If you think back to your first year teaching, I am sure you can relate to the anxiety that surrounds the very first week of school. Or, if you’re a first year teacher, I’m sure you yourself are anxious for that first week. 

There is so much chaos and excitement around the first week of school that it makes it SO difficult to get your students into your routine. But, routine is so incredibly important from day one. In my first year teaching, I started close to mid-year. You can imagine the struggles I faced trying to gain authority in a classroom that has already run without me for a handful of months. Mind you, I was a first year teacher, who honestly had very little idea of what I was doing.

My second year teaching, having the ability to start from DAY ONE with my students, was a game changer. I was able to set routines from the jump, routines that have stuck with me since.

Building Community

No matter what grade you teach, having some sort of morning routine or beginning of class routine is vital. At my current school, we are required to hold a “morning meeting” with our homerooms for about 10-15 minutes while the kids are filing in. This morning meeting consists of taking attendance, taking lunch count, informing the students of anything going on for the day, and then doing some sort of SEL activity before we send them on their way. I started my first year of morning meetings by asking random questions. I would come up with them on the spot and hope that the kids wanted to answer them. As you can imagine, I quickly ran out of questions to ask. So, last year I decided to actually prepare for my morning meetings. I put together an aesthetic slideshow that I can have on the board each day with a question already planned for me. The kids know exactly what to expect, and even look forward to checking the board each morning to see what the question of the day is. This year, I have even started letting the students run the morning meeting themselves. We take one volunteer a day to run our morning meeting and ask the question of the day. I have 100 Would You Rather Questions in a cute aesthetic format ready to go if you too would like to save yourself the brain work of coming up with a question a day!

Similar to morning meetings, probably my favorite routine I have in place is my warm-ups. I know a lot of teachers who do not do any sort of warm-up or bellringer for their class and I can’t help but wonder how they do it? From the first day of school, I tell my students that they will have a warm-up every day. What that warm-up is each day will be a surprise. Sometimes it is SEL related, other times it is a random writing activity, other times it is centered to whatever standard we are working on that day. No matter what the warm-up is, having something to ease the kids into their work is so important and makes for a smoother class transition. One type of warm-up I have recently tried is a digital interactive warm up. I noticed that I have my students on their laptops almost every day anyways, so I thought: Why not have their warm-ups be digital instead of in their notebooks. I started creating quick, interactive activities that the students could do every day. The warm-ups are themed to whatever season or holiday we are currently in. Sometimes, the warm-ups ask them to drag a circle to the emoji that fits them best, other times the warm-up asks them to write a letter to their grandma from the perspective of a pirate. The warm-ups are endless! And the kids love the surprise of what they will be asked to do today! I encourage you to try these out, especially if you are in a class that is often digital anyways. My September Interactive Journal is a great resource to try out to see if this type of warm-up fits your class!

Use Your Time Wisely

The first week of school can be tough. While it sounds fun to spend a week playing games and getting to know your new students, you quickly realize that a week is actually a very long time to spend with a group of kids just…getting to know them. So, I try to spend the first week of school gathering as much data as possible. Every year we take a “What Type of Learner Are You? Survey.” This survey is fun for the kids, while also informative for us teachers to know how our students learn best! It is also a great opportunity to talk about what your class entails and how they will be expected to problem solve as the year goes on. This survey also happens to be free in my store if you are interested!

Start Small, Stay Consistent

Whether you are a first year teacher or a tenth year teacher, don’t be ashamed to be anxious for the first week. I’m a fourth year teacher, that means I’ve only experienced FOUR first weeks of school. It is something that will take years to master. But, with simple, effective routines and a ton of trial and error, I promise that your first week can go as smooth as you want it to!

Don’t forget to have fun and make memories.

If you are looking for other fun back-to-school activities, make sure to check out my back-to-school category on TPT. It includes multiple freebies that I personally use in my first week that I think you will love as well!

Thanks for reading!

Miss B