Activities and Read-Alouds for the First Week of School

Students will walk into the classroom, find their seats, and begin coloring morning work (check out my favorite first-week morning work options in this post.) I have them take their book bag to their seat. We will hang them up after everyone has settled in.

After greeting each student at the door and walking them through our morning routines, we will begin each day with a read-aloud. I have a new favorite first book for the first day! The Day You Begin is pretty much perfect. I cannot wait to share it with my students this year and retire First Day Jitters. We will take a morning break to walk through the lunchroom (even though this is their 3rd year eating lunch in the cafeteria, we still feel this is important for establishing expectations and for new students). Then, we go over recess rules and let them have AM recess.

When we get back in, students will draw about something they did over the summer on their summer adventure puzzle. We will eventually cut these out and share them with a partner but not right now.

Morning Activities and Read Alouds

Tuesday-Friday is similar with routine practice, a read-aloud and then a beginning of the year activity either about expectations, problem-solving, or all about me books. Here are links to the resources you see above:

To wrap up our morning, we will have very short math lessons. Due to the back-to-school activities this week, we will only have about 20 minutes. Next week they will be normal length (about 45 minutes to an hour). We have lunch at 11:07. Read more about my first week of math lessons here.

After lunch and recess Activities and Read Alouds

When students return from lunch/recess, we will read another book to settle down. Then, students will grab a random book box (I don’t label them for a couple of days) and find a spot to read. On the first day, I will just send them off and observe. Each day after, I will introduce the expectations for read-to-self time. If you want to learn more about my first three reading lessons, I go more in-depth here.

Before special and recess, we will s l o w l y be introduced to literacy centers: word work, read to someone, and listen to reading. We will practice all of these things whole group. If all goes well, they will be able to pick 1 to do on Friday.

After special and recess, we will wrap up the day with one last read-aloud and activity that incorporates movement. I use School and the City’s 4 corners game every year. My Back to School Scoot helps me collect information about my students. I hold on to their recording sheets and refer back to them often. And I love to send them off Friday afternoon excited about coming back Monday so we will do our first STEM activity.