First week of school with your ESL students can be great and set the tone for the year. Make connections, set classroom expectations and gather information.

One of the best things to do on the first day of school is plan cooperative learning activities where students can get to know one another.

Last Friday was actually the first day of school here in Hawaii. But I'm a special education teacher and don't start pulling kids until Monday. Even though I'm only teaching core academics to my pull-out students, I have most of them the majority of the day. The first few weeks of school are so important for setting the ton for the rest of the year, and I will be working hard on behavior and community building this year. I just love these beginning of the year activities by A Year of Many Firsties and can't wait to use them with my students. As part of our community building, we'll be using these Find Someone Who activity that I made. I'll be doing a lot of modeling how to approach our classmates and ask them a question. And I'll be modeling how to use the pictures to help us if we can't read the words. You can download it {here}. I bought this Take a Break unit from Teaching in Progress and can't wait to use it with my students. I'll be doing a lot of practicing and teaching my kiddos how to take a break, hopefully before they need a break. I have several students with behavior plans and we will be focusing a lot on how to handle our anger. We'll be talking about how we feel and what we can do to help us make smart choices by using some of the activities found in my Making Smart Choices unit. We can't just focus on behavior though. My school will be using Reading Wonders for the first time this year. I made this Smart Start freebie to help us get started. Best of all, there's a sale starting tomorrow! You can get 28% off everything in my store by using code BTS14 when you check out.

written by Hillary Kiser

I made it through the first week and what a time we had! I have 22 students this year, but 5 of them were out on the first day! The second day I had 5 students out again, but I had a student come who had been sick the first day, and one was gone for a dental appointment. The third day I had 5 out again and on Thursday the one who had a dental appointment for two days came back and another student who just got back from vacation showed up! So by Friday I had 19 students with 3 that are still on vacation! Our state went to the year round system two years ago and it has not been a good schedule. We have many families that travel in the summer and don't come back until September!! So needless to say as I was trying to train all the rest and had students trickling in not knowing what to do and having to repeat myself many, many times! But overall it was a great week. This is a cute lively bunch who seem really happy to be back in school. They laugh at my goofy jokes and give me hugs all day long:) Things that I loved this week. My new clip chart! The kids loved this!! Over half the kids in my class are surfers and they thought this was the greatest thing ever!! It helped me focus on the positive and they all wanted to get to Cowabunga soo bad!! My dolphin magic wand!! I used this to get attention and we practiced alot!! It's such a soft, nice sound and they were quiet instantly when they heard it! Click on the wand to go to their site:) My New Rug What a time saver!! I love how they come sit down in their spot and there is no arguing about where to sit! My new book bags I feel so organized and they look so nice with matching numbers where they should hang. My word wall We added a few important words and I love that I can just write it on the board. My new students:) They really are cute and such pleasers this year:)) Things That Didn't Go So Well Our new schedule The whole school is implementing RTI and we have an intervention block the last half hour of school. We have also been given a new daily schedule after 7 years of the same one. I was off the whole week and running late for everything. Every night I went home exhausted and felt like I hadn't accomplished anything!! My classroom printer I am lucky to have a laser printer in my room and have depended on it for two years now. Well it is not connecting to my laptop and I have not been able to print anything from it, so all my parent letters will be a week late:( And I still have not found my Bulletin board letters!!!???I just don't know where to look?? I ordered new sets in May with my classroom money, but guess what?? The order was never placed because the money was just released!!! So many of the items I was depending on I do not have:( Okay I will stop whining now and end with our fun Friday activity. I love to have cooking projects in my class. I call it cooking but we never use heat. I have done this since I began teaching in Kindergarten 20 years ago!! Since our first science unit is life cycles of plants and animals I start off the year making fruit salad. Homework on Thursday night was to bring in a piece of fruit. I can't believe the spread we had this year!! I have Never gotten a pineapple before, lol! I have a recipe that we read together, then I call 3 kids back at a time to cut up their fruit and place it in the bowl. We go over rules of washing hands, not licking the knives, no sneezing on the food and no licking our fingers. I cut up the apples and core them and they do the rest with a plastic knife. The rest of the class decorates their recipe page, and then works together on a fruit word search. I usually do a graph of "What is Your Favorite Fruit", but I just didn't have it together this year!! I keep their recipe page and we place it into our cookbooks (that I will have a parent make later). After everyone cuts up the fruit we mix it up, talk about good manners, serve everyone, and all eat together. Even the teacher eats some:) The kids love it and always look forward to the next project:) Here is the recipe page and the cover I use for our cookbooks. Just click on the picture to grab it in Google Docs.

An educational blog that shares ideas about teaching! Mostly geared towards science, but sometimes offer ideas that any teacher might benefit from. Come see me!

Use this activity as an ice breaker for the first week of school or as a classroom community builder. I have my students sit in a circle around our carpet, and I project the "Roll a topic" sheet up on the SmartBoard. Each student takes a turn rolling the dice and answering the corresponding question. I hope your class enjoys this activity as much as mine does! Enjoy! :)

Here is a great game for centers or fast finishers during those first few weeks of school. All you need is a set of Jenga Blocks and these question prompts. Kids love this game! Happy teaching, Rachel Lynette You Might Also Like:Slick Chick Shape PacketSpring Gifts!Phonics BOO!Springing into Eggcellent Math Stories

5 pages. A name map is a terrific way to introduce "mapping" to students. This is also a nice icebreaker for the first week of school and a great way to get to know your new students. The completed activity makes a wonderful back to school bulletin board too. This is a special FREEBIE...

How in the world do we start? There are so many ways to design an AP English Language course, that it’s hard to decide what to do the first week. For some schools, schedules are pretty fluid the first ten days or so, so you may be constantly dropping and gaining students. For others, students […]

We've been learning about the parts of speech in the most fun ways. A parts of speech printable and flip book, writing our own mad libs, and more.

How in the world do we start? There are so many ways to design an AP English Language course, that it’s hard to decide what to do the first week. For some schools, schedules are pretty fluid the first ten days or so, so you may be constantly dropping and gaining students. For others, students […]

Today I am brining you the perfect combination of back to school ice-breakers and games for those first days of school! Back to school is a crazy time and we all want to hit the ground running. There are routines and procedures to teach and we are ready to get to them the second those kids walk in the door. Building community and getting to know

Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.

These 17 first day of school activities are all about getting to know each other better. Use them as fun icebreakers to kick off the school year!

One of the best things to do on the first day of school is plan cooperative learning activities where students can get to know one another.

These first day of school activities and printables are so much fun! Great for homeschooling or traditional schooling and free to print and use, too!

It's a fact..teachers love books! Discovering new read alouds is always an exciting adventure. The following are my favorite first week of school read alouds. All of these titles have lesson ideas that go along with them. You can find the coordinating lesson plans and activities in our First Week o

BACK.TO.SCHOOL! Back to school season can be an roller coaster of emotions. The excitement of what lies ahead, mixed with the reality check that summer is coming to a halt. Whatever your feelings might be at this moment, we all know one thing… we have to start planning. Planning for the first week of school ... Read More about Back to School: SPED Edition

The ultimate list of activities on the first day of school to make students feel welcome, excited, and ready to learn! Crafts, games...

After 12 years in 2nd grade, I've engineered my first day of school plans into a well-oiled machine. And I'm going to share those plans with you today! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a brand-new teacher, I hope you find something here to support you on your back-to-school journey.

Class community building activities and ideas to build positive student relationships during back to school time.

I DID IT! I survived the first week of second grade, again! It was actually probably my best first week yet! I spent lots of time at the end of the year preparing for back to school. Opening my Back to School box was such a relief, because so much work was already done! Of ... Read More about The First Week of Second Grade

It's a fact..teachers love books! Discovering new read alouds is always an exciting adventure. The following are my favorite first week of school read alouds. All of these titles have lesson ideas that go along with them. You can find the coordinating lesson plans and activities in our First Week o

One of the best things to do on the first day of school is plan cooperative learning activities where students can get to know one another.

Once every student has a baggie of Magic Dough on his or her desk, I pass out a copy of the Magic Dough Lab Report. We talk about what it means to

Wise teachers know this saying to be true - "You only get one first day of school." Luckily, we've sourced some of the best first day of school activities from experienced and enthusiastic teachers across

Find first week of school activities and ideas to use with the best back to school book ever, You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt.

I am sharing a round up of options for all the back to school and beginning of the year essentials including free resources!

One idea that I found during my observation was the Me Bag. As each student filed into the room that morning for the first time, they were greeted with a white paper bag closed with a clothespin. I loved that it looked like each student was receiving their own special gift!

Back to school time is here and I have the perfect first day of school teacher gift idea for you! These printable "Happy First Day of School" tags are the perfect way to greet a teacher on the first day of school!

Our School is a Family is a follow-up to the bestselling Our Class is a Family. It's a read aloud for students to help build school community.

My, oh my! The first week of first grade is OVER! I swear, 5 years later and I still forget just how little and “new” to school 1st graders are. The growth is just so amazing and HUGE in first grade that all I can do is picture last year’s class at the end […]

Good-bye summer! Hello new school year! Tomorrow is my first day of Pre-Planning. Of course, the whole week is consumed with meetings and such, so I’ve been trying to do as much to prepare for those first few weeks with my kiddos from home as I can. Now that I am back in second grade, I […]

Originally posted on August 2, 2015 | Updated on: July 19, 2021

During the first week of first grade, it's important to plan engaging and fun activities to build community and relationships with your students.

It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s