#1st3Days
Check out some suggested activities for your 1st 3 Days!
To pull the greatness out of our students, we must first see it in them and then nurture it. That's how we make school a place where miracles happen.
- Jay Billy, Lead with Culture
Before we can pull that greatness from our kids, we have to know what makes each and every one of them great. We must know their strengths, weaknesses, interests, dreams, and fears. That is why we are going to be intentional about not touching our curriculum for the first three days of school. Instead, the time that we have with our kids during the #1st3Days will be spent getting to know them and allowing them to get to know us. Below are some suggested activities and resources that you can use in your classroom to make that happen!
80 Back to School Ideas and Activities
Ditch that Textbook and Eduprotocols have some great ideas for back-to-school activities for the #1st3Days. One of the great things about these is that many of the activities can be reused with content later in the year! Here are a few examples of what's in the link below:
- The Mission: School Blackout digital escape room -- This back to school-themed escape room will spark interest and imagination! It's fun, flashy, and FREE ... plus there's an "older kids version" and a "younger kids version". Check out those escape rooms here
- Canva ice breaker templates -- If you want to do a fun ice breaker game, Canva has you covered with some eye-catching pre-made templates, including: Human BINGO, Spot the Not, Would You Rather?, and Self Portrait. Copy and edit these templates in Canva!
- The Thin Slides EduProtocol -- Thin Slides is a great, low-prep activity you can use all year long, but it's a fantastic back to school activity, too! Come up with a "one picture one word" prompt and you're set. Check out these Thin Slides templates to get you started
- The "All About Me" poster -- This is a ready-to-use lessonright out of the FREE Google Applied Digital Skills curriculum (which has almost 200 FREE pre-written lesson plans). Create digital or printable posters in Google Drawings.
- Google Classroom banner quilt -- These help your learning management system feel like home! Each student contributes a square (a photo of them, a drawing, whatever!) to a digital class "quilt". Use that quilt as the banner image in Google Classroom or your LMS. Get templates and ideas here
- The "Digital Citizenship Superheroes" HyperDoc -- This fun HyperDoc activity for grades 2-5 (created by DTT's Karly Moura) gets students thinking about being good digital citizens -- showing up appropriately and staying safe in digital spaces. Check out the document and make a copy!
- Practice following directions in Google Drawings -- This fun Google Drawings activity (created by Sean Fahey) shows students that they can follow instructions -- and end up with very different results! Check out this activity so you can use it with students.
Fun Read Alouds
The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes
How to Get Your Teacher Ready by Jean Reagan
A Busy Creature's Day Eating! by Mo Willems
Dad's First Day by Mike Wohnoutka
Click Clack Quack to School by Doreen Cronin
The Teacher's Pet by Anica Mrose Rissi
Ally-Saurus and the First Day of School by Richard Torrey
First Grade Jitters by Robert Quackenbush
On the First Day of Kindergarten by Tish Rabe
On the First Day of First Grade by Tish Rabe
Best Frints at Skrool by Antoinette Portis
Back to School with Bigfoot by Samantha Berger and Martha Brockenbrough
Pirates Go To School by Corrine Demas
The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon
Super Saurus Saves Kindergarten by Deborah Underwood
Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood
Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka
Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza
The Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
The Pigeon Has to Go to School by Mo Willems
The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech
Back to School Rules by Laurie Friedman
Our Class Is A Family by Shannon Olsen
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins (One of my favorites)
Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson (Current Children’s Literature Ambassador)
All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
I Walk with Vanessa: A Story about a Simple Act of Kindness by Kerascoet
You’re Finally Here by Melanie Watt
If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t by Elise Parsley
School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex
My Teacher is a Monster by Peter Brown
BreakOut Edu
Username: danderson@lowell.k12.ma.us
Password: mcauliffe570
All of the materials have been prepped for the following two Breakouts. All that needs done is setting the locks!
Grade K-2: Sam the Shape Stealer https://platform.breakoutedu.com/game/sam-the-shape-stealer
Grade 2-4: Minecraft - Back to Reality - https://platform.breakoutedu.com/game/backtoreality
Try Some RETELL Strategies!
Classroom Bingo
Four Corners
Inside-Outside Circle
Snowball Fight
Stir the Classroom
Write Around
Dave Burgess' Teach Like a Pirate Play Dough Activity
Have positive, upbeat music playing as students enter the room on that very first day. He states that it is “an audible reminder that they are entering a different world . . . my world.
Next, their eyes will focus on the desks. Every desk has a paper plate with a can of Play-Doh on it. Across the board, written in giant letters, are the worlds, “Do NOT Open the Play-doh!”
Already I am trying to break their pre-conceived notions about what to expect in a typical classroom. My goal is to stand out, to be different from their other classes.”
After getting the class started, give the students ten minutes to create something out of Play-Doh. The goal is to make something that “is in some way representative of themselves. They can have complete creative license to make anything they want as long as it is classroom appropriate.
I explain that I will show the class their creation, ask a question or two about it, and then have them tell us their name. They will not have to come to the front of the room and the whole process will take thirty seconds or less. That simple explanation of what to expect helps lower the stress students feel about speaking in the front of the class.”
And while the students are working on their creations, you can walk around, have informal conversations, and get to learn a bit about some of the students. You can help them come up with ideas and use all of this info to help design hooks to lesson later on in the year.
How About Some Tech Tools?
Kahoot!
My Simple Show
SeeSaw
Mystery Skype!
Kara Wilkins is great at setting these up and helping to run them. Email her if you would like some guidance as well.
Engaging All By Creating Learning Communities
The activities included here are: Am I Napoleon?, Architects and Builders, Dream Quilt, Final Countdown,Great Graffiti, Interview Circle, Kitchen Kapers, Newspaper Scavenger Hunt, One Two Three, and Tower Building.
AVID Culturally Relevant Teaching
Team Building Activity Websites
10 Team Building Activities for the First Week of School
Classroom Treasure Hunt, Tennis Ball Transfer, First Day of School Puzzle, One Minute Talk, Inside-Outside Circle, Alien Greeting, Where We Come From Map, Q&A Hands, Classroom Promise, Have You Ever
15 Team-Building Activities for Kids
This site contains activities that are broken up by age groups: Toddles, Pre-School/Kindergarten, and Elementary.
https://www.care.com/c/stories/3793/15-team-building-activities-for-kids/
A Complete Guide to Team-Building Activities for Kids
This is a set of active Team-Building activities that get kids up and moving, running around, and working together on tasks.
http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/team-building-activities-for-kids/
Try Using One of These Ideas to Teach Classroom Procedures
- Develop them together and hang a signed "contract" in the room.
- Move around the building having students practice expectations.
- Act out the expectations or what not following the expectations looks like.
- Create illustrations/posters/picture books of following/not following the rules.
- Have students create three charts: What do you want the school to look, feel, and sound like? and then build that into a classroom contract.