First Week Of School Activities
Day 1 – First Day Jitters
It's good to have a “soft start” to the school year and that includes lots of stories, crafts, and fun. Students need to build their stamina for sitting and working for long periods of time. I find that when I do these fun first week of school activities with my students I have a better year in the long run.
We start our first day by reading an all-time favorite First Day Jitters. This is a cute story about being nervous on the first day of school. Throughout the story, it shows someone who is nervous about going to school. The book makes it seem like it's a child but the surprise ending is that it's the teacher who is nervous!
After reading the story, we talked about our feelings and made a simple graph to show how we were all feeling on the first day of school.
Next, we did all the First Day Jitters activities. We made some Jitter Juice to help ease our worries and did an interactive writing activity listing the ingredients for Jitter Juice.
Finally, the students used a simple writing template to tell how they felt on the first day of school and made a cute jitter juice craft. These first week of school activities are the perfect way to get off to a fun start to the school year!
Day 2 – Stick And Stone Friendship Activities
On day two, it's time to get to know the other students in your class. Some kids will know each other from kindergarten but others may be new or just shy. It's a good idea to do some friendship activities to ensure that everyone has a friend in class and someone to play with on the playground.
We start our friendship activities with the book Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry. This cute book tells the tale of two little friends and all their fun adventures together. It shows them having some troubles with a bully and getting lost but through it all, they stick together and are best friends.
After reading the story, the students get a partner to work with for the day. We set up friendship stations around the room and the kids work with their new friends for the day. They paint kindness rocks and play a memory game about friendship.
Next, students work with their partners to make friendship bracelets. They help each other out by taping it on their friend's wrist.
We end our second day of school by making some friendship soup. This “soup” has all the ingredients for friendship – kindness, fun, respect, and more. Head over here to see this whole lesson in action and everything we do for the day.
Day 3 – David Goes To School
On the third day of school, it's time to talk about your classroom rules. David Goes to School by David Shannon is a perfect read-aloud when you're teaching students about behavior expectations in your class! If you've never read the “David” books they're adorable stories about a little boy who has some naughty behaviors but a loving heart underneath it all.
After reading the story, we discuss David's behavior in the story. We talk about what was naughty and why these aren't good behaviors to have in our classroom. This is the perfect opportunity for another shared writing activity by making your class no-no's.
Students can help make an anchor chart with some of the behaviors they don't want to see in class. When we were finished we made a cute David craft to hang with our chart.
Later, we made our actual classroom rules written in more positive language. We kept these rules hanging in our classroom all year. I always number our rules and write them in different colors. If someone is struggling with their behavior I can say ” Remember Rule #1 or Remember the blue rule”. It helps students begin to put these rules in their minds and follow them daily.
Day 4 – School Bus Safety
Day 5 – Pete The Cat Rocking In My School Shoes
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I love your flip journals 🙂 Do you know what brand they are??
Thanks1. We order the journals from Really Good Stuff – Here's a link: http://bit.ly/2wDgJRp