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! It feels like it was just the end of the year and now here you are… Prepping for your incoming first graders! Planning for the first week of first grade after getting your classroom ready, Back To School Night, and meetings can be really difficult. Your first grade students will be so excited for the new school year and their new classroom! First grade teachers, get your to-do lists ready!
These fun activities are included in our Ultimate First Grade Back To School Bundle. You can also grab each activity or resource separately, but the bundle saves over 20%!
Click here for the Ultimate First Week of First Grade Bundle.
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.
I use playdough and the playdough mats on the second day of school as well to give a sense of familiarity to the first day of school. It is the perfect way to have first graders enter your classroom in the morning during the first week of school. Playing with playdough as “morning work” makes the beginning of the year that much more special!
Classroom Tour
One of the most important first week of school activities is to 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!
It doesn’t take much time to hang the signs up and it’s a simple way to make this tour more engaging. Plus, this is a great way to get a peak at how your students write, form letters, and follow directions. Knowing where things are in the classroom sets our students up for success for the rest of the year.
Musical Chairs: Keep Students’ Attention With This Ice Breaker!
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! If you feel like this activity might be too chaotic to do whole group (you know your class best!), then you can always split them up into small groups to do a smaller version of musical chairs.
Some of the different questions in the cards include:
- When is your birthday?
- What is your favorite animal?
- What is your favorite book?
- Do you have any pets?
- What is your favorite subject?
Learn The Rules
Talking to your students about the classroom rules is 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 similar to the popular game “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.
Here are some examples of some things on the cards of what they should do:
- Clean up your work area.
- Sit with a friend and take turns reading quietly.
- Ask someone, “May I help you?”
- Put books away quietly and in the correct place.
Here are some examples of some things on the cards of what they should not do (instead, they will stand or sit still, just like in Simon Says):
- Talk when your teacher is talking.
- Sit with your back to your teacher.
- Leave your backpack on the floor.
- Leave the cap off your glue stick.
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 to the whole class. I hang the signs around the school the night before. Then, I read a favorite book of mine, 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?”
Some different areas around the school that the gingerbread man visits are the nurse, the art room, the gym, library, and the cafeteria. I know in first grade, most of your students will know where these places are if they went to kindergarten at the same school. However, a refresher is never a bad idea and you may have new students in your class who need to know where these places are!
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 main goals and progressed throughout the school year. It’s also fun to see how their handwriting has improved! It’s kind of like a little time capsule to show their improvement in the year. 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 on a large anchor chart paper. We also talk about who is special to us and draw that person (or pet) on a heart. I put these hands on a bulletin board for students to look at throughout the school year. It’s also a special keepsake to send home with your students during that first week of first grade.
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.
Click here to purchase the First Week Of First Grade Plans separately.
Name Crowns- A Fun Alternative To Name Tags
It can be tricky to remember your students names on the first day of school. However, you do not only need nametags so that you remember. You need nametags on your students so that other teachers can know their names too. Instead of using regular nametags, you could use name crowns! I like using name crowns for many reasons. The name is bigger so that I can see it more clearly. Students color in their crown and write their name on the back, so this gives me a chance to see their handwriting, how they write their name, if any letters are backwards, etc.
Click here to purchase the name crowns separately.
All About Me Writing Craft
Give your students the opportunity to get to know you and their classmates better with this cute ice cream writing craft! This writing craft has writing prompts on each ice cream scoop for your students to answer and get to know one another. I love to hang this craft on a back to school bulletin board for everyone to see. If you have a meet the teacher night after the first day of school, this is definitely something you want to hang up!
Different writing prompts include:
- My Favorite Food
- This year, I hope…
- Over the summer,
- My Favorite Book
- My Favorite Hobby
- Something About Me
- On My Sundae, I Like…
- My Favorite Color
- My Family
- My Friends
This craft also comes with a class book. You can send home the page for students to fill out and color at home, or you can complete it in class during the first week or two of school. Then, you can compile all the pages together to create a class book to keep in your classroom library for students to look at and get to know their classmates! This is also a fun way for your students to learn more about you, their teacher!
Click here to purchase the writing craft separately.
Back To School Color By Code Sheets
One thing I love about coloring is that it is scientifically proven to calm the brain and help your body relax. Coloring is a great activity for coming in from lunch or recess to calm our first graders down. A great way to incorporate coloring into your day during the first week is with a color by code. These back to school color by code sheets include kindergarten skills as a refresher for getting their brains ready for first grade. Different skills include: number recognition, ten frames, twenty frames, addition to ten, subtraction to ten, CVC words, and new first grade sight words.
These color by code sheets can be used as an informal assessment tool to determine what your new students need. You will also be able to see which students take their time, how students pay attention to detail, and of course who has mastered certain skills.
Click here to purchase the back to school color by code sheets separately.
A Sweet Way To End The Day
At the end of the day, I like to pass out these free bookmarks to my students. In the past, I have written a short note on the back. Because I know you are teacher tired at the beginning of the year, here are some ideas for things you could write on the back:
- I had so much fun with you today!
- Looking forward to a great first grade year!
- We will have the best school year together!
- I’m proud of you for a great first day!
Click here for your free bookmarks.
My Favorite Back To School Read Alouds For First Graders
Read any of these books throughout the first few days of school. My go-to when I am not sure what to do on one of the first days is to read a book! Did one of the first day activities take less time than I anticipated? Read a book. Was the restroom occupied when we went for a bathroom break? Read a book. Basically, it’s always a good idea to read a book to your students.
- First Day Jitters: Reading First Day Jitters is an absolute must for the first day of school. It’s the perfect opportunity to let your students know that teachers get nervous for the first day of school. Just in case you have not read this one yet, it is about a teacher who is nervous and does not want to go to the first day of school! Throughout the whole book, you think the character is a child, but it turns out to be the teacher! This is a great book to read on the first day of school!
- We Don’t Eat Our Classmates: Penelope is a dinosaur on the first day of school. She has one problem. She cannot stop eating her classmates! I love reading this book and then having a discussion about class rules.
- The Day You Begin: This book is a great read-aloud for the first week of school. There will be times when students walk into a room and people are different from them. It could be a variety of things like skin, hair, what they eat, etc. This book celebrates those differences. The Day You Begin is powerful and impactful and a great book to read the first week back to school.
- Our Class Is A Family: This book is a must-have in every classroom and especially for the beginning of the school year. Our Class Is A Family is a sweet story about how teachers create our classroom community and our students become family. I seriously love this book.
Make sure you check out this blog post with some more of my favorite back to school read alouds! Read alouds are always easy to incorporate into lessons or extra pockets of time!
Plan Your First Week Of First Grade
Get your planning time back this back to school season! Get your first week of school lesson plans finished in a snap with these first week of school activities! 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, games, and different activities. Easily informally assess your students with kindergarten review and early first grade skills with the no prep worksheets.
To purchase all of the activities mentioned in this blog post, click here for the Ultimate First Grade Back To School Bundle.
Or, grab the bundle with every single resource listed in this blog post! Click here to get the bundle!
Make sure to share this blog post with a new 1st grade teacher!
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