with learning progress,” according to a 2015 study .

4. Bank Relationship Time 

Students will go the extra mile academically if you invest time into building trust and establishing a supportive environment, suggests a comprehensive 2022 study . The most effective teachers, the researchers concluded, strike a balance between relationships and rigor, resulting in productive classrooms filled with students who “engage in more challenging academic activities, behave more appropriately for the school environment, are genuinely happy to see their teacher, and meet or exceed their teacher’s expectations.”

On the first day of school, start with classic relationship-building strategies: positive greetings at the door, playing the name game , and planning get-to-know-you activities . After breaking the ice, invest in activities that promote a sense of belonging for all students. You can start by asking students to share a rose and thorn about their summer vacation, set aside a few minutes every day to check in on students or conduct surveys to learn more about their interests, or have them create identity portraits , which can be displayed on the walls and can significantly improve a sense of belonging and acceptance in your classroom.

5. CoCreate a Social Contract

You may be tempted to start the school year by taking the reins of the classroom and setting firm rules and policies—but a heavy-handed approach can backfire, leading to constant power struggles for the rest of the year. Be careful that you don’t “unwittingly engage in a negative reinforcement pattern,” researchers caution in a 2016 study , since frequently reprimanding students in front of their peers can cause them to withdraw, creating a cold or even combative environment.

Instead, share the space: Invite students to take responsibility for how the classroom is run. It’s often more effective when “classroom rules are negotiated instead of imposed,” researchers explain in a 2016 meta-analysis of effective classroom management strategies, arguing for an approach that invites students to cocreate classroom rules.

It doesn’t have to be a free-for-all. At the beginning of the year, Bobby Shaddox, a seventh-grade social studies teacher in Portland, Maine, invites students to identify 10 adjectives that describe a smooth-running classroom. Students offer words like “focused,” “considerate,” and “resourceful,” which Shaddox then displays on the board to refer to throughout the school year. “It helps us own the behavior in the classroom,” Shaddox says . “Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together. These are words that we believe in.”

6. Be the Calmness They Need 

There will be a few students whose mission is to get under your skin. But escalating tense situations and reacting to every provocation is more often than not a mistake, according to a 2021 study . That’s because “emotions are contagious,” say researchers, and negative emotions displayed by the teacher can have long-lasting, pass-along effects.

When students push your buttons, try your best to tap into your reservoir of compassion and empathy, suggests Amanda Morin, an educator and director of thought leadership at Understood.org. Take a moment to catch your breath, regroup, and then try to look for the reason behind the student’s behavior by asking questions like “Is something bothering you?” and “Are you OK?” Doing so shows that you care about them personally and can look past the choices they make.

It’s not easy, of course, and it helps to come mentally prepared for conflict avoidance on the first day of school. “Think through scenarios that might happen in your classroom and how you want to respond before the start of the year,” suggests high school teacher and instructional coach Emily Terwilliger. The internal role-playing will pay dividends, providing you with a script to rely on when the going gets tough—and giving you a chance to ”make those first redirects and interventions less intimidating.”

Happy Back-to-School season!

One question newer teachers always ask their colleagues is: “What do I do the first week of school?”

My answer is always the same: “Routines and procedures sprinkled in with content.”

What I mean by this is as educators we have to prepare our students to be successful and by just diving right into new content knowledge, we aren’t meeting students where they are. We must teach students in a detailed, repetitive way how to navigate the new world in our classroom from the first thing to do once they enter to the last thing.

That is where teachers feel overwhelmed. How can I possibly teach students how I expect them to behave and interact in my classroom when I have a laundry list of content topics I have to teach starting day one?

Some teachers might suggest just focusing on teaching academic and behavioral procedures the first few days of school and the content can wait until later. On the other hand, other teachers might suggest diving right into content and students will just figure out procedures later on.

As you can imagine, neither of these scenarios sets students up for success because the magic is in synergy of the two working together.

I suggest teaching light content with room to go over procedures. Here’s why:

If we just teach procedure after procedure, students are not understanding its connection to their everyday learning experience because it is taught in isolation. When you begin to teach content and a procedure is required naturally, that is the time to teach it. Now students can understand how and why they must follow procedures. Plus, teaching procedures is a nice brain break from learning rigorous content as students get back into the swing of things after school starting.

Here’s an example of a first day of school schedule for a third grade classroom:

• 8:00 – Welcome students at the door, students find their seats labeled with a name tag, unpack and store supplies, and begin an assignment placed on the desk or board
• 8:15 – Take attendance, share personal introduction + daily entry procedure
• 8:20 – Social Studies + interactive notebook procedure
• 9:00 – Reading + small group rotations procedure
• 10:45 – Writing + mini lesson transition procedure
• 11:30 – Specials + hallway procedure
• 12:15 – Lunch + bathroom procedure
• 12:45 – Recess + Playground rules and expectations
• 1:15 – 2:45 – Math + centers and early finisher procedures
• 2:45 – Homework and  Announcements + closing procedures
• 2:55 – Dismissal + Bus expectations

In terms of what to do the rest of the week, continue with a light content load while sprinkling in more procedures. If you need ideas for activities to do with students, I suggest any of these:

• Learner Survey
• Student Goal Setting Graphic Organizer
• “What do you think?” Group Discussion 
• First Day of School Photo Prop Signs
• Meet Your Classmates Class Book
• “About Me” Writing Sample
• “First Day Jitters” Read Aloud/Novel Study
• Making a Change in your Community Reflection Activity (Michael Jackson theme)
• “Who Is Your Buddy?” Get to Know You Activity

Remember, just because you teach something one time does not mean students will master it. The first few days of school you will continue rolling out the same procedures with less support each day while adding in a few more procedures to close out the week. By the end of week one, a routine is becoming more apparent and each block of time is devoted to teaching more content and less procedures.

A quick note, I generally do not pull small groups the first week because 1) I do not have students sorted into appropriate achievement and/or skill levels yet and 2) I observe and manage behavior expectations heavily during the first week until students can appropriately adhere to classroom protocol without teacher intervention.

With that said, week two is where I can finally take any pre-test data and place students into appropriate groups and begin rolling out small group and 1:1 meeting procedures. Content is in full swing now, but I always take time to re-roll out procedures after long weekends or holiday breaks from school.

This method of teaching content immediately while sprinkling in procedures where it naturally is appropriate has ensured a well-run classroom of high student achievement. Intentional and purposeful planning, whether its content or procedure, is a teaching best practice.

My last bit of advice is to check with your administrative team to see what safety protocol they require you teach (fire, tornado, earthquake, lock down drills, etc.). There are often school-wide drills to be completed mandated by the city the first month of school.

Above all else, have a great time teaching because these kids look up to you and already love you as their teacher!

If you need ideas for what to be preparing before the school year begins, snag this list here .

What do you do the first week of school?

About the author, Gretchen

I am a teacher trainer and coach. Working elbow to elbow with teachers and teacher leaders to ensure instructional proficiency and student achievement soar lights me up. We have a real need in our nation for strong educators to remain in the field. My blog, book, podcast, courses and instructional materials are geared towards empowering teachers (and those that lead them) to receive the support needed to grow and thrive today, tomorrow and always.

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The First Week Of First Grade Plans

Easy to prep activities for the first week of school.

The first week of school is filled with so many emotions: happy, anxious, excited, nervous, sad, busy, stressed… Just to name a few! Planning for the first week of first grade after getting your classroom ready, Back To School Night, and meetings can be really difficult. I’m excited to share some of my favorite activities that I use during the first week of school. They all come from my First Week Of School Essentials resource . You can also grab the ultimate first week bundle here .They can be used in first or second grade. For another post that I have about back to school, click here .

The Morning Of The First Day

The day before the first day of school, I set up each student’s desk with a coloring page, playdough, and a laminated playdough mat. I set it up the night before because it’ll save me time in the morning. I started doing this years ago and it was one of the smartest first day of school tricks I have ever done! Students are busy building and creating, while I am busy doing all the things- trying to remember how to take attendance, chatting with parents, putting kids’ supplies away, hugging students who are sad and scared, etc.

Classroom Tour

On the first day of school, I always give a classroom tour. Classroom tours can be really boring when you are walking around, just showing where everything is. I hang these little signs up on the item and students walk around the room to find them. They write the item and then draw where it is in our classroom. This makes the tour more fun!

Musical Chairs

Everyone loves Musical Chairs! Just like regular musical chairs, put the chairs in a circle. Put one less than the number of students you have. So, if you have 20 students then put 19 in a circle. Play the music (I play Kids Bop music). Stop the music and whoever doesn’t have a chair has to draw a card and answer the question. Then, they go around again. I never have someone be “out” like Musical Chairs. We just keep playing!

Learn The Rules

Talking to your students about the classroom rules is obviously something you will want to talk about during the first week of school. I usually make rules with my students, but I like to play this game called, “Your Teacher Says”, which is kind of like, “Simon Says”. There are cards with things they should do and shouldn’t do. If it’s something they should do, then they should actually do it. If it’s something they shouldn’t do, then they should just stand there.

School Tour

During the first week of school (sometimes it happens on the first day of school… Sometimes it doesn’t), I always give a school tour. I hang the signs up the night before. Then, I read The Gingerbread Man Loose In The School and then we go on a school tour following the signs. The gingerbread man (my awesome teammate) leaves cookies in our classroom at the end. My kids talked about it all school year! Some of them kept saying, “Remember how the gingerbread man left us those notes and cookies?”

Goal Banners

During the first week of school, I like to have my students make goal banners to hang in our classroom. It is fun to look at throughout the year to see where we started with our goals. It’s also fun to see how their handwriting has improved! I like these banners because I think reflecting on where they’re coming from and looking ahead to where they would like to be is really important for the beginning of the school year.

Kissing Hand Activities

The Kissing Hand is a staple on the first day of first grade. There are a few activities that I like to do with the book after we read it. We usually talk about how we are feeling on the first day and graph it. We also talk about who is special to us and draw it on a heart. I put these hands on a bulletin board for students to look at throughout the school year.

Dismissal Tags

Getting your students home safely and the correct way is the most important part of the day! Feeding them, caring for them, and getting them home correctly are the most important things about the first day of school. Dismissal always stressed me out actually so that’s why I made these bracelets. Then, I can double check the bracelet pretty easily before they get on the bus or go the car. I also color code them so I’ll print all the bus tags on pink, all the car tags on yellow, etc.

Plan Your First Week Of First Grade

Get your planning time back this back to school season! You can plan your first week of first grade with our First Week of First Grade Activities Pack . Build classroom community and a solid foundation for your school year with this wide variety of activities! You and your students will learn about one another and make special connections with these unique, easy to prep ice breakers and games. Easily informally assess your students with kindergarten review and early first grade skills with the no prep worksheets.

Related Posts:

• 5 Fun and Educational Activities For Back To School
• Back To School Night Checklist

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First Week of School Activities: Create Memorable Moments Together

Seven first week of school activities and lessons to make the start of school memorable. The perfect way to welcome a new class of students during back to school.

Memorable First Week of School Activities

At the start of every school year, It’s a good idea to have some lessons and activities that make the first few weeks back extra special. As the kids adjust, get acquainted, and learn the new demands of a new grade, it’s nice to offer them fun and memorable opportunities to connect. Check out these seven lessons and classroom activities to make the start of school memorable!

Personal Touches for the First Week of School

Add a few personal touches to your classroom decor and students’ materials. These little things can make a big difference!

1. Name Art

Kids find it exciting when they find their names on things. Create a unique way to display their names on items within the classroom. They will feel welcome and that they are an important part of the classroom community.

• Even something as simple as decorating a bulletin board with artful depictions of each child’s name will play a huge part in welcoming them into the new year.
• You could even try this fantastic photo wall idea : a bulletin board with each child’s portrait and an inspiring message.

2. A Special Something

Just having one small surprise to greet them on their desk the first day can bring a smile to a child’s face who is nervous on the first day. Imagine how you would feel coming back to school to find one of these simple little gifts on your desk!

• Bubbles – A small bottle of bubbles with a tag that says, “I’ve been bubbling with excitement to meet you.”
• Portraits – Take a photo of each child at Orientation Night. Place them inside a card on their desk for the first day of school. The card can be a special note from you about how glad you are that they are in your class. You can also use the photos for anything you wish. Paste them into portfolio reports for parents throughout the year, and use them on your classroom website or Facebook group. You can also take a second photo at the end of the year to show growth and provide them with an end-of-year card.
• Balls – This is a cute “We’re going to have a ball in ___ grade!” printable – attach it to a small ball from the dollar store, and it’s the perfect little gift.

Engage Kids with First Week of School Activities

Make an extra effort to engage and include each child. When they feel involved, it will help them ease into routines and responsibilities.

3. Class Contract

Involve children in your class when writing your classroom rules and expectations. In this positive method for establishing rules and attitudes, they can develop respectful and responsible behaviors expected in your room, and each child is left feeling like they had a part in creating “A Great Classroom.”

4. Easy and Engaging Games

Distract them from any uncertainty and try one of these games that will help them get acquainted with you, the classroom, and their peers.

• These School “I Spy” printables will keep them searching the room for items on their list and learning where things are located.
• The Toilet Paper game is a unique and hilarious way to start the year, mentioned along with several other fun games and activities.
• Try the Four Corners method for getting to know the kids, which gives them an active way to learn about each other.

First Week of School Activities for Classroom Management

Implement proven methods and procedures for classroom management and organization. These are just a few helpful ideas to consider when planning your classroom management techniques and organizing your room. They are memorable because routines are essential in cementing memories – and you want those memories to be *good* ones!

5. Classroom Meetings

Hold classroom meetings with your class at least once a day (and weekly in depth) to promote and build community in your classroom. These discussion times are part of a routine that will improve attitudes and involve students in learning. This is an ideal time to teach children important social-emotional learning lessons! Help them self-regulate, express their feelings, and develop strong relationships with THESE lessons and activities.

6. Coupon Rewards

Instead of the typical classroom management rewards system – the “treasure box” – save money and use a coupon rewards system! This system is more motivational than the treasure box and doesn’t involve spending money. See it in action HERE !

7. Label and Organize Everything

Chaos is not fun in a classroom, but it can certainly be avoided with a classroom set up neatly in an organized and accessible method for all the children to thrive. Labeling bins, desks, cubbies, and everything children can access is an important way of inviting them to feel comfortable. We want them to help themselves as well as to keep their personal space and shared spaces organized.

The Perfect First Week of School Resources

First week of school social-emotional learning unit.

This  back to school social emotional learning resource  is the perfect companion to your start of school lesson plans. It includes mini-lesson ideas and engaging activities that build connections in the classroom and teach children important social and emotional skills during the most critical time of the year!

The  mind+heart SEL back to school resource   and activities will support kids as they learn important skills. Teach them to be positive classroom community members, develop self-awareness, build new relationships, and act with kindness.

FREE SEL Back-to-School Resource

You can try out the Back to School SEL resource by downloading this freebie today – click the image below!

More GREAT First Week of School Activities

Back to School Ideas for a Stellar First Week

Back to School Classroom Activities

Community Building Activities

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Reader Interactions

Thank you for sharing all your great ideas!!! I have been teaching third grade and now I am going back to first and I have found so many wonderful engaging ideas on your site!!!

Thank you, Tina

Its nice and great idea that i’ve got in this site. Thank you its a bug help fir me this comingschool year 2020-2021

Loved it… Very innovative and useful for my class

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Inspired Together Teachers

What to Do in the First Week of School

August 15, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 1 Comment

Recently, we received a letter from Andrea, a new fourth grade teacher from California.  Andrea sent us a question which is probably on the minds of many of you at this time of year.

Andrea wrote,

“As I begin my first year, I am overwhelmed by a lot. The biggest thing overwhelming me right now is what to do during our first week. Of course, I plan to really layout and enforce those expectations as well as start to build a community within my classroom, but what sort of thing should I be doing curriculum-wise? What sort of fun things can we do?”

Andrea, we love your questions.  The first week of school is an important time to lay the groundwork for a successful school year, but it is also a time to start engaging students in meaningful learning and show them that learning can be fun and engaging!

Here are our suggestions for things you should do during the first week of school:

Be professional.

First impressions matter.  Establish yourself as a teacher, an adult who is confident and in charge.  You don’t need a suit, but you don’t want to look like a student.  The weather may be warm, but this is not the time or place for flip-flops.  Trust us. Yes, some teachers dress very casually, but you want to use every bit of advantage you have to start things off right.  Dress in comfortable clothes and low- heeled shoes.

Professionalism also means being where you are supposed to be.  Do not leave students unsupervised.  Be on time for lunch or recess duty.  Supervise passing time in the hallways. Have a procedure for duties such as attendance and lunch count and take them seriously.

Make students feel welcome.

Welcome students with a sign on the door or in the hallway outside your room.  Great them as they enter the room.  Consider having them create a product in the first few days such as an About Me page to share on a bulletin board.  Another great idea for the first days of school is to ask students to fill out a survey indicating their interests and their strengths and challenges related to your curriculum areas.

Find a few fun, age appropriate community builders and plan to do one each day.  This will help you get to know students and help students get to know each other.

For example, using a marker, write questions on a beach ball such as, What are your favorite foods?  How do you like to spend your free time? What sports do you like?  What kinds of pets do you have? Then get in a circle and throw the ball.  Students answer the question nearest to their right thumb.

Search Pinterest or Google classroom community building activities for many more ideas.

Learn student’s names as quickly as you can.

Seating charts can help.  You may want to create name tags they can wear around their necks or place on their desks.  Greet students by name as they enter the room.  Take pictures of small groups on the first day and label them with names.

Using student’s names as often as possible is good practice.  Dale Carnegie, who wrote the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People noted that “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Knowing student’s names will go a long way towards building respect and ensuring a positive classroom environment.

Teach Procedures.

Have class schedules posted. Have procedures for dismissal, moving to another area of the building, bathroom use and pencil sharpening. Know what your non-negotiables are, and explain them to students. Share your homework policy and what headings you would like students to use at the top of their papers.

Discuss rules and expectations, or consider creating them with students.  This recent article discusses how to create a list of student rights and responsibilities.

Try to keep discussion of rules and procedures to no more than 50 percent of your time in the first week.  You will want to spend 50 % of your time on curriculum, too.

Be prepared with emergency procedures .

Walk students through the plan for fire drills and other emergency procedures.  Know the exit routes from your room.  Have an emergency kit and class lists near the door to grab quickly. You may not have a formal drill in the first week (though some schools require it) but it is a good idea, especially with young children, to practice a drill and set expectations for emergency procedures. Don’t let the first emergency drill catch you unprepared!

Another emergency situation to be aware of is students with medical concerns.  Check student files and be sure you know of students with severe allergies, epi-pens, diabetes or other issues.

Use a little humor.

You may or may not be the funniest person on the planet, but a little humor is often unexpected and welcome.  Share a relevant cartoon or poster. Tell a silly joke that is related to your curriculum.

Why were the early days of history called the dark ages?  Because they were full of Knights.

What do you call a number that can’t keep still? A roamin’ numeral.

Why did the scientist take out his doorbell?  He wanted to win the no-bell prize.

If students are groaning, you have their attention.

You might even have a joke of the day calendar and read it while waiting for announcements.

Plan a read aloud.

Every elementary teacher and possibly secondary teachers should set up a regular read aloud time.  Reading aloud to students is a great way to model many different reading skills and habits and increase reading pleasure.  Most students love to be read to.  Students who love reading will read more and in the process, increase their reading skills.  It is also a chance for secondary students to discover intriguing or fascinating information. Read a chapter a day, and be sure to stop at an exciting spot!

Check out our list of favorite read aloud books . Here is a list of favorite fall books .

Plan an activity to help students become familiar with curriculum materials.

Consider materials that you will use often such as textbooks or websites. Plan a scavenger hunt where students will dig through their books to find examples of things such as indexes, charts and graphs, vocabulary boxes and review sections.  Send them to a website and have students find different sections or different types of information.  Here is a source to get you started planning scavenger hunts .

Plan a few engaging lessons related to your curriculum.

Interactive lessons will engage students more than lectures.  Look through teacher’s guides for problem solving activities, which are often very engaging.  Puzzles are also high interest.  Another idea is to bring in many different resources and have students use different books and materials to find information about a topic and complete a graphic organizer.

Here is an example. To introduce a unit on mammals, one teacher brought in many library books and found many websites related to different animals.  Without defining them, she then gave students a graphic organizer to list as many examples as they could of mammals and non-mammals.  Then students looked at their examples and in small groups, made lists of characteristics of mammals and non-mammals.

Plan at least one portion of each class period during the first week for exploring and getting excited about the curriculum.

Plan a small group activity.

Many students learn best through social interaction. Plan a small group activity that will get them up and moving and talking with others. This will allow you to assess their social skills, and see who the class leaders are.

Give students clear directions and clear explanations for the task. Have a product they must complete individually, though they are working together. Circulate as they work to answer questions and prevent unwanted behaviors.  Smaller groups of 3-4 are better than larger groups.  Graphic organizers often work well for group work. Small group work often makes for a good assessment of students’ prior experience and knowledge.

Example:  In groups of 3 or 4, create a KWL Chart. Make a list of everything you know about the American Revolution.  List people, events, and places.   Then make a list of things you want like to know or things you think an educated citizen of the United States would need to know.

If you don’t get to them, you can always use your lesson plans another day.  It is far, far better to over plan than to run out of things to do and try to wing it. Do not succumb to the “talk amongst your selves” time filler.  It is a recipe for behavior problems and sets you up as being ineffective.  Have some fillers always at the ready. Teach students a quick review game and use it when you have a few minutes at the end of a period. Have students make a “Top Ten Things We Learned about ____ ”  list.   Have students write exit slips. Read from a book of funny poems or extraordinary events.

The first week of school is both exciting and exhausting.  When you are ready and well-planned, you can enjoy the week.  This is what you have prepared to do and you are ready. This is your time to shine!

Go knock their socks off!

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• Back to School / Class Community / Classroom Management

Back to School with 10 First Week Lessons

by Adrienne · June 19, 2018

The first week of school is unlike any other week of the school year. We are tasked with getting to know 20+ students and establishing a classroom community while still teaching them classroom and school procedures and expectations. Oh, and we have to squeeze it all into a week because we hit the ground running with pacing the following week. It’s exhausting and can be overwhelming. There is no wonder I usually crash on the couch at 5 every night that week.

As I am gearing up for my 8th year in the classroom, I’ve come to realize what really works in my classroom to check off all the boxes mentioned above. Every year I try out a couple new lessons, but I definitely keep my tried and true in the mix. I’ve condensed my back to school must-do’s into 10 lessons that I teach during the first week of school. The first 4 lessons are all about setting up my classroom data wall and establishing behavior/learning expectations. The second set of 6 lessons focus on building my classroom community and fostering relationship not only between the students but between myself and them as well.

I’ve spent some time this summer writing formal lesson plans for my big 10 lessons and creating all the resources you would need to teach them in your class. The resources can be found in my TPT store, by click on the links below.

Building Your Data Wall & Expectations Lessons

Pre-Lesson: Data Wall rundown, graphs, and header

Lesson 1: Crafting a Mission, Vision, and Goals

This lesson helps students establish a class goal for the year and discuss how they will meet it. Students will decide on a weekly goal and set individual goals for themselves.

Lesson 2: Crafting Classroom Expectations

This lesson helps the kids understand what type of behavior is expected of them and what behaviors they can expect from classmates.

Lesson 3: Defining a Quality Student and Teacher

Students will discuss and define what it means to be a quality student and what they expect in a quality teacher. Students also discuss and understand their job/role in the classroom and the job of their teacher and class as a whole.

Lesson 4: Establishing Classroom Procedures

This lesson helps students learn respectful procedures to make the school day and classroom more efficient and effective.

Building Your Classroom Community Lessons

Lesson 5: Student Surveys

This lesson helps you get to know students and how they learn best with class surveys.

Lesson 6: Creating a Birthday Board

Students will help create a birthday board or poster that will hang in their classroom and celebrate them.

Lesson 7: Creating a Class of Problem Solvers

This lessons helps teachers explain to students their expectation for how to best solve problems that may arise in the classroom.

Lesson 8: Laying the Groundwork for Reader Leaders

In this lesson, students will recognize the difference between fake and real reading as well as how to treat books with respect.

Lesson 9: Setting up a Writing Portfolio

This lesson helps students will create a writing portfolio that they will build throughout the year to showcase writing growth and take home at the end of the year as a keepsake. Students will practice writing in response to a prompt.

Lesson 10: Sharing Summer Experiences ( You can download this lesson as a freebie and a sample HERE. )

Students will write about their summer and listen critically to classmates while they share their summer stories.

We can’t forget about the Back to School Read Alouds!

This will be my third year departmentalizing to teach reading and writing in third grade, so you know I’m a sucker for a good read aloud. Below are some of my favorite books to use during the first week.

I am always looking for recommendations for read alouds or lessons for the first week back. Don’t be shy! Drop your ideas below.

Talk to you soon,

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One book I always liked to read aloud to help with book choice was Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians.

I really like your data wall. I never made one when I had my own classroom, but they look very intriguing.

Thank you so much

I am teaching first grade can these lessons be adapted for first grade.

Definitely!

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• Back to School , First Week , Freebies

First Week of School! + FREEBIES!!

Happy first week of school and happy almost first week of school for those who have not started yet! I hope every had and has a wonderful first week! I started back with my students on Monday and we had a wonderful week! My new kiddos are absolutely adorable and so precious! 

I currently have 18 students on my roster which is crazy for me to see! My first and second year of teaching kindergarten I had 30 and 34 students. My third year I had 23 students and now I have only 18! I keep asking our office secretary if some students haven’t shown up yet because I can’t get over how low my roster number is! 

Our first week of school consisted of getting the students comfortable in their new classroom, meeting new friends, learning the rules and procedures, learning our names, math, reading lots of books, doing crafts, and lots and lots of FUN!!!  I teach in a school with a very high ESL population and most students do not attend preschool. The first week of school is very tiring for them and a HUGE adjustment from being away from home and having to be in school for an entire day. I am SOOOO proud of how well my kiddos did though and can’t wait for all there is to come this year!  Here is a look at our first week of school with TONS of FREEBIES for you to enjoy! First Day of School

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The First Week of School in 2nd Grade

I sat down to type up what I did the first week of 2nd grade, but a few thousand words later, I’d only covered the first day! So it seemed like we probably needed 2 posts on that topic.

If you want to know how I organized the first DAY of 2nd grade, check out this post .

If you want to know what I did the rest of the first WEEK of 2nd grade, just keep reading!

There are so many fun, cute, clever back-to-school ideas it can be hard to narrow down what to use. The activities you select are less important than the reason you select them. Define your goals for the first few days of school and select the activities that support those goals.

For me, I determined my most important goals for starting school. I refer to them as ATTA BOY : A ffirming, T raining, T eaching, A ssessing at the B eginning O f the Y ear.

These 4 components are critical to the success of the whole year, so I selected activities to meet those key intentions. I address those objectives by:

• Creating a peaceful, welcoming space.
• Giving students ownership and choice (thank you Responsive Classroom books!)
• Being clear with my expectations so students know the boundaries and limits.
• Recognizing each student as an individual.
• Valuing student contribution
• Providing time for fun and community building.
• Establishing a predictable routine.
• Knowing ahead of time how I want things to run in my class.
• Clearly teaching rules and procedures.
• Providing opportunities to practice routines.
• Offering feedback, praise, and support as students undertake procedures independently.
• Posting class-generated rules.
• Working toward an established daily routine.
• Making students aware ahead of time of the consequences for positive and negative choices.
• Building stamina for time on-task.
• Getting the first lessons underway.
• Reviewing 1st grade material before diving into 2nd grade content.
• Formal testing in literacy and math.
• Grouping students for small group support.
• Making observational assessments of academic and social strengths and struggles.
• Monitoring how well students are able to meet expectations.
• Establishing interventions as early as possible.

Want to create your own goals for ATTA BOY: Affirming, Training, Teaching, Assessing at the Beginning Of the Year?

Click here to download our atta boy goal sheet..

I’m not going to share an hour-by-hour break down of the first week of school (like I did for the first day), but I’ll explain the activities I made sure to incorporate the first two weeks and explain why I feel they were so important .

We practice our morning routine the afternoon of the first day. I want them to know exactly what to do when the arrive in the morning.

The first few days, I make sure I’m stationed by the door during arrival so I can welcome, remind, and redirect.

I have students do attendance, lunch count, and answer the Morning Message . They can then play, read, or get breakfast until the bell rings.

At that point, we get out Morning Work . It takes some training, but after a week or so, students can complete the page independently. They then can get a book tub for the table and read until it’s time to start the day.

The importance of a predictable, efficient morning routine can not be overstated.

It’s vital to the success of your classroom to make intentional decisions about starting the day.

When students know exactly what’s expected and how to achieve that, you:

• set a constructive tone for the whole day
• maximize learning time
• create a peaceful, welcoming environment.

A productive morning routine sets everyone up for a successful day!

Because spiral review is one of the best ways to boost student achievement , I make sure we get it in every day with our Morning Work practice.

Once our Daily 5 stations are up and running, they’ll transition to their first station once they finish their Morning Work page. But for the first month or so, they read from the tub of books at their table while I finish attendance.

After Morning Work , I introduce our Morning Meeting routine. We recite the poem of the month (posted on the wall) while cleaning up Morning Work and transitioning to a circle at the rug.

For the first couple weeks, I introduce each student to the class. “This is my new friend Lily. Everyone say good morning to Lily. Lily, what is your favorite color?” The introduction gets briefer after the first couple days, but I continue asking students a simple question (favorite food, how many siblings, favorite animal, etc.) for a few weeks before introducing the Sharing component of Morning Meeting.

Instead of a game, we learn some songs at first. Action songs like Tooty-Ta and My Aunt Came Back are always favorites. Then we discuss the Morning Message .

We end with a few seconds of closed eyes and deep breathing.

Morning Meeting is an important part of developing our classroom community. It gives us a chance to get to know one another as individuals. It creates a sense of belonging and is a peaceful transition into the academic portion of the day.

The deep breathing really helps focus the energy in the class. Particularly if the kids are worked up after the game or song. With some groups, I’ve ended Morning Meeting with a brief guided meditation because they needed a LOT of refocusing.

On the second day of school, we do lots of fun activities involving the number 2. You can read all about our activities in this post about Two Steps Forward–Celebrating the 2nd Day (or 2nd Week!) of 2nd grade .

The first day has such a focus on rules and procedures and just getting used to being back in school that everyone could use something lighter by Day 2.

So we do lots of fun things: center rotations, stories, craftivities, glyph and graphing, games, and work pages (which students actually really love!).

While the focus on these activities is having a fun time, it actually serves some important purposes.

First , it helps with that affirming goal. By having fun together, students feel more at ease and welcome in our classroom. We’re developing an identity as a community. They can get to know me a little better.

Second , we’re working on training for rules and procedures. They’re learning how to work together and I’m establishing and reinforcing all those expectations we’ve been practicing.

Third , this gives me some informal assessment opportunities. I can see who is struggling with the work pages (which are a first grade-level difficulty). I can start to zero in on potential behavior problems or kids that might need some help with social situations.

Or course the kids don’t realize any of this–they’re just having fun!

We spend 2 days doing Guided Discovery of math tools. I set up centers around the room with different math material (geoboards, pattern blocks, Unifix cubes, counting bears, balance scales, etc.). I try to have enough stations for groups of 3, but sometimes I have a group of 4 (definitely not more than 4 though or the groups become too chaotic!).

The timer beeps after 6 minutes. Each group has 1 minute to clean up and then stand up and look at me as a signal they’re ready to rotate. Then they switch to a new material.

We discuss guidelines, but I don’t do a whole Guided Discovery lesson of each individual math material. Students are allowed to engage with the materials however they wish. We discuss how to be a good partner, what to do when conflicts arise, and how to work as a team.

Math should be hands-on, engaging, and problem solving based. We use a lot of tools and manipulatives and frequently work in small groups. By setting up math rotations, they’re learning the procedures necessary for working in groups.

I want them to see the math materials as tools. These stations give students a chance to get play out of the way so when we’re using them for a lesson they can focus on the math and not the cool thing they can try. At least, that’s the goal.

We begin by talking about all the things we can do, things we love, places we’ve been, memories we’ve had. For the first few days, we record those ideas on graphic organizers. Over the next month, I teach all the routines around our writing time.

If we want independent, successful, engaged writers, we have to give them ownership over their content. For that reason, I don’t use writing prompts during this time. I’m mentoring authors, so I need to make the writing experience as authentic as possible.

Full confession: writing is the trickiest part of the day for me. After 12 years in 2nd grade, I still don’t feel like a confident writing teacher. No More I’m Done by Jennifer Jacobson is a great resource if you struggle teaching writing as well.

On the first and second days of school, I take my class out for a private recess when the playground is empty. On the second day, I introduce our recess equipment (basketballs, jump ropes, etc.), how to check them out, how to care for them, and how to return them. Starting the third day, I send my class out with the other classes.

I want to make sure everyone is solid on playground rules before turning them loose. I really hate wasting time on recess problems, so I try to eliminate as many as possible before they have time to start.

Over the course of the first two weeks, I slowly introduce the materials we’ll be using in our classroom (crayons, scissors, glue, etc.). You can read all about how I introduce them in this post about Guided Discovery of School Tools .

Along with wasting time on recess issues, I hate wasting time solving problems about classroom materials . I basically teach a whole lesson about each material we frequently use so I’m not stuck reteaching my expectations the whole dang year. As Fred Jones says, “Do it right or do it all year long!”

We continue to revisit, review, and rehearse lunch procedures for the first week.

There are a LOT of procedures dealing with lunch time and most of them are completed when I’m off eating my own lunch. I want them independent at this as soon as possible , so we keep practicing even though they’re sick of it by Day 3.

Beginning on the 3rd day, we start our Hopes and Dreams discussion . This is straight from the Responsive Classroom and we’ll spend a few days discussing, setting goals, and drawing. You can read about Hopes and Dreams here and here or in the First Six Weeks of School book.

Again, I’m focused on creating a welcoming, student-centered environment . This activity honors students as individuals and how we combine to form a supportive community.

In a few days, we’ll use our Hopes and Dreams discussion to generate our class rules.

We begin by looking over our Hopes and Dreams and I ask what rules our class will need in order to allow for us to achieve our hopes and dreams. I note student suggestions on Post-It Notes.

I rephrase things in the positive if a student suggestions a negative rule. “You’re right that we shouldn’t push. So what should we do with our hands? Yes, we should keep our hands to ourselves. I’ll write that down.”

Once all the suggestions are recorded, I point out that we have a lot of rules on the board. Could we combine any of them? We start to make groups of rules that go together.

I try to guide them to sort the notes into 3 or maybe 4 groups. “All these rules are about taking care of the school and our school tools. Could we just call this whole group ‘Be responsible with materials?’ And make that one of our rules?”

The next day, I share posters or sentence strips of our 3 rules (usually, be respectful , be responsible , be a friend , or some variation of those). Then I give the kids a 3×3 card to illustrate themselves following one of those rules. I post the rules and the illustrations on the wall for revisiting as the year goes on.

Responsive Classroom, of course, has lots of great resources for establishing and reinforcing rules. You can read about them here  or in the book Rules in School: Teaching Discipline in the Responsive Classroom .

Regardless of reading level, I put a stack of 6 picture books in each student’s book bin. We talk about reading behaviors. I dismiss students to get their books and I assign students spots around the room for reading time.

While students read, I return to my reading table and set a stopwatch. I try to appear busy, but am really watching students. As soon as I see a student off-task, we end reading time for the day.

Students bring their books back to the rug and we graph how long we were able to read. We may try a second time to see if they can push themselves to stay on-task a little longer.

This is all beautifully laid out in the book The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Seriously, they have incredible ideas for establishing your literacy routines! Even though I don’t use Read to Self as one of my Daily 5 rotations, I use their recommendations to launch that routine.

Read about how I do Daily 5 in this post .

After school, I rotate the books in the book bins so everyone has new books for the next day.

Once I have my benchmark data and students are reading for a longer stretch of time, I’ll invite students to meet with me at the back table. We discuss their identity as a reader and I teach them how to get books from the class library. I teach this one-on-one because I have three sections in my class library and I want to make sure they know exactly what’s expected of them at their level.

After students have selected books from the class library, I don’t switch their books out anymore. They’re called back to the library about once a week to switch out their books.

My goal is to build students’ reading stamina till we can read for 30-40 minutes. And, yes, 2nd graders can do that! But they don’t start off there–we have to build slowly.

I want to allow student choice, but I don’t want to waste 30 minutes of the day with my lowest reader trying to plow through a Magic Treehouse Book. I make those books available at other times of the day to all students, but during this time I want students practicing near their independent levels. So they’re assigned certain sections of the class library to select books from (delineated by colored dot stickers).

At my school, the primary grades only have morning recess. However, f or the first week of school, I continue to take students outside in the afternoons . During this time, we play a whole class game.

Two of the biggest causes of recess problems are:

• Disagreements about game rules

I teach them games to give them additional recess choices besides the default girls chase boys (or boys chase girls!). Also, since everyone is learning the game together, everyone understands the same rules. The aim is to prevent future problems.

One afternoon I teach our fire drill procedures. Another afternoon (usually during the 2nd week of school), I introduce our assembly procedures.

At our school, both of these situations have specific expectations. It’s just too chaotic and stressful to teach them in the moment they’re needed.

I begin teaching the routines we’ll use all year: word sorting , Jargon Journal cards , Chunk Spelling , and Daily 5 stations. I teach them like any other routine with Tell, Try, and Tally . I explain/model, they try, they evaluate how well they did.

I want to establish a routine as quickly as possible, so I start teaching these routines at the times of day when they’ll be completed. We do them whole class for the first few weeks, but I gradually release them to work independently.

Of our routines, Daily 5 definitely takes the most training. I start with one station and when they reach 7 minutes of on-task time (we graph it just like we do with reading stamina), I introduce the next station. How long this takes depends on the nature of that particular class.

I alternate between science and social studies units. For the first few weeks, I use that block of time for classroom/social lessons. How to apologize, how to ask to join an activity at recess, how to be a good partner, how to listen, respecting the flag and the pledge, being a friend, accepting consequences of actions, kindness, sharing…

The goal of social studies is to create positive citizens. These sorts of lessons geared to our classroom community are really life-skills that will extend to the wider world.

Students with assigned jobs get to work while the rest of the class gathers at the rug for a read-aloud from a chapter book.

On Fridays, we end with a closing circle instead of the read aloud. Students each share something they’re proud of or something they liked from the week. Next, we all think of a wish, whisper it into our cupped hands, and then release it to float up to the ceiling where they’ll be waiting for us to come back next week. Then we all do the class cheer.

I like ending the day with everyone together. Plus, reading aloud gives us the time flexibility we need at the end of the day.

For the closing circle, I love ending the week with such a positive note . It’s really one of my favorite moments of the week.

I hope this post has given you some ideas about how to maximize your own first week of school.

Be intentional with your choices and make it the best beginning for you and your students!

If you’re looking for additional resources to help you with your first day of school, check out (some affiliate links):

• The First Six Weeks of School from Responsive Classroom
• Rules in School: Teaching Discipline in the Responsive Classroom by Kathryn Brady, Mary Beth Forton, Deborah Porter
• Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones
• The First Days of School by Harry Wong
• No More I’m Done by Jennifer Jacobson
• The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser
• Tools for Guided Discovery
• Morning Work
• Morning Messages

• Read more about: 2nd grade , Back to School

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After a combined 14 years in 2nd grade, sisters Heidi & Emily are passionate about helping simplify life for other teachers!

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