Ten Ideas for a Successful First Day of School

It's time for school to begin. It's a wonderful yet anxious time for you, your students, and parents alike.

Here are ten ideas for the first day of school to help you have a wonderful beginning to the new school year.

1) Have something ready for them to do immediately upon walking into the classroom.

A coloring page works but quickly gets boring, and some students need more than one to keep them occupied.
Playdough and a laminated piece of construction paper work really well also. Add a few cookie cutters, and your students will be happily engaged. Have Ziploc baggies labeled with students' name to store the playdough in their backpacks when play is finished.
Another great option is a hands-on activity, such as Legos and other building materials or morning tub activities. (You'll be a ROCK star on the first day of school with this option.)

2) Get to know each other.

Students are anxious to know more about their new teacher and also make sure that they will have friends. Help students get to know more about each other with this freebie.
Use these PowerPoint activities throughout the first week of school to build a community and help students realize that they have many things in common. Click to see these in my TpT store. "Find a Friend", "This or That", and "Stand Up/Sit Down" will help you and your students learn more about each other.

3) Write down EVERYTHING.

The new schedule will be unfamiliar to both you and your students. Write down every tiny detail along with the times. Carry these plans around on a clipboard along with a list of your students all day long. It will be your best friend for the first day of school and save your sanity!

4) Take a tour of the school.

Take your students on a tour of the school. Even if they were in the same school last year, they are now in a different location, and things will look different. Encourage your students to complete this fun freebie scavenger hunt as they learn more about their school.

5) Complete an art project.

Students can complete an "All About Me" art project or any other kind of art activity. These completed art projects will leave your first day of school with a decorated bulletin board or decorations for your hallway. These NO-PREP second grade or third and fourth grades units for the first week of school include an art project that would be perfect for the first day of school.

6) Learn about your students' learning styles and classroom preferences.

Have your students complete this free learning questionnaire to help you understand more about their learning styles and how they feel about school. It will give you some great insights!

7) Complete a little math and a little reading.

Read a first-day-of-school book to your students for a relaxed reading time while they eat a small snack. (Students are always too nervous to eat enough on the first morning, so providing a small snack is a great idea.)
Begin a back-to-school chapter book as a read-aloud or as a novel study for the first couple of weeks of school. My favorite book to begin the school year with is Judy Moody Was in a Mood. Not a Good Mood. A Bad Mood. Your students will be laughing about Judy's first week of school antics as they relate to her with their own feelings about beginning school.
Have your students complete this freebie place value coloring sheet to see how well they understand place value and then play this fun place value game.

8) Take pictures...LOTS of pictures.

Take individual pictures of each student, and do this on the first day of each month for an end-of-the-year gift to the parents to show the growth of the students throughout the year.
Take candid shots throughout the day. Add these to your private Facebook group for your class for the year. This will relieve the anxiety for your parents throughout the day as you add quick posts to the group and they can see the fun the students are having.

9) Teach rules and procedures.

Go over the rules for the classroom, lunchroom, recess, hall, etc. Have your students model incorrect behavior and then the correct behavior.
Discuss the classroom and school procedures.
Be prepared to review this every day (multiple times) for the first couple of weeks of school to make sure that your students remember and understand them.

10) Move...don't sit!

Keep your students moving throughout the day. Movement is a great stress reliever. Have a YouTube playlist prepared for some fun brain break videos.
Use this free literacy activity like a scavenger hunt around the classroom.

There you have it...my top ten favorite ideas to have a successful first day of school for you and your students.

Remember to smile, laugh, and enjoy your day and your new group of students!

It's a great day to have a great first day of school, and that's just...

My Kind of Teaching

Fun Back-to-School Writing Activities

Back-to-school time is just around the corner.

It's an exciting time for all, but walking into a new classroom or a new school and not seeing many familiar faces can be scary!

These fun back-to-school icebreakers and writing activities are the perfect solution for getting to know your students and for your students to get to know each other.

When students realize that there are commonalities with everyone in the room, it helps build a classroom community.

There is almost always another person who answers or feels the same way. Letting students see and understand this is important!

Stand Up Sit Down

These questions can be shown using your projector system. As common questions are asked, students will stand up if the answer is yes or sit down if the answer is no.

This or That?

These Google Slides can be assigned to Google Classroom. All students will be able to participate by dragging hands under the pictures to show which they prefer.

Blast from the Past

This fun activity can be shown to your entire class as a discussion activity. It can also be assigned to each student via Google Classroom as a fun writing activity. These fun "Blast from the Past" pictures will bring a lot of laughs and disbelief as students learn about things from the past.

Caption This!

Give your students practice with captions by having them write captions for these pictures.

Start Your Brain! - Brain Teasers

These questions can be shown using your projector system. As common questions are asked, students will stand up if the answer is yes or sit down if the answer is no.

Which One Doesn't Belong?

These questions can be shown using your projector system by showing the PowerPoint version, or the Google Slides can be assigned for students to complete individually. There are no wrong answers as long as the student can justify his or her answer.

For the picture shown above, it could be answered as any of these:

1) The bear doesn't belong because it is larger than the others.

2) The cardinal doesn't belong because it is red and all of the others are black.

3) The scorpion doesn't belong because there is nothing green in the picture.

4) The berries don't belong because they are not animals.

What is It?

These questions can be shown using your projector system or assigned on Google Classroom.

The students will try to figure out what common object is shown in the close-up picture.

Each of these units can be purchased individually or together in a money-saving bundle.

Creating fun activities as icebreakers to help you get to know your students and fun writing prompts is just...

My Kind of Teaching

Four Steps for Fast and Easy Lesson Planning

Lesson Planning...

It can seem so simple, yet it can be so incredibly hard.

It takes up soooooo much time, yet the time spent on the actual lessons passes way too quickly.

Before you know it, it's time to plan for the next week or the next month.

Personally, I like to plan for a month at a time. By "batching" an entire month of lesson plans at one time, it frees up so much of my afternoons, evenings, and weekends.

Here are some ideas to help you plan strategically.

1) Plan Lessons for the Entire Month

Planning for the entire month is a time management tip that can help you get things done and get out the door in a timely manner each day.

Taking the time one or two days at the end of the month to plan out your entire upcoming month is a great way to stay organized.

While it might mean that you have to stay late at school for a couple of afternoons now, you will be so glad that you did as the month rolls on and you find that you can actually get out the door on time most afternoons.

First, ask yourself these questions:

What standards and concepts are listed on the curriculum map for the upcoming month?
What holidays, special days, and school events are taking place during the month?
What activities have I included in past years that were successful that I want to repeat?

Keep all of the answers to these three questions in mind as you plan out your month.

2) Plan for Math and Literacy Centers

Not only are math and literacy centers an important part of the day for students to practice concepts and skills, but they are also an integral part of the day for you to get more things done.

I'm not talking about things like cleaning, prepping, or planning.

I'm talking about double- and triple-dipping to fit everything required into your day.

Use the time while your students are working independently in centers to work with intervention groups.

In fact, it's an excellent time to spend time with your on-level students and your high-achieving students who would benefit from enrichment activities.

How do you plan your centers? Keep it simple. Using only five weekly centers for students to rotate through each week means easy planning and prepping for you.

Read this blog post for more information for literacy centers: Keep your centers easy, simple, and fun!

Read this blog post for your math centers: Math Centers that are Easy to Plan, Organize, and Prepare

Planning centers for the entire month using activities to both practice and review concepts will take care of a lot of your lesson plans.

3) Planning for Core Academic Subjects

After planning your center activities, plan out your core academic subjects.

If your district uses a curriculum map, this should be fairly easy to fill in the days for the month of what subjects, skills, concepts, and standards you will be using.

Keeping a fall theme can help keep things fun and interesting for your students.

Don't forget to add activities for math fluency in your classroom. Helping your students become fluent with addition/subtraction or multiplication/division facts just makes teaching all other math concepts so much easier!

4) Plan for the Other Parts of Your Day

After you have planned for your core subjects and your centers, it's time to fill in the remainder of your lesson plans.

Keep activities ready for students to use immediately upon arrival. Students will be engaged and excited to come to your classroom each and every morning. It's a great way to start your day and sets the tone for success for your students.

Having some easy activities at your fingertips for your early finishers will help keep your classroom moving smoothly during the entire month.

If you have other items for the month, collect them together, and plug those in. Make your copies, and organize them in a way that works best for you.

There you have it! You now know the four quick strategies to help you focus on planning and preparing your lesson plans.

Isn't it better to stay late at school one or two days of the month in order to make it home on time the rest of the month?

Keeping things real, keeping your personal life a priority, and helping you whenever I can is just...

My Kind of Teaching

Frequently Asked Questions About Morning Tubs

Why should you be using morning tubs in your second-grade, third-grade, or fourth-grade classrooms?

That is a GREAT question!

Many early elementary teachers use morning tubs in their classrooms, but many teachers after kindergarten or first grade think that they do not work in higher grades. I'm here to tell you that there is nothing further from the truth!

I created these morning tubs to give teachers and students an alternative to morning work that consists of just another boring worksheet.

Maybe you've not tried them simply because you don't know the answers to your questions, or maybe you don't even realize that you have questions!

I'm here today to answer some frequently asked questions about the morning tubs I've created.

If you want to try out a few morning tub activities for absolutely FREE, just click here! These are more on a second-grade level for the math activities, but the other activities will work great for third or fourth grades, as well.

Now, let's continue on to learn more about these morning tubs.

Q: What are morning tubs?

A: Morning tubs are fun activities to begin your day. They are most commonly placed in small baskets or tubs (hence the name). They are hands-on and engaging activities that will have students excited about coming to school each morning. They are independent activities students can use to practice needed skills without completing boring worksheets.

Q: What grade(s) are these morning tub units designed for?

A: I have created three different grade levels of morning tubs.

You can find the second-grade units here.

You can see my third-grade units here.

Find my fourth-grade units here.

**Please note - The ONLY activities that change from grade level to grade level are the math activities.

Q: Are these units aligned with any state standards?

A: No, these units are not aligned with any state standards or curriculum. The units are designed to cover the skills most commonly taught in the listed grade, so most teachers find these units helpful.

Q: Is there an answer key included?

A: There is not an answer key.

Q: How long does it take to complete these activities?

A: Some activities might take a little longer than other activities, but most can be completed within 30 minutes (or less), which is a perfect amount of time for bell work.

Q: Will students have work to turn in after using these morning tub activities?

A: No, these activities are meant to be stress-free for the teacher. Once the prep work is done upfront when preparing the units, you will be able to use these over and over. There are no additional worksheets to grade, as these are fun and meaningful practice activities.

Q: How do I store these units? Will they take up a lot of space?

A: I store these units in pocket folders for full pages. I place the individual activity pieces into Ziploc baggies. I place these in clear shoeboxes I purchased at Dollar Tree. I use the provided labels in the unit to place them on the pocket folders and the shoeboxes. They take up very little space on my shelf.

Q: What other supplies do I need for these units?

A: Items commonly found in your classroom will be used, such as clothespins, magnets, playdough, paper clips, cubes, small blocks, etc. A suggested supply list is included for each month. Of course, you can use what you already have on hand or what works best in your classroom.

Q: What about printing options?

A: Most of the items use color ink for printing. However, some of the activities are available in black and white in addition to the color pages for more options. Bring the color to these black and white options by printing on colored paper or colored cardstock.

Q: Will each activity only be used for one month?

A: While skills will progress from month to month, many of the activities found in each monthly unit can be used at any point during the school year. Many items will have monthly themes, while others do not. Students find it a real treat to play a Halloween game in March, so use these whenever you need a review of a skill or concept.

Q: Can these activities be used at other times during the day?

A: Absolutely! Keep these activities within easy reach on a shelf. Students can use these for math centers, literacy centers, early finishers, indoor recess, and more. They are also perfect for you, the teacher, to use during intervention or enrichment when working with small groups.

Q: How will these morning tubs help ME?

A: Using morning tubs to begin your day will give you time to greet your students, complete necessary morning chores, and see what activities interest individual students. Best of all...there are NO worksheets to copy, store, and then lug home to grade! Easy setup means that you are out the door quicker each afternoon!

Have you used morning tubs before, or are you interested in using them? I would love to hear your experience and/or questions in the comments below. Let's chat about them!

If you would like to see the morning tubs in my classroom, click below.

Second Grade Morning Tubs

Third Grade Morning Tubs

Fourth Grade Morning Tubs

Answering your questions and having meaningful conversations is just...

How to Have Your Best School Year EVER!

Imagine this...

It's the first day of school. The day has been close to perfection. You are already in love with your students and you're feeling great about the year before you. The clock strikes 3:45 (or whatever time signals the end of the day for teachers). You look around your room one last time and with a big smile, you turn off the lights, close the door, and head home.

At home, you walk in the door, take a deep smell of the delicious aroma emanating from your crock pot. Dinner tonight is going to be delicious!

You continue to your bedroom, where you change into your bathing suit and head for the pool. You've got a couple of hours that you can swim, float, and work on your tan.

After the delicious dinner, you relax on the couch and have a few laughs while watching your favorite comedy show. You are rested and relaxed...not tired at all.

Sounds like a dream, right?

This is a TRUE story. This was my first day of school for several of my last years.

How was it possible?

I would like to share my tips, tricks, and information with you. Through the years, I perfected them and the result was a great first day, first week, first month... okay. I think you get the picture!

I'm sharing all of this with you for FREE!

Yes, that's right. My heart's desire is to help others and I want to help you have your very BEST. YEAR. EVER!

Sign up here for 30 days of emails where I walk you through every area of the school year so that you can enjoy the rest of your summer knowing that you are going to have it all under control from day one of your year!

And did I mention the freebies? Oh, the freebies. I have a TON of exclusive freebies included for you as well!

You will get one email per day. I'm breaking it all down into manageable increments so that while you are learning and getting ready, you also have plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the summer.

There are no sales tactics or gimmicks. It's just me, sharing information that I hope you will find beneficial and will help you to have YOUR best school year EVER! These ideas and tips have been tried and tested. You can use them immediately in your classroom.

WARNING: Implementing all of these ideas in your classroom will have the following side effects:

leaving your classroom on time each day
staying prepared and “on top of things” all year
your classroom running like a well-oiled machine
stress-free days
more time for yourself and your family
free time in the evenings and on weekends
time to do the things you enjoy out of school
restful sleep

Sharing my years of experience with you so that you can have your BEST. YEAR. EVER!!! is just...

My Kind of Teaching

Math Centers that Are Easy to Plan, Organize, and Prepare

Are you looking for centers that are easy to plan, organize, and prepare?

Keep reading to find math centers you can use all year in your classroom.

Your life is about to get so much easier!

Choosing to keep the same centers all year long will lessen the amount of time you are spending to get the centers ready for students.

Here are five centers to use in your classroom all year long.

1) Technology

Use the technology that is available to you. Whether this is a group of computers in your classrooms, a class set of Chromebooks or iPads, or something else, there is always a choice of things to use in this center. You can use digital task cards or interactive games for students to practice current math skills or to review past math skills.

2) Working with Numbers

This unit will work with any activity that involves numbers. Include math games, activities, or worksheets in this center. Using one of the No Prep math activities in this unit makes it super easy to prepare!

3) Fact Fluency

It doesn't matter what grade level you teach, there is always fact fluency students need to practice. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division need practice daily for students to become fluent. Having a dedicated center will help students accomplish that goal, and it builds a foundation for everything else. Games such as Bump, worksheets manipulatives, and other activities are good choices to add to this center all year.

4) Writing/Word Work

This math center is the perfect place to add some writing aspects to your math routine. Students can write the steps to tell how to solve math problems, complete word problems, practice writing numbers, do constructed math problems, and more. Writing is important for math, so make sure that you include it.

This math center is the perfect way to incorporate math with writing

5) Math Games

Students love games. I feel strongly about using games to learn. Adding a play factor always helps students improve while they enjoy the activity. Add board games that are already in your classroom. Search the Internet for fun math games using a deck of playing cards. Add math task cards to a Candy Land board, and watch how excited your students are to play.

Math task cards can help learning fun and exciting

Related Post: Keeping Literacy Centers Simple, Easy, and Fun

See more:

2nd Grade No Prep Math Centers

3rd Grade No Prep Math Centers

4th Grade No Prep Math Centers

How do math centers look in your classroom? Are they working for you? Leave a comment below and tell me.

Helping you find simple solutions to big problems and lighten your load is just...

My Kind of Teaching!

5 Fun and Easy School Activities for May

May…

It just might be one of your favorite months of teaching (if you are a teacher in the southern part of the United States).

The BIG testing is over (or about to be), and it’s time for the rest of the year to be all fun and games...

or is it?

5 Fun and Easy School Activities- picture of a classroom with teacher and students

It’s a relief that everything that is required to be taught has been taught and that testing is behind you. Now, you’re staring at the last few weeks in your lesson plans and trying to figure out what to do so that things don’t get out of control.

While it’s easy to exhale a big sigh of relief, the next minute, it’s like, “OMGosh! How am I going to fill all of these days?”

The days can’t be all fun and games, but they can be fun and enjoyable. Here are some ideas that worked well in my own room.

Three children playing games in a classroom

1) Include games, games, and more games.

Not only did I add a lot of games to our centers, but I also had a game day/week in the schedule. The students were allowed to bring their favorite board games to school. We took several days to rotate through the games as the students learned how to play each one. They had so much fun with these “old-fashioned” games.

Lucky charms cereal box and a cheerios cereal box

2) Save those cereal boxes!

This FREEBIE will bring a lot of fun learning to your classroom. Just print the activities, add a variety of cereal boxes, and you have several days' worth of reading activities ready to go! (Ask parents to send in empty cereal boxes for a wide variety.) Click here to grab this freebie!

Three children looking at a laptop screen

3) Include high-interest digital learning.

Students will enjoy completing research and writing, especially when choosing their own topics of research. Let students choose topics and then use approved websites to research. At the end of the week, let students teach about their topics. That’s a whole lot of learning for your students when each student has a different topic. Click here to see more than 100 topics to get you started!

Click here to try out this honeybee unit to try a fun high interest unit for FREE!

4) Preview the beginning of the year math curriculum for the next grade.

The next grade level teachers will thank you when you have given students an introduction to the math topics for the beginning of the year. Students think that it is “cool” because you are showing them something for the next grade. It can simply be watching some videos to start building their background knowledge and playing games. It’s a win-win all around!

Two children dressed for Christmas holiday

5) Revisit all of the major holidays

It’s a great time to review some of those holiday activities you used throughout the year. The students will have a ball, and it’s easy planning for you! Mix the holidays throughout one day, or assign one day for each holiday as you rework your way through the year of review. Pull out those holiday games and centers to use again.

Monday – Halloween - Students could even wear their Halloween costumes again! How fun would that be?
Tuesday – Thanksgiving - Have a picnic “feast” outside for lunch!
Wednesday – Christmas - Play Christmas carols while you work.
Thursday – Valentine’s Day -Enjoy some sweet treats for a special snack.
Friday - Easter - Play games with Easter eggs or have an Easter scavenger hunt.

Click below to find fun units.

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Valentine's Day

Easter