The first day of school can be a scary thought for a teacher!! The kiddos just thought they were nervous... hehe I'm always afraid that I am going to forget to do something that is oh so important, and ruin our entire first day. However, I realize there is no perfect first day, but I have put together an agenda to help me throughout our first day of Kindergarten!
The most important things that I stress for the first day of school are:
1. Read First Day Jitters, chart our first day emotions, and drink jitter juice!!
2. Find out what your students want to learn in KG.
3. Procedures/Expectations
3. Procedures/Expectations
4. Memorabilia (photo, writing name, etc.)
5. Tour the School
5. Tour the School
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1. Obviously, one of my favorite activities to do with my kinders is read First Day Jitters. There are so many different and fun activities out there that corresponds with this book. We will begin with reading the book, discussing how we feel, chart how we feel, and make jitter juice to calm our nerves.
This is our simple chart that will put our name above the emotion we were feeling. Students can choose: happy, scared, or sad. I noticed that having fewer options helped my kinders decide how they were feeling instead of having all kinds of different emotions.
1. Obviously, one of my favorite activities to do with my kinders is read First Day Jitters. There are so many different and fun activities out there that corresponds with this book. We will begin with reading the book, discussing how we feel, chart how we feel, and make jitter juice to calm our nerves.
2. This is a fabulous idea to do with your kiddos that I seen The Kindergarten Smorgasboard do in his classroom. You ask each student what he/she wants to learn in Kindergarten. Record all answers and revisit at the end of the year. This way you are seeing some of the interests and expectations that your kinders have upon entering your classroom. A completed line on this chart would read:
Mrs. Moss wants to learn how to read.
3. Go over classroom rules, expectations, and procedures. I defintiely reccomend keeping around 4 to 5 classroom rules. The less confusing vocabulary used with those rules, the better.
Also, it is extremely important to model EVERYTHING you expect out of you students. From walking in the hall way to pushing in their chair. Model, model, model, people! How will your students know the perfect way to sit on the carpet if we do not model this for them??? Yes, what an awful thought! hehe Our kiddos learn from us so make sure you are patient and review the way you want things done within your classroom. This will lead to a fun and less chaotic year!
Some things I like to model for my kinders:
Lining up
walking in the hall
bathroom behavior
washing hands, # of soap pumps, etc.
how to sit on the carpet
listening when others are talking
4. Memorabilia
The very first day of school, I always give my students a piece of handwriting paper that has their name written on it. After a small five minute lesson on how we write on handwriting paper, I let students trace their name, and write their name on the following lines. No, this will not be a masterpiece, but it shows me who can hold a pencil and/or write their name.
I also like to do a hand print activity with each student. This is nothing fancy. I created a simple handout that each child put their hand print on, and I will send this home at the end
of the first week.
Take a first day photo of each students. This does not have to be fancy either. I wrote "My First Day of Kindergarten" on a large chalkboard and had each child take their picture with it. Want to get fancy? Take your kiddos outside and take photos. There all kinds of creative first day photo ideas on Pinterest!
3. Go over classroom rules, expectations, and procedures. I defintiely reccomend keeping around 4 to 5 classroom rules. The less confusing vocabulary used with those rules, the better.
Also, it is extremely important to model EVERYTHING you expect out of you students. From walking in the hall way to pushing in their chair. Model, model, model, people! How will your students know the perfect way to sit on the carpet if we do not model this for them??? Yes, what an awful thought! hehe Our kiddos learn from us so make sure you are patient and review the way you want things done within your classroom. This will lead to a fun and less chaotic year!
Some things I like to model for my kinders:
Lining up
walking in the hall
bathroom behavior
washing hands, # of soap pumps, etc.
how to sit on the carpet
listening when others are talking
4. Memorabilia
The very first day of school, I always give my students a piece of handwriting paper that has their name written on it. After a small five minute lesson on how we write on handwriting paper, I let students trace their name, and write their name on the following lines. No, this will not be a masterpiece, but it shows me who can hold a pencil and/or write their name.
I also like to do a hand print activity with each student. This is nothing fancy. I created a simple handout that each child put their hand print on, and I will send this home at the end
of the first week.
Take a first day photo of each students. This does not have to be fancy either. I wrote "My First Day of Kindergarten" on a large chalkboard and had each child take their picture with it. Want to get fancy? Take your kiddos outside and take photos. There all kinds of creative first day photo ideas on Pinterest!
5. Tour the School
This can be super fun!!! I like to tour the school on each phase-in day with my kinders, and then have a scavenger hunt once we are all at school on Thursday.
I hope you have found some ideas that you can implement into your classroom. I hope to update this post with more ideas once I get my kiddos, and we get some arts and crafts going in our classroom.
Happy Teaching!
