The first week of school is like no other time in the year. It’s a fresh new start with a brand-new group. It’s a time for setting expectations and routines. It’s also a time when our schedule is still getting set so we find ourselves with odd amounts of time within the day to fill. This First Week Favorites Unit is meant to take care of the rules and routines and the short choppy time when a quick helpful activity is needed!
First Week Favorites
Not only will you find terrific and engaging ways to set up your routines and rules, but you’ll do so in ways that promote a caring community and promote team building and friendship along the way!
The units begin with your first 7 class meetings ready to go! Discussion/scenario cards make it easy to set expectations and discuss model behavior in a morale-boosting way. Most of these lessons can be broken up into smaller lessons so you really have at least two weeks of material here!
The First Week
Next, there’s SO MUCH needed when training those underdeveloped and active little bodies and minds! Keep your class productive, engaged, and learning no matter how much time you have. With community and expectations at the forefront, the activities provided will give you a safety net of learning for all of the minutes of the day! From quick and simple, to more involved, there’s a variety of tiered activities for you to choose from. Building teamwork while learning is important at the beginning of the year. These tiered activities will ensure that students build new friendships during learning!
When students walk in the first day they are nervous, excited, and full of feelings! It’s a great practice to have something in place on their desks to do. A simple color page is a wonderful way to say this is a place of work while also saying everything is going to be just fine! These tiered pages can help ease students into the very first few minutes of the first day!
There are many cafeteria expectations posters provided to help you set those expectations from the first day! Take them with you as you bring your class through the cafeteria the first week. Have them model the expected behavior and keep the posters handy to remind when things aren’t up to standard!
Just the Basics!
During the first week or two, we need activities to allow students some quiet independent time! We spend a lot of time talking to them and explaining every detail of our rules and procedures. Take breaks from the discussions to get some basic skills practice in! Play some smooth jazz or instrumental music while students have some work time with their tablemates.
Whether it’s making it through an exciting first day, or finishing off rules and procedures with an encouraging certificate of learning, these awards will make your students’ feel accomplished and proud of meeting expectations in all areas!
I chose to organize the First Week Favorites into a binder! This allows me to grab what I need easily during this hectic time of year. It’s like a little life-saving notebook! I used sheet protectors, pocket dividers and a one-inch binder!
Back to School Backpack
As you work through your beginning of the year habits and procedures for reading, math, writing, and general school procedures, make a keepsake backpack for a record of learning! Because many routines are not yet established the first two weeks, this is a perfect time to work through a crafty keepsake of learning. It helps create calm and cement learning at the same time!
This is such an exciting time of the school year! Setting up rules and procedures can be motivating and fun! It doesn’t have to be a drag! Hopefully, with First Week Favorites in your resources, you’ll be set up for the best year yet! For more posts on setting up for the beginning of the school year, click here!