You found your way back for round two! I’m so glad! If this is the first Simplified in a Snap post you’re seeing – check out my original post just to get a bit more detail about what my vision is behind this series! We’re jumping back in!
And today – we’re simplifying . . . . THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!
*Quick disclaimer: I really truly think any of these tips and tricks could be your focus for the first WEEK of school, not just the first day. Again, make it work best for YOU and YOUR STUDENTS!
⭐️ Must Do –
Expectations.
Routines.
Praise.
Repeat.
I could truly leave it at that. Teach and model your expectations. Teach and model your routines. *AND* Explain the why. It takes it beyond the “because I said so” for them and they will truly respect and understand WHY we are going to do the things we do in our classroom and how it all benefits all of us! It really helps! Teach and model. Let the kids PRACTICE those routines and expectations. And PRAISE praise PRAISE them especially when they start to get them without prompting!
⭐️ Must Use
Let’s build that classroom community!! These activities below are designed to do JUST THAT! Getting to learn about each other and find common interests right out of the first days of school gate is such a powerful foundation, and the kids love these resources that I’ve used below!! Click each image to link to the resource itself!
All about THEM slides:
You can manage this however you’d like. In my welcome email, I ask my students’ parents to send me a photo of their child and then I insert the photo of them in a slide with their name. Then, over the first few weeks of school, each child gets a turn to share some of their favorite things as we add images/clipart to their slide. The older kiddos could definitely manage adding their own images with your help!
All about them FREEBIE!
This is SUCH a good way to practice following directions and following along with you as you guide an activity about THEM. These are also usually very colorful and cute and perfect for that back to school baseline bulletin board!
Scoot for the Scoop – Get to know your teacher!
This is one of my favorites – because it knocks out two birds with one stone. Since it is a scoot, kiddos will grab a clipboard and their response sheet to “scoot” around the room from one card to the next. Though, there’s a twist! Instead of the cards having questions on them like in a regular scoot, the cards have the ANSWERS because they’re giving them new information and fun facts that they don’t already know about me!
**PLUS! This is the perfect way/time to teach/model/practice expectations for a handful of your routines, too! I can teach them how we use clipboards, how we get/return clipboards, what scoot looks/sounds like, how to use the “one way street” traffic patterns in our classroom, where to turn in a finished paper, and MORE just in this ONE back-to-school activity! Again, modify to fit your kiddos/grade level, but there are so many WINS than can come out of this ONE back-to-school activity!
Integrate. Integrate. Integrate. Teaching your routines and procedures doesn’t HAVE to be separate from engagement/instruction!
⭐️ Kids Love
Surprise them. Surprise them with SOME sort of unique back-to-school experience. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to cost a dime (my go to move doesn’t). Just create an experience that is MEMORABLE for them. So that a) they’re pumped to come back tomorrow, b) they’ve got smiles on their faces when they get off the bus at home, and c) the element of surprise = engagement! Out of the gate! And they’ll be craving more of YOU and what’s going to happen in YOUR CLASSROOM that school year!
My go-to move for this one is – after praising them and offering lots of positive reinforcement for _____, I tell them they’ve EARNED learning what my top secret talent is. And that throughout the year they can earn seeing me do that talent right in front of them! The anticipation is wild. Seriously. And then – I reveal I can juggle. They doubt it. Then I juggle. And they LOSE THEIR MINDS. Costs nothing. But it yields a lot of excited kids who are ready to come back tomorrow.
⭐️ Parents Love
Pictures!! Parents love when you send home pictures of what’s happening in your classroom. Classroom Dojo is the one click way I share photos with parents and they LOVE that!
They ALSO love hearing about how the first day went. I’ve done this a few different ways over the years. I’ve put hand written notes in kid lockers, I’ve sent a quick email home to my families with a recap of day one, I’ve called each parent for a quick “it was a great day in 2nd grade” phone call – I’d call 5ish a day for the first 5 days of school – and I’ve even sent home a quick little certificate like the ones below! Kids love it – parents love it – everyone loves it!
⭐️ Top Tip
One top tip that I have for you is to line your kids up in numbered order. If you’ve never tried it, I know it might sound a little much, but it’s really doable, and in the first days of school that’s a routine I spend a lot of time on. I number my kids alphabetically, and that’s the order we travel to/from our classroom. I’ve done it for years and years, and it eliminates SO many headaches. Will there be a group that you might need to adjust where a kiddo falls in line? Maybe. But for the most part, it just works. You’re just going to need to trust me on this one!
A second top tip is dive into tech those first few days. If your school is anything like mine, there are a LOT of assessments (including back to school, baseline assessments too) that are going to require the kiddos being on the computer. I do NOT want to be teaching them technology routines and/or building technology independence WHILE trying to give back to school assessments, so I always always always try to get them on that technology as quickly as possible. I want them to be able to get themselves logged in, follow simple directions, and PROBLEM SOLVE AND TROUBLE SHOOT independently. The sooner you give them the chance to practice these things, the better!
⭐️ Must Not
Finally, a first days of school MUST NOT do . . . . I’ve got two for you.
Do NOT lower your expectations just because it’s the first few days. Yes provide reminders and lots of modeling, but start with HIGH expectations out of the gate!! You’ll be glad you did when your kiddos know you mean business from day one.
And secondly, don’t skip setting aside time to explicitly teach routines and procedures. Don’t skip the opportunity to intentionally build that classroom community in those first few days. Don’t skip that chance to do just that on the first few days. The standards can wait. Just a minute. They can. I understand scope and sequences are important to follow. I get it. If you’re in a situation that you do need to jump right in to the standards on the first days, find a way to be creative that INTEGRATES some community/relationship building as well as opportunities to explictity share, model, and practice your routines, procedures, and expectations. Your future self – and your future versions of your students – will thank you for it.
⭐️ SIMPLIFIED IN A SNAP CHECKLIST!
So there you have it! Some of my tried and true dos and don’ts for the first days of school! Below, I’m sharing a PDF checklist of sorts that you can download, click to find links, print, use as a road map to either get you started with the first few days or to help you give something new a try this year!
I truly hope you found this helpful! I’d love to hear your feedback and/or what else you might need my simplified in a snap road maps for! Feel free to leave a comment below or find me on IG!
⭐️Next up . . . .Check back soon for the next Simplified in a Snap post in the series!
