What activities do you do with your students on the first day of school?

Question

I am a second grade teacher and I am looking for new ideas for the first few days of school.

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

Scavenger hunt with their school supplies.  While checking whether supplies are brought in, you have the students put them away.  Give the students a list of the school supplies and make a copy for the overhead or from the poster machine.  Go down the list one item at a time.  As you do, say "Look for your scissors."  Have students check off the item.  "Look for your ruler." Check.  "Look for your pencils."  Check.  Etc. Etc. Etc.

After checking each item, have them stack them according to where you want them to put the supplies.  Stack for cubby, stack into the desk, stack for teacher.  Once you've exhausted the list, allow the students to put each stack away.  If any item is not checked on their list tell them "It looks you're missing your color pencils.  Bring this to school and your scavenger hunt will be completed."  Send home a copy of the list so parents can check what supplies are still missing.

Have fun!

Answer 2

I'm a relatively new teacher, so I'll be interested in seeing more answers to your question as well.  Here are some things I've done on the first day of school.  I'm afraid none of them are very exciting:

-- Take the students on a tour of the campus and show them all where their elective classes will be, which bathroom we will use, where the office is, and such.  (This may be more pertinent to first grade, since the students are now in a different area of campus than they were in Kindergarten.)

-- Make a "first day of school" booklet with the children.  We have a 6-page booklet we photocopy that has the students write their favorite color, draw a picture of their teacher, etc.

-- Have the students think up their own class rules for the rules chart.

-- Read a story about the first day of school and discuss the children's hopes, worries, or expectations.  (We use "Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth," as it's about the first day of first grade.)

-- Go out to the field and sit in a bit circle.  Have the students join you in chanting to each child in turn, "Justin, Justin, who are you?  Name one thing you like to do!"  Then Justin will answer something like, "I'm Justin Artiga, and I love playing baseball."  The questioning then proceeds to the student on his left until everyone has had a turn.  (This works best if the students are wearing nametags or are holding cards with their names.)

-- Take each child's picture to put up on our class bulletin board.

-- Make a photo frame craft to hold each first-day-of-school picture.

-- Have each student fill out a "Who am I?" sheet with information like their favorite color, what kind of pets they have, who is in their family, and such.  This could also include a self-portrait.  These could be displayed on a bulletin board.

-- Begin the first math, phonics, or writing lessons so the students will start getting into the routine of working in your class.

I also read about another teaching making a time capsule for each student.  She has each child make a handwriting sample, self portrait, and tracing of his hand.  She then puts each child's work samples into a Pringles can.  At the end of the year, the students open up their cans to see how much they've changed since the beginning of the year.  (It would be fun to have the students decorate the "time capsules" with markers, paints, glitter, or glued-on odds and ends.)

Good luck with your first day!

Answer 3

I love to do the classroom web. Start with a ball of yarn. Model by saying one way you promise to help someone else in the classroom this year, then, toss the ball to a student, who then repeats and tosses until a nice web of yarn is made. Emphasize that the classroom is a community and that as long as everyone works together and supports each other, the web will be strong. But if someone were to not do so- have someone drop their part of the web, then it will fall, and the community will lose its strength.

It's a nice message to start with anyway.

I also like to play a game where students have to guess where they think...

"Where will you put your jackets?"

"Where will you get materials?"

"Where will you read your books?"

and they go to that spot (helps them to familiarize themselves with their new classroom)

Answer 4

We go through the rules and procedures. I do my day as close to a regular day as possible because thy need to know the rules and procedures.

Answer 5

It depends on the subject you teach and is that your first time in that class. If you teach English you can talk about their impressions from the summer holiday, art-draww the place you visited, geography -describe the place etc...