Teacher’s Guide to the Best First Day of School!

Every teacher is nervous on the first day of school. I teach fifth grade, I have been in education for 28 years, and I still get nervous on the first day.

Here are some secrets I’ve learned to help you have the best first day of school ever!

Updated to add: after I posted these tips and thought I had truly included everything, I read a great post by Michael Linsin on his awesome blog Smart Classroom Management. Michael says this about his #1 goal for the first day of school:

My number one goal on the first day of school is that my students love being in my class.
The reason, simply put, is that it makes anything and everything to do with effective teaching and classroom management easier.

Yes! You want your students to go home happy and excited about their first day of school. The tips below are intended to help you do just that.

You can read more of Michael’s post here.

These tips are focused on upper elementary grades but can easily be adapted for other grades.

1 – Wear something cute and comfortable! You will be on your feet for a good part of the day, so comfortable shoes are a must. I don’t wear dresses every day, but I usually do wear one on the first day. It makes the first day of school feel a bit more special.

2 – Get to school early! You want to be calm and in control when your students arrive.

3 – Keep in mind that the most important things to teach in the first week of school are the following:
*your routines and procedures (which you will need to practice over and over)
*your expectations for academic work and classroom behavior
*the building of classroom community.

Yes, you will begin some academic work as well, but try to do that in the context of establishing those routines and reinforcing your expectations.

4 – It’s important to be flexible! Over-plan for each day, but accept the fact that not everything will get done. It’s okay! If you don’t get to something you had planned to do, decide if it is something you really want or need to do (and then re-schedule it for the next day) or just drop it.

5 – Learn names as quickly as possible! I am assuming that your school does some sort of Meet the Teacher event where you have briefly met most of your students and their families.

If there are students whom you have not yet met, try to get hold of last year’s yearbook and look up pictures of your students. It’s awesome to be able to greet each student at the door on the first day of school and use their name.

If you can’t remember their name or you just don’t know it, it’s fine to introduce yourself and ask them for their name. But get those names and faces connected as soon as you can!

Knowing their names makes your students feel “known” and safe, but also gives you more credibility and builds respect from students.

6 – Until your students have learned and responded to your signal for quiet (more on that below) and perhaps been treated to your “teacher look”, save the more rambunctious activities for later. If you are not 100% sure that you can get students’ attention quickly and get them under control, save the movement activities for another day. Ask me how I know.

7 – At many schools, students will be hauling in lots of school supplies and their first question is going to be, “Where do I put this?”.

So have a plan. Here’s what I do:

*I post the directions on the Smartboard.

*In my classroom, every student has a number. I have chart paper posted with every student’s name and number. I direct them to find their number on the chart, and then find the backpack hook and the cubby with their number.

*In the directions on the board, I have a list of which supplies get stored in their cubby. They can put those supplies away in their numbered cubby.

*For the community supplies (that we will all use during the year), I use index card “tents” labeled with the supply. I put these “tents” on the counter or on a table in front of a bin with one of those supplies inside, if possible.

The directions on the board tell them to put their supplies in the appropriate bin. This is much simpler than it sounds!

*If students continually ask me where to put things after I have given these directions, I just point to the board. They learn pretty quickly that they need to be independent and use their resources! See? You’re already teaching expectations and routines!

8 – Use those classroom numbers to leave sticky notes at seats so students will know where to sit on the first day. Even if you have another seating plan you want to implement, just assign seats for the first day. (Of course, if you prefer to use cute name tags, that is fine too!)

9 – Have something easy and non-threatening for students to do at their seats while you are greeting other students and helping them unpack and get settled.

Here are some suggestions:

*Make a word search with student names using this site.

*Complete a student survey of get to know you questions. Here’s a link to mine on Teachers Pay Teachers or you could make your own.

*Have a blob of Play-doh (either buy it or make it yourself using this recipe) and allow kids to play with it. It is relaxing, it calms nerves and fidgets, and it allows for a few moments of peaceful fun before the day officially begins. You might also ask students to make something that represents something about them and then share their creation as an opening activity.

10 – Teach your students an attention getting signal right away. Some teachers use a call and response type of signal (see The Applicious Teacher post for some great ideas.)

Other teachers use a clap signal where you clap a certain rhythm and then students get quiet and repeat your clapped rhythm. This year I will be using a wireless doorbell! Even if you change this up later on and teach them a different signal, these are quick and easy ways to get student attention on the first day.

11 – Instead of beginning right away with “here are the rules”, start with introducing yourself and telling your students some things about you. The purpose is to help them bond with you as quickly as possible. There are lots of ways you could do this. I make a slide show on Google Slides and incorporate some pictures of my family, my dog, favorite places, things I like to do, etc. I keep this brief but try to make it engaging.

12 – Another fun way to start class is to use a picture book read-aloud. There are tons of great books out there, so use something that YOU love. In a future post, I’ll give you a list of some of my favorite picture books along with some discussion questions you could use with your class for each book. (Updated to add my post of picture books HERE and a comprehensive list of book titles on Teachers Pay Teachers HERE.)

Throughout the first day and the first week, use lots & lots of read-alouds! These come in very handy in the first few days of school when you may have a few minutes here and here. They are a perfect anchor activity to insert when you need something to do. Plus, it bonds you together as a class and kids love it!

13 – Now it’s time to start teaching those procedures and routines. Scholastic has a great article of 30 procedures to teach your students.

14 – Take lots of pictures throughout the first day and the first week! Here is a great idea for a picture frame to use with each student’s individual photo from Jodi at Clutter-Free Classroom. In this blog post, she suggests using one of these pictures on a display bulletin board and sending the other picture home with a handwritten note at the end of the first week.

I love this idea because it helps build good relationships with families from the very beginning. You could also send the picture digitally (if you have email addresses for families), and add a note with the picture. But the handwritten aspect does make it a bit more personal.

I also take a whole class picture on the first day (or during the first week). It’s fun to compare this picture with a picture of the class at the end of the year!

15 – As a first day writing activity, have your students write a letter to introduce themselves to you. Tell them to include information about what they like to do, what they like about school and what they don’t like, and tell anything they want you to know about them. I’ve also seen a tip where you have them do the same activity on the last day of school and compare the answers. That’s a great idea too.