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First Grade Activities for the First Day of School
by Mika Lo
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Overview
The first day of first grade can be a meaningful moment in a young student's life. Unlike kindergartners, first graders already have one year of school experience under their belts. This can make it a challenge to capture excitement and impart rules without scaring them away from their increased responsibilities. Provide engaging first-day activities to ease your new students out of their kindergarten mindsets and into their new roles as first graders. This helps set the stage for a productive year of inspired learning.
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Establish Classroom Rules
Challenge your students to leave "kindergartner thinking" behind, while embracing the standards of an obedient first grader. Teach first graders the importance of their new status by explaining classroom rules in age-appropriate terms. Provide specific examples to make issues more relevant to the new students.
Use a creative approach to capture attention and maybe even coax a few smiles from anxious students. For example, performing the classroom rules with puppets, or turning the rules review into a game can ease tension. Once you've explained the rules, call on students to demonstrate the "right" and "wrong" ways to complete specific classroom procedures. Lead your classroom in a round of cheers when correct behavior is demonstrated, while encouraging them to remain silent when incorrect behavior is demonstrated. Ask multiple students to demonstrate the same correct procedure so it can become like second nature to the class. Consider ending the session by rewarding everyone in the class with his or her first "gold star" of the new school year.
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Decorate Bulletin Boards
Help first graders feel comfortable in their new environment by allowing them to decorate it. This artistic expression encourages creativity and helps relieve first-day jitters. It also promotes teamwork, which helps create a constructive learning atmosphere.
Point out the blank bulletin boards around your classroom. Explain that your last first grade class was filled with eager students who worked together to make "awesome" bulletin boards. Challenge your new class to come together to accomplish the same task. Hold a brainstorming session or present the class with predetermined ideas. Suitable ideas include "Summer Fun," "Classroom Friends" and "All About Us." Provide art supplies in a central location to encourage students to come together. Whether your students are coloring pictures of their favorite animals or tracing their hand prints for a collage, they'll be bonding and creating
