Kindergarten First Day of School

There is so much wrapped up into the first day of school in kindergarten. A kindergarten first day is important to teachers, students and parents!

Here is what I do to help keep myself on track the first day of school since we have no routine, have a lot of kindergarten procedures to learn and we have the attention span of a goldfish.

I say that lovingly and {most} kindergarten teachers will agree.

How I plan for the first day of kindergarten

I use a lesson plan bracelet to keep my plans directly in front of me so that I never have to leave my kinders to see what the next three things are I want to cover on this kindergarten first day of school.

I’ve got pictures from the night before school to show you what I have ready and prepared and this is my cheat sheet to help me stay focused for the day. There are no times listed since I have no idea how long any of these items will take me with the new group of kinders, but I try to use my general sense of kindergarten time-space continuum to plan smart.

We know that it feels a little bit like herding cats the first few days of school and we’re laying the foundation for a year of tremendous growth.

So what is on this bracelet of mine you ask? Well, let me share it with you.

I made two bracelets this year, since my wrist is small and I wanted a tight fit. I simply broke it up at lunch so I had my am bracelet and pm bracelet. {Almost takes me back to when I taught half day}

I jot down in note form what makes sense to me and plan in this order:

TEACH move TEACH move TEACH move

First day of school lesson plans

The basics

We start by ourselves since we say goodbye to parents outside as part of our morning routine. I have them start with their stuff since that’ll be the way we start our day and then I move right into teaching them about the bathroom in our classroom.

{Seriously?} Yep.

There is always a kinder (or seven) who have to use it right away so it’s the best way to get them started off using proper procedures right away and sets them all at ease.

I can plan in an extra recess into these first few days and it is a great morning break. I teach procedures like how to blow your nose, using your elbow germ-catcher and using a kleenex to get pesky nose germs out.

I’m not going to expect that someone has taught them these things, but I can expect them to do it now that I have taught them. Nose picking in our classroom is so.not.allowed.

This was my first year starting kindergarten with a projector, so that comes with its own set of introductions and we do a “lite” version of the calendar.

Classroom expectations

Before we’re too far into our day I go over the classroom expectations along with both the rewards and consequences. I find it helps us start the year off smoothly and then I can begin to hold them accountable since the ground rules are set.

It comes down to that we are here at school to learn and so every choice we make needs to work towards that and there are consequences for making choices that prevent that in ourselves or others.

I try to use natural consequences first and always reinforce that the 2 things in life we can control are our actions and our attitudes.

Plan in time to play

Oh yeah, and I plan in playtime.

I schedule it regularly for the first two weeks of kindergarten.

I use this time to snap a photo of each child that will eventually make a class list for specials teachers, substitutes as well as our class name chart and word wall.

And our afternoon is relatively short (about 2 hours).

I plan an activity, more procedures (so we know what to expect at the end of the day and dismissal) and an activity if time provides that can always get finished in the morning.

Plan a flexible ending to the day

Mrs. Miner’s Secret Gluing Techniques is my end of the day rescue. We can do it rather quickly {for some} and can finish it in the morning {for others} and it helps make the point of gluing big globs.

We’ll use our newfound technique on day two to glue a small heart onto a kissing hand hand-print {with large stamp pads} to make our learning how to glue dabs have a product.

Notice we opted for practicing using a glue bottle and scissors aren’t anywhere to be seen. Scissors enter my world on day three when we learn how to use glue frames and gluing dabs in four corners to put items together.

We will use a modified version of this lunch expectations craft to practice our new skills and by day three I have a better idea of who to target for individual attention with scissors {for behavior reasons and fine motor}.

Let’s wrap it up

That’s what I’ve got on my list. How about yours?

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More starting kindergarten

• Kindergarten First Day Setup Photos
• 12 Tips to Start a Successful Kindergarten Year
• The Truth About Kindergarten Classroom Management
• The Secret Every Teacher Should Know for the First 21 Days of School