Teachers, this is our SUPER BOWL! This is our moment. This is what we train for. And shop for. And rest all summer for. This is our Academy Awards. Our moon landing.
IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!! It’s the most important day of the year for us. It sets the tone for the year. It’s when we get to meet those amazing little humans that become our responsibility and our family. It’s when we meet the families that we get the honor of working with for the year. It’s when we start the 180 day countdown of growth and progress.
IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
AND I. AM. READY.
My district has a half day on the first day of school, the next day is a teacher work day and we return the following day for another half day. (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday).
So we have two half days this week and the following week we kick off full days and a full week!
So here’s what we have planned for our first half day!
As the ‘staches arrive, they are of course greeted by me and they get a name tag and they find a place to work on their coloring pictures!
They get to color a picture of me and some other back to school pictures!
(Click to download your freebie)
Then we come together for our first morning meeting where we learn each other’s names and we learn a little about our classroom and our teacher. This is also when we start learning the routines and procedures for putting away our carpets, clipboards and supplies.
After our morning meeting, we sing our songs! We sing A Beautiful Day by Jack Hartmann and Alien Alphabet by Intelli-Tunes and Alphardy by Dr. Jean!
Then we have our first read aloud!
After reading the book we make a list of all the things Miss Bindergarten’s friends do to get ready for the first day and we make a list of all the things WE do to get ready for the first day of school!
After brunch, we work on our names! We all write our names on our class name chart! This will be up in our classroom all year long! We will do this activity again at Christmas break and the end of the year to show growth!
Then we practice our names on our own. Everyone must write their name 5 times, no matter what. This provides me a great baseline and gives me great insight into where my ‘staches are!
This is also when we go over our procedures for pencils and how we use them and how we don’t use them. This year, we’re making an anchor chart for each of our school supplies so this is when we get to make our first anchor chart!
On our 2nd half day, the name writing is more differentiated and guided. I write the names with a highlighter to give some scaffolding for the kids.
Then we learn how to use crayons. We will make an anchor chart for how we do and do not use crayons!
Mr. Greg will ask what the supply is (crayons) and what we use it for (coloring). Then I will break the crayons and we talk about what happened. Then we discuss what we can color (paper). And how we color. Then Mr. Greg models how to scribble and we discuss. Then Mr. Greg models how to color a soccer ball (in the lines, lots of colors, etc). And the kids get to use crayons to color their own soccer balls!
And of course, our day ends with our first silly hat of the school year!
Click the image to get your FREE hats for Pre-K, K and 1st grade!
Of course, during this time we’re spending a lot of time on procedures for sitting on the carpet, lining up, walking in the hallway, using the restroom, etc!
We will be using my Back To School Research creation to make our school supply anchor charts!
Check out the posts for more great tips and resources for back to school:
You can download ALL of my lesson plans from 2015-2016 by clicking on this picture:
And you can download our year long plan by clicking on this picture:
And be sure to check out ESGI to make your back to school assessments super easy! Click the button below to sign up for your FREE 60 day trial and save $40 off your subscription!
