Are you wondering what activities for the first day of school you can use to get to know your students and to teach your classroom routines and procedures? The first day of school for teachers is just as important as the first day for students. The first day of school can make or break your entire school year.
This will be my 24th first day of school. Over the years, I have learned what works and what doesn’t work to start the school year off successfully. The most important thing is to keep your activities for the first day of school simple so you can spend lots of time teaching your students the routines and procedures that will make your classroom run smoothly for the rest of the year.
If you’re new to teaching or have difficulty with classroom management, see my blog about how to teach classroom routines and procedures here.
Before the First Day of School
The first day of school for teachers is dependent upon how prepared you are. Copies should be made. Routines and procedures thought out. Student materials ready on their desk/tables. Try to get these copies made several days before school starts so you’re not fighting another teacher for the copier or wasting precious time waiting for the copier to be free. I know sometimes there are last minute things to run, but try to avoid it. I also pass out a very simple activity the students can complete without much direction from me. One of the simplest activities for the first day is to draw a picture of the teacher they can take home to help their families remember the teacher’s name.
I also spend a lot of time considering how I want my classroom to run. You cannot teach routines that you haven’t thought out properly. They won’t work or help your classroom run smoothly. If you missed my last blog post about how to teach classroom routines and procedures, you can find that here and download a free checklist with ideas for what routines you should have ready to go.
Finally, make sure student materials are ready for them. When I prepare their school boxes, I make sure to label EVERYTHING in their school box. I use a number system in my classroom that really helps things run smoothly. I’ll be writing another blog about that soon. Students are given a number on the first day of school. Everything in their box has that number on it, along with their cubby and other items around the room. The number system makes it easy to prepare long before you even know your students’ names.
Activities For the First Day of School
The Morning
Arrive at school as early as you can on the first day. Things always come up that weren’t planned. And if you’re lucky enough that nothing pops up, at least you’ll be calm and totally ready for the first day. The rest of this post will rely on my school’s daily schedule and can be adjusted however it makes sense to you. Your school may also have different systems so you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
7:50-8:00– My school starts at 8:00, but I open my classroom door and start introducing myself to parents and students and allowing them to enter the classroom. I ask the parents to help find their child’s desk, locate the name tag, and put it on. Once students are seated, I ask them to start drawing a picture of me. You can get these activities for the first day of school here.
Once the parents have left. I direct their attention back to the picture of me. Then, I ask them to take a look at it and ask them if it looks like me. Last, I ask them about the color of my hair, whether they drew two eyes, a nose, and mouth, etc. I give them a few minutes to finish up while I take attendance. Our attendance is due as early as possible on the first few days of school so they can keep track of how many students we have in class.
When all of the parents and students have been greeted, I ask if any parents would like to take a picture of their child with me. This will usually only take about 5 minutes and makes the parents happy. 🙂
After picture time, I tell the parents to say goodbye to their students. I let them know it’s time for them to head out and reassure them their students will be fine with me. Most years I don’t have any criers, but in the event there is a crier, I firmly ask the parent to leave. The worst thing you can do is let the parent stay until the child stops crying. Unfortunately, students will tend to do the same thing every day if they think their parents can stay when they cry.
Clean Up and Go to Carpet Area
8:30– At this point, I teach the routine of cleaning up their materials. We talk about what to do with their papers. I go to one of the student’s desks and show the whole class how to put their crayons back into the crayon box, pencils into their pencil box, etc. We also talk about how they shouldn’t have taken out their dry erase markers, scissors, or glue because we didn’t need them for this project.
Next, I teach an attention-getter. My absolute favorite attention getter is “Hands on top.” I teach the students how every single time they hear “Hands on top,” they stop whatever they’re doing, put their hands on their head, and say “That means stop.” We practice a few times so they get the hang of it. They keep their hands on their heads until I say “Hands down low.” They say “That means go” and return to their activity. We use this attention-getter several times throughout the first few days of school before I teach any other attention getters. I want to make sure they are really good at it.
There are two more routines before we go to the carpet area. The first routine is how to show their table is ready to be dismissed. The second is HOW to go to the carpet area.
In order to teach the students my expectations for dismissing groups from their tables to go to the carpet, I look around for someone whose desk is clean, is sitting quietly, and looking at me. When I find that person, I walk over to them and make a big deal about how nice they’re sitting. We talk about how this person has a clean desk, is sitting up straight with their hands folded, and is looking at me waiting for directions. I ask them all to copy this person.
Next, before I can dismiss a table to go to the carpet area, I also teach them what I expect when I call their table. If I have an absent student, I sit down at this student’s desk, and sit the way I just taught them. As they’re looking at me, I model how I want them to go to the carpet area. First, I stand up and push my chair in (so no one trips on it), walk quietly to my assigned carpet spot, and sit down criss-cross applesauce with my hands in my lap. I make sure to talk them through it and model it a couple of times before I call on any of the tables. Once I feel like they understand the routine and expectations, I will call on one table to practice this routine.
The class will watch this table group and we will discuss if they all remembered all the parts. Did they push their chairs in? Did they walk quietly? When they got to the carpet, did they go to the correct spot? Did they sit quietly? I make sure to lay on thick the positive reinforcement. “Wow, table one did such a nice job coming over the carpet are following all the steps. I wonder if table two can do a good job as well.” They will ALWAYS try to beat the other group. Again, we watch to make sure everyone is doing it correctly and give reminders to those that need them.
Wow, it’s only 9:00 AM and I’ve already taught several important classroom routines and procedures. The kids are doing great, but at this point, I’m probably going to lose their attention unless we get them moving. I love to do Go Noodle Brain Breaks or even just some stretching exercises.
School Tour
Lining Up and Walking in Line
9:00-10:00 After the brain break, we take a tour of the school. The activities for the first day of school should be simple so you can teach all these routines and procedures. This is a good time to teach about how to line up and how to walk in a straight, quiet line. Again, I model where they line up, how they should be looking forward with their hands either behind their back or at their sides, and they should be standing quietly. We take a few minutes to discuss this and then practice lining up.
After everyone is lined up quietly, we head out of the classroom and go straight to the restrooms. Before I let them use the restroom, we talk about the restroom rules. Our school only allows 2 kids in the restroom at a time, no yelling, no looking under stalls, and must wash hands when finished. Once we’ve discussed these rules, I dismiss a few at a time to use the restroom and remind them to quietly get back in line when finished. After everyone has had a chance to use the restroom, we move on to the playground area.
We stop in front of the playground equipment area and discuss the rules for the playground equipment. When we leave the playground area, I walk them over to where our class lines up after recess and we discuss our lineup procedures for recess and lunch.
Next up is the library and office. We walk to each of these locations and discuss how we should always use quiet voices when we’re in the office or library. I will also introduce the students to office staff and the principal if they’re around.
We also go to the lunchroom and I walk them through the lunch process. I teach them where they will go if they brought a lunch, what to do if they’re getting a school lunch, and what to do when they have finished lunch. We will review all of these things at lunch time, but now they know the general procedure.
The school tour will take us until close to recess time. I always make sure to get back a few minutes early so we can review what we learned about recess. We discuss where they should eat their snack if they brought one, how they should always use the restroom before playing because recess is the best time to use the restroom, rules for the playground equipment, and where to line up after recess.
Once we’ve reviewed all the recess/playground rules, I remind them how to line up in the classroom. I also remind them that only quiet, straight lines will get to leave the classroom to go to recess. Once they are lined up the way I want them to, I send them out to recess.
Recess
10:00-10:20 Recess-Woohoo! You made it to recess. I know I’m giving you A LOT of details about my day and how I introduce all these routines and procedures. The first day is always the hardest because you will feel like you are talking and repeating yourself all day. You are! But it will be worth it in the long run.
Story Time
After recess, we have storytime. I love to read them First Day Jitters (linked below). It’s a fun story about a teacher who is nervous about the first day of school, but they don’t know it’s the teacher until the end of the story. Before I read them the story, we talk about what a good story listener does and I tell them my expectations for listening to stories. Occasionally I’ll have a student shout out something, but a quick reminder about raising a quiet hand usually does the trick.
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After the story, we usually brainstorm why it’s important to go to school and to always try your best. It seems like it’s obvious, but sometimes kids truly don’t understand the importance of school. I write down their answers on an anchor chart and hang it in the classroom. Again, it’s so important to have simple, meaningful activities for the first day of school.
After this, it’s usually time to get them moving again. I’ll do another brain break or stretching session. Some students get too wound up from Go Noodle, so stretching is usually a good way to keep them moving.
After our quick break, I usually have them complete another super simple activity. We’re just practicing following simple rules. This is a good time for them to draw a picture of themselves on the first day of school. Remember to give them explicit instructions as to what you want them to do and what you expect from them. You can find this paper here.
I usually go over the directions with them, and then repeat it in quick steps. Use your pencil to write your name. Put your pencil away. Take out your crayons to draw a picture of yourself. Make sure to put your crayons back into the crayon box so they don’t get broken or lost. I also remind them what to do with their paper when they finish and that they can read a book if they finish early. We also discuss using the correct colors. They’re drawing a picture of themselves on the first day of school. They need to use the correct color for their hair, eyes, skin, shirt, etc.
I like to get first day pictures of students, so this is usually a good time because most students won’t need help with drawing a picture of themself. Get a photo prop freebie here.
11:30– Lunch Time- Before we go to lunch, I bring the students back to the carpet area where we review the lunch procedures. There will be plenty of questions about what to do and where to go. I try to leave a few minutes early to make sure I have enough time to direct students. Remind students where to line up and how you’d like them to quietly enter the classroom after lunch.
After Lunch
Story Time and Classroom Rules-Activities for the First Day of School
12:15– When we come in from lunch, I will read them another story. I really like to read the No, David books. No, David is about a boy who is constantly doing the wrong thing. These books are a perfect lead in to our classroom rules. I like to stop on each page and discuss what he’s doing wrong and why. After the story, we brainstorm a list of rules that will keep our classroom running smoothly. Then we talk about why these rules are important and how they’ll help us get to our learning goal we talked about in the morning.
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After we discuss the rules, this is when we do a cut and paste activity making a mini-book about our classroom rules. It’s another great time to review how to use the materials in their pencil boxes. We also talk about what to do with the scraps of paper from cutting.
1:00-I usually like to take the students out for another quick restroom break so they can make it the rest of the day without needing to leave to use the restroom. Again, we review the rules for the restroom before going and we wait until everyone is done. This shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes.
120 Chart and Family Writing Activities for the First Day of School
1:10-When we return to the classroom, I will have them go to their desks and I’ll pass out a 120 chart for them to fill in. I will remind them about writing their name at the top of the page before starting to count. This is a good time to teach a song I learned many years ago. I don’t know who to credit, but it’s sung to If You’re Happy and You Know It.
The first thing on the paper is my name.
The first thing on the paper is my name.
The teacher needs to know who did this work and so,
The first thing on the paper is my name.
Then we talk about always trying their best even if they’re not 100 percent sure how to do something. Writing numbers to 120 is a first grade standard and I don’t expect all of them to know it on the first day, but I like to save this and do it again at the end of the year so they can see their progress.
Depending on time, we might also write about our families. I love to do this at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year so they can see their growth. Included in my Back to School packet is both the beginning of the year and end of the year writing. Some students may complain they don’t know how to write. I just tell them they can write the alphabet or try to write sentences. I don’t give them a lot of instruction about writing because I want to see what they can do.
Dismissal Procedures and Morning Procedures
1:30– At this point, even though we still have a full hour left of our school day, I will start to teach them about our dismissal procedure. We have kind of a lengthy dismissal procedure so I want to make sure that everyone knows and understands how to do it. Here are the steps:
- Clean up your desk and make sure all supplies are put away
- Take out your daily folder from your desk and remove the calendar from the pocket.
- Wait for a sticker or stamp.
- Check your cubby and put your papers into your folder.
- Put your folder into your backpack.
- Stack your chair.
- Pick up 15 pieces of trash from the floor.
- Line up quietly.
Again, there are a lot of steps to our dismissal procedure so I will display the steps on the board. Before anyone has a chance to try it, I model it at least 2-3 times. Then I will call on 1 or two students to demonstrate the process. We help them if they forget a step. Then I will model it again two different ways, one way correctly, and one way incorrectly. We discuss which way was correct and what was wrong with the other way. Finally, I call on small groups of students to go through the process and get lined up.
Once they are all lined up correctly, hopefully we will have enough time for me to introduce the morning procedure. I will teach them all the steps for entering the classroom the next morning, and model it a couple of times but probably won’t have them practice until the next day.
Wow! That was a doozy! I’m exhausted just from thinking about the first day, but I’m so excited to have a regular first day this year. We didn’t get to go back in-person last year, so I can’t wait to be back in the classroom with these sweet babies.
Note: I realize that we didn’t really accomplish any “real” work today. My intention is to spend most of the first few days teaching the rules, routines, and procedures so that when we do get to our core work, they’ll be ready and will know what to do.
What do you like to do on the first day of school? Let me know your favorites.
For more ideas for the first day of school, visit my friend at Love Grows Learning to read 21 Amazing Ideas for Activities on the First Day of School.
3 Responses
Hello! Thank you for this post. Its very helpful. Can you share your “rules” worksheet? It seems to be a quick and easy way to reinforce the rules. Thanks!