Simple Activities for the First Day of School
Easy Ideas for a Positve Start in the First Week of New School Year
Jul 30, 2008
Getting the school year started with fun, informative and relationship building activities is essential. Overpreparing for the first few days is also important since activities can move along more quickly than anticipated. These easy to plan activities will get things started right.
All About the Teacher Book
Make a book about the teacher. It can be done in a premade book or sheets in a three-ring binder slipped into page protectors. Read it to the students and leave it out so they can look at it. Include pictures of the family and pets which students find especially interesting.
Teacher in a Bag
Another way to introduce the teacher to the class is to do the teacher in a bag. Assemble a group of items that tell about life outside of school and put them in an opaque bag. Pull the items out one at a time and share a sentence or two about each one.
Student Question and Answer Time
Give the students the opportunity to ask questions. This is especially good to do at the end of the morning after the teacher has covered a lot of ground, but hasn’t covered everything. If a student has a burning question on his mind, he has the opportunity to have it answered. It is also wise to let the students know they can come to the teacher privately with their question if they don’t want to ask it in front of the class.
First Day Quiet Individual Activity
The first day is full of emotions and information. It is also the first day of getting back into the school groove. Give the students some quiet time to read, color, draw, etc. without any pressure. The introverts in your class will love you for it.
Decorate a Desk Creative Nametag
Have names already written out on tags. Give students the opportunity to decorate with crayons, markers, colored pencils or stickers. Use precut strips of clear shelf paper to attach the creative nametags to the desks when the students are done.
New School Year Read Aloud
Choose a good book to read aloud. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Voist [Aladdin, 1987] is a good book for this at almost any grade level. Even though many students are already familiar with the book, it makes a good discussion starter regarding the fact that everyone has a bad day once in a while.
Tell the students that if they are having a bad day at some point during the year, they should tell the teacher. And, likewise, if the teacher is having a bad day, she/he will tell them. It opens the doors of communication in the future and it also makes the teacher a real person.
Positive Classroom Procedures
Procedures will make or break a classroom. The first hour of the first day of school is the time to let the students know that this is a classroom with procedures. They will find it comforting to know that the classroom functions in a predictable way.
Morning Meeting or Circle Time
Most classrooms have a morning time that consists of going through the same information such as the date, weather, counting, etc. This can start the very first day of school, if only in an abbreviated fashion.
Positive Classroom Rules
Let the students know what is expected and the consequences for not meeting those expectations. Show them where the room rules are clearly posted. Keep the rule list short and positive. Ask for questions to find out if any of the students need something clarified.
Pass the Paper Roll Introductions
Pass a roll of toilet paper around the classroom and instruct the students to take off however many pieces they would like for the next activity. When everyone has some, instruct them to pass their piece to the person on the left. And then pass it to the next person to the left. And then to the person on the right. And then two people to the left. When they are done passing, each student counts how many squares of toilet paper they have. They must tell that many facts about themselves. Since some students might be familiar with this activity and only take one piece, the passing element eliminates students trying to outwit the teacher and adds a bit of fun as they realize they’ve been had!
There are so many great ways to get the school year off on a positive note. Use some or all of these simple activities and easy ideas to prepare for a great first day of school! For creative writing ideas related to the first days of school, see Simple Back to School Writing Projects and Simple September and Fall Writing Activities.
