Back to school can be stressful, but it is also a very exciting time of the year! There is so much energy as students meet new friends, explore the classroom, and begin building the routines that will carry us through the year.
While we definitely spend a lot of time teaching and practicing procedures and expectations (read about classroom routines to teach here), I also make sure our days are filled with engaging activities that help students feel comfortable and excited about coming to school. The goal is to create a classroom community where students feel safe, confident, and ready to learn.
These are ten of my favorite first week of school activities that my first graders look forward to every year. 😍
1. Find a Friend 🤝
One of my favorite activities is this simple “Find a Friend” game. Students walk around the room finding classmates who match different descriptions on their paper. This is a fabulous activity for them to get to know each other’s names, find friends who they have something in common with, practice asking questions, and practice writing names.
They might look for someone who has:
- a dog
- a sister
- flowers at their house
- built a snowman
- been on an airplane
- …and more!
Tap the image to get a copy for your classroom! 👇🏽
This activity gets everyone talking without putting anyone on the spot. By the end, students have already learned several interesting facts about their classmates, learned classmates’ names, and have made new connections. Get “Find a Friend” HERE!
2. Take First Day Pictures 📸
The first day of first grade only happens once, so I always make time to capture it! I zip around the room while they’re working on something and take their pictures with our photo sign.
These photos become wonderful keepsakes for families and I also use them for our Word Wall by putting it next to their name. It helps students learn each other’s names and it’s fun for them to look at throughout the year. Check out this blog post about our first day pictures!
3. Read Our First Poem of the Week 💗
We start our Poem of the Week routine on Day 1!
Poems give students an opportunity to practice shared reading, vocabulary acquisition, rhyming words, word recognition, and more. We reread it throughout the week, looking for familiar words, rhyming words, punctuation, and other literacy skills. On Friday, they will get their Poetry Journal and add this first poem!
It quickly becomes one of our favorite classroom traditions! Read more about our Poem of the Week routine HERE!
⭐ Check out my August Poem of the Week pack here!
4. Book Challenge 📚
One of my favorite ways to kick off the school year is with our Back to School Book Challenge! It’s easy, free, and fun, plus it’s a quick way to introduce a bunch of great books to my students!
Grab 20-25 (depending on how long your first week of school is) of your favorite books that you love for back to school, friendship, acceptance, and any other topics that are great for the beginning of the year! Stack them up by your teacher chair and read 4-5 every day during that first week. We keep a tally chart on our whiteboard. You can read more about my Back to School Book Challenge here!
5. Free Book Tickets 🎟️
Nothing motivates first graders quite like earning these tickets!
Students have opportunities throughout the year to earn special “Free Book Tickets” by showing kindness, following directions, helping classmates, staying on task, or making good choices.
When students earn a ticket, they put it into our fancy free book drawing box. Every Friday, I choose 2-3 tickets before we go home and those students head to our Treasure Chest to choose a free book! The tickets are free in my TpT store! I get my books from Scholastic. I get them by using my bonus points, finding $2 books, or buying an inexpensive pack of several popular books.
6. Circle Counting Game ⭕
Our circle counting game is one of the easiest ways to get everyone involved in math during the first week. They beg to play it every day! We start by counting from 0 to 10 at the beginning of the year. Throughout the year, we work with bigger numbers, skip counting, days of the week, etc.
Students stand in a circle. The first person says “zero”, the next says “one”, etc. When we get to the student who says “ten”, the next student is out and sits down. We keep going until we have two left who battle to see who is the “winner”. 😊
It’s simple, requires no prep, and gives me a quick snapshot of who can count fluently and who needs to work on it.
7. Math Tools Exploration 🟦
Before we begin math stations and other activities with manipulatives, I give students time to explore them. The first week, our “stations” are tubs of different math tools. Students can build, count, sort, and talk about math with a small group.
Before we start, we make a chart of how to use math tools. Then, they have stations time to explore these tools.
This short exploration pays off all year long, as students know how to use our tools and how to work in a small group.
8. Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers 🪣
One of the most important conversations we have during the first week is how we treat one another. We read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.
After reading the bucket-filling story, we talk about the difference between bucket fillers and bucket dippers. Students brainstorm examples of kind words and actions that help fill someone’s bucket.
Throughout the year, we continue referring back to this lesson as we work together to create a classroom where everyone feels welcomed and respected.
9. Build Independent Reading Stamina with a Class Graph 📖
One of the routines we begin right away is independent reading. I pre-fill my students’ book boxes before school starts. Each box has 8 books with a mixture of levels and fiction/nonfiction. (They’ll start shopping for their own books in a few weeks.) We make a chart about and discuss what students should be and should NOT be doing during reading time before we start.
After each reading session, we graph the number of minutes we successfully read without interruptions. My students love watching our reading stamina graph grow! It gives them a great visual reminder that they’re getting stronger as readers each day. You can read more about how I teach independent reading HERE!
10. Get To Know Me! 😊
Before school starts, I send a postcard to each student. During the first week, I take a few minutes for them to ask me questions about me. They are usually very interested in my pets! It’s a fun little way for them to get to know a bit more about me. 😊 Learn more about how I build relationships from the beginning at this post.
The first week of school is about so much more than introducing rules and procedures, especially in first grade! It’s about creating a classroom where students feel excited to learn and have a connection to one another and their teacher. 😍
Happy Teaching!
Jennifer ~ Practical Primary Teacher 🍎🍏
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Hello, I’m Jennifer! I teach 1st grade. I've been teaching for over 20 years. I love to design engaging and rigorous activities for my students and help them develop a love for reading. 
