First Day... Last year- Throwback Thursday

I just barely made Throwback Thursday. I have a couple hours until it's Friday. :) This post is just in time for many of you starting school right about now. I had my first day of feeling anxiety today. I was doing so well staying calm and enjoying my summer. Now I have 3 weeks left and I am feeling that anxiety creeping in. Time to get into the classroom. I hope this post finds you calm and enjoying your Thursday evening (not stressing or losing sleep over the first week of school).



This was originally posted on September 8, 2012. 


Isn't the first week always the longest? It's so fun to meet my adorable batch of new firsties, but oh. my. goodness. It is a long week! Just a few short months ago I was rolling with my students, routines and procedures second nature, reading and writing like crazy... I have to remind myself to put on the breaks and slow it down big time this week. I always think of the first week as super exciting but also a little dull. Anyone out there agree? There are so many routines, procedures, rules, and little bits and bobs here and there to teach your new group. I don't know about you, but I just want to jump in and start teaching! We do mix in some fun for the kiddos so they don't get too overloaded.

Here are a few of the activities we do during the first week to shake it up a bit:

• Friend Search: click on the picture to download

clip art by melonheadz, scrappindoodles, graphic factory, and KPM doodles. Font by Miss Tina; frame by sweetpickles

• Morning message: I write a short morning message with a few letters left out. The kids love to help me add in the correct letters. The names are glued on after we read the message. I have them color their names for morning work. It's nice to have an easy thing for them to do for morning work that requires little to no explanation. 

• Skittles math: using skittles to introduce math in "real life" (sorting skittles, adding skittles, greatest, least, problem solving). I go really slow with this one! I sort out the skittles ahead of time and put in little snack pack ziplock bags. 

click on the picture to download. 

• Birthday Graph: The kids put their name and date of their birthday on their cake and then put it on the correct month.

 

clip art by scrappindoodles, thistlegirldesigns, and melonheadz

You can get the month cards and graph here if you want to make your own birthday graph.

• Wemberly Worried: Classic, right? There are so many fabulous first day books out there, but this will always be a favorite. (Plus it's a great introduction to our author study on Kevin Henkes.) After reading this story, we make our first text to self connection by talking about how we feel on the first day. They all drew pictures of their adorable little faces to add to this graph. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw this idea. If you know, please tell me so I can link to that blog.

Sorry it's so fuzzy. Want to help me convince my husband I NEED a new camera? :)

Go check out other Throwback Thursday posts by clicking the image below.

If you have posts about your first week, please leave them in the comments. I love reading those posts!!