Tips For a Successful First Week Back to School
It’s a new school year. The pencils are fresh, the notebooks are labeled, the books are neatly on the shelves. Then the bell rings and the excitement builds as your students enter the classroom.
If you’re like my district and get your old students back for a few days before they switch to their new class, I have some tips for you too! I’ll refer to them as transition days.
First day starter activity
The first day back you’ll want to have something ready on tables or desks for students to jump into. Ideally this is something that needs no explanation and no support. You’ll be busy talking to parents, answering questions, making sure everyone can find a pencil… you don’t want to be stuck explaining a demanding activity.
You can put out colouring sheets, loose parts, a word search, a crossword, a colour by number or sound.
*Note: the image is of the first day with my NEW students, so I have fresh supplies for them. For my transition days I use old pencil crayons and markers.
Summer chat and check-in
A lot may have happened for your students over the break. They will undoubtedly want to share what they did over the summer with you and their classmates. Make sure to carve out some sharing time so that they can get those stories out!
School/class routines and expectations
If you have your new class, you’ll definitely want to spend time on routines, rules, procedures and expectations for the day to day. Make a list so that you don’t forget. You can even make an anchor chart that you can check off as you go with your students. Don’t skimp on teaching these routines or talking about your expectations, it’s much easier to work on them now rather than try to deal with unclear expectations causing issues later in the year.
You’ll also want to spend some time helping your students get familiar with your classroom layout, where to find supplies, where to put finished and unfinished work, where to put their coats and shoes etc. If you have new to the school students, go on a school tour so that they know where the office is, where the washrooms are located and where to find the gym, library, playground, music room, art room etc.
Transition days: If you have your old class back, they already know your class set up, they know you and they do know your rules/expectations but… it’s been months since they’ve been in school so it’s worth spending some time to refresh. This is also a good time to remind your students of school wide procedures, routines and expectations.
Looking for more tips on teaching routines and a FREE checklist? Click HERE
Stories
It is always a great idea to do some read alouds in your classroom as it is yet another opportunity for students to listen to your pronunciation and to develop vocabulary.
Math assessment or review
With my new students I like to start off with a math assessment to get an idea of where they’re at. The ones I use were given to me (sorry, I don’t have any links). It gets harder the further they get into the assessment. I tell them to do as much as they can, they can skip questions too, just do their best. Their results give me a better sense of where we may need to spend more time and which concepts will definitely need a review.
Transition days: Your students will be going off to a new grade but they’ve had months off from consistent learning. It’s a good idea to go over some math concepts that they’ll need going into their new grade. You will never waste your time doing number sense review. Make sure they can recognize numbers, put them in order, maybe work on some patterns or review addition or subtraction concepts. The new teachers will thank you!
Writing
It’s worth spending a bit of time getting back into writing. For our young students, printing may have become messy and our older students need refreshers on getting their ideas out onto paper. We will write each day to get back into the writing mindset. This also gives you a baseline for where your students writing is starting at. It’s great to look back on later in the year to see how far they’ve come!
Some suggestions for writing prompts:
Summer vacation recap
Goals I have for this year
This year I really want to learn more about…
Image you could switch bodies with an animal for the day. Which animal would you choose? What would you do all day?
Image you are working at your desk and your teacher turns into a frog. What happens next?
What future students of Mme/Monsieur X need to know (for transition week)
Transition days: You’ll want to use loose leaf lined paper or printed copies so that students can take their work home or you can pass it along to their future teacher as a sample of where they’re at.
Go outside!
Hopefully it’s still nice weather in early September and you can go outside with your class. Sitting all day after not having to sit like that for months is tough, no matter what age you teach. Take your learning outside to do a scavenger hunt, make nature mandalas or nature patterns, play on the playground or go for a community walk (if possible).
