A First Grade First Day of School

Well, we've made it through decorating the classroom and our information nights, and finally the First Day of School! Oh, and what a day it was!! 

To kick things off, the students came into the classroom, found the book that they picked out at Meet the Teacher in the circle, sat down, and started reading!  
{When I took the photo, not all of the students had chosen a book yet - I make the circle a little larger and all students fit in the circle}

After the announcements, I complimented the students on what a wonderful job they did entering the classroom and reading! I then collected the books and had the students introduce themselves to one another (by going around the circle & saying "Hi, My Name is _______."  

Next: A good ol' simon says brain break.  I said things such as simon says "stand up if you have a brother."  That way the students had a way of getting to know one another.

Then we read "I'm So Glad You're Finally Here!"

Next up - heading to our tables to receive our school boxes to talk about our school supplies and then to sort the certain supplies that go in our boxes. As we moved to the table, we discussed how to move from the carpet to our tables and students modeled this. 

We moved back to the carpet (as we came back to the carpet modeled returning to the carpet) to discuss procedures such as bathroom, water, entering the classroom, etc.  The students do not receive assigned carpet seats until Day 2. 

Walking in the hallway.  We practiced lining up and then we practiced walking in the hallway BUT we did not actually go in the hallway just yet.  We walked around our classroom instead (playing follow the leader).  

We read "The Night Before First Grade" and discussed what we each did last night.

Recess

Cafeteria tour

Read Aloud: First Day Jitters and made Jitter Juice.    

Lunch

Magic Play Dough 

Summer Souvenir Shirts. We made t-shirts to remember our favorite summer memory. {On Day 2 we wrote about what was on our T-shirts as our beginning of the year writing sample & shared our t-shirts.}

Specials {P.E., Music, Art}

Dismissal Practice

Pack Up

Dismissal

How did you celebrate the First Day of School?