The first week of kindergarten is so exciting! As teachers, we want to make it a magical and memorable time, so that students want to keep coming to school. Social media is filled with TONS of fun back to school activities, but the reality is that we can’t do all of them…especially in kindergarten!
What is the first week like?
If you’ve ever played a game of Whac-A-Mole…that is what the first week of kindergarten is like! You might see an adorable first week of school craft that you want to do, but chances are…you won’t be able to get your entire class to follow along and stay put long enough to do so. And that is okay! A lot of kindergarteners have NEVER been to school before. So just simply being at school away from their family, is a lot for them!
So what should you plan to do during the first week of school?
Routines & Procedures
The most important part of the first week is going to be teaching students the routines and procedures of your classroom and the rest of the school. This includes how to put away their stuff, how to use the bathroom, carpet expectations, walking in the hallway, etc. Model exactly how you want them to do these things and then have them practice, practice, practice! The more time you spend on this, the more successful the rest of your school year will be. To make sure you don’t forget any procedures, you can grab this free checklist HERE.
Teaching routines and procedures also includes going over school and classroom rules. Students may be used to different rules at home, so it’s important to make sure they know what is and isn’t allowed at school. I like to use visual sorting cards. You can grab that resource below!
Using School Supplies
Another piece of routines and procedures, also involves teaching students how to use all of their school supplies. With kindergarteners, always assume they know NOTHING. I like to explicitly teach them how to use each supply and again let them practice, practice, practice. I spend the whole first week introducing a few supplies a day, and students earn badges when they show me they can successfully use each item.
I have an entire other post about how I introduce school supplies, that you can read HERE!
Building Classroom Community
Aside from teaching your students HOW to do school, it is also important to spend that first week forming a classroom community. After all, you and your students will be spending 180 days together!
There are a number of ways you can do this. I like to read a lot of stories to my class! Some of my favorites are ‘Our Class Is A Family‘ and ‘We Don’t Eat Our Classmates‘. I have a whole list of great books to read during the first week of school!
Kindergarteners will need a lot of brain breaks at the beginning of the year, so this is a great time to throw in little ice breakers or getting to know you type games. An easy one is to have everyone sit at the carpet and then say “Stand up if…” and then they have to stand up if it is true for them. For example you could say “Stand up if you like pizza.” or “Stand up if you have a brother.”
Friendship Stew
My absolute favorite activity to build classroom community is to make Friendship Stew. I gather several different ingredients to make a trail mix type snack (you can use literally anything). Each ingredient represents a quality of a good friend. For example, marshmallows represent that a good friend uses gentle hands. We talk about each quality as we take turns pouring the ingredient in the bowl. Then, we mix everything together and get ready to eat it.
But here’s the kicker…
Right as the kids are so excited to eat the yummy snack, I pull out a rotten banana and try to add it to the bowl. They immediately freak out and yell at me to not put it in. I ask “Why?” and they tell me it will ruin the friendship stew. I then use this as an opportunity to talk about how a rotten banana represents kids using mean words or hitting or being unkind. I emphasize how we don’t want any rotten bananas in our class, and then throw the banana away. This idea really sticks with them all year!
Let Them Play
Your kids are going to be exhausted during that first week, especially if you do full day kindergarten. It is going to take them some time to adjust to being at school all day. So, aside from the things I’ve already mentioned, the best thing you can do is let them PLAY! Free play time is already a regular part of my school day all year, which you can read more about HERE. But during those first weeks, I give them a lot of extra time to play. This is also a great time to get out your math manipulatives and just let them explore with them. That way when you try to use them for math the first time, students will already have the urge to play with them out of their system.
Other Fun Activities
After everything else, you probably won’t have much time to spare during the first week. However if you do, this is where you can squeeze in some of those extra fun things. Some other things I like to try and do during the first week include:
- Taking first day of school pictures of each student and hanging them up
- Color “First Day Of Kindergarten” crowns
- Our first directed drawing of the year (student self-portraits)
- Making Jitter Juice (Read the book ‘First Day Jitters‘ to learn more about it)
- Go on a tour of the school and try to find Pete the Cat (this goes with the story ‘Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes‘)
Whatever you choose to do during your first week with students, I hope you have a great first week and an amazing school year. Happy Back to School season!
