The First Day of Kindergarten
First day of kindergarten activities are on everyone’s mind but what do you really need to know for a successful first day of school? I’ll spill the secrets. I want you to know what it is REALLY like on the first day of kindergarten for teachers. I don’t want to scare you but I want you to know what to expect. There is NO tired like after the first day of kindergarten. You will be exhausted but if you don’t lose anyone, it is a win! Consider that a success!
First Day of Kindergarten for Teachers
You must be prepared! It will be hard but you can do a few things to make your life easier! You will spend most of your prep period placing tags on backpacks! The most important thing to worry about is how the students will get home. If it is possible to do this before the official first day, it will save you SOOO much of your sanity! I recommend making the tags either AT meet the teacher or right afterward so they are ready to go on the first day. If you can color-code your tags, it will make separating the students at the end of the day much smoother.
We color-code the tags the following way.
Red-car
Bus- Yellow
Daycare Van- Green
This way at the end of the day, you can easily sort the students. You may have a different system in place but if you are making tags, this system will work. I used an online tool years ago that would auto-fill my tags for me. It was useful but then they started charging 100$ for it. Saaay whaaat? That’s way too much for me so I made auto-fill tags in adobe. This saves so much time because I will just enter the info on one sheet and it fills in all the tags for me. I also print some blank ones and handwrite them until I can get the official ones printed.
First Day of Kindergarten Activities
Do not expect that your kids will know anything. Your students will not know how to walk in a line. They will not know how to sit crisscross. They will not know how to raise their hand and will not know much of anything unless they have been to Pre-k. You will have to explicitly teach everything.
Arrival
Everyone loves a first day of kindergarten printable. You can leave coloring pages on each desk as the students enter but some students finish so fast that this can end up being over too quickly. You will be bombarded by parents while students run up to you. “I’m done, what now?” is going to get old real quick. That is no good. My absolute favorite tool to use is Play-doh! Play-doh mats will keep them busy for a long time. I use this for the first 2-3 weeks of school while the students are getting used to arrival. Then I change to morning tubs and then to morning work but more on that later.
Procedures
Next, comes the procedures. You should model your first week exactly how you want your year to look minus the centers. You won’t be able to throw your new students into centers during the first week. I begin school in August and we are not able to start center rotations until the end of September or October. Don’t plan on introducing centers until later. Your first day will focus on introducing each block of time and the expectations of that time frame. I will share my first day of kindergarten schedule and post more on it another time. This is an example schedule for your reference.
Schedule
7:45-8:30 Morning Work (Play-Doh Mats and restroom)
8:30-9:00 Calendar time ( On the first day, I assign carpet spots and go over rules)
9:00-9:45 Phonics and Writing (I have used an explicit phonics program but for the first day we write our names and draw our-self)
9:45-10:15 Reading (We read a first day of school book and draw a picture from the story)
10:15-10:30 Restroom
10:35-11:10 Lunch
11:10-11:25 Restroom
11:25-12:30 Math (Introduce math manipulatives and place a box of them at each table to explore. We may also do a number tracing sheet.)
12:35-1:25 PE ( I am rushing like a madwoman to find out bus numbers and place tags on all backpacks)
1:30-2:30 Social Studies/Science (This is time for more routines and procedures. We also read a story about recess. I like The Recess Queen and we discuss recess rules and procedures. We pack up early. We pack up before we go to recess because I will not have time after recess to get it all done. It is better to be early than late on the first day! If there is time then I will show them where they go at dismissal.)
2:30-3:00 Recess and Snack
3:00-3:15 Official Pack-up time (This is when we sort the kids to their appropriate spots and verify tags.)
3:25 School Dismissal
The most important thing to worry about the first day is getting the kids home safely. Everything else is icing on the cake.
If you want more guidance and first day of kindergarten lesson plans then I have got you covered. I have a week’s worth of lesson plans that teach routines and procedures to help you get started on the right foot.
This is a glance at all the things you get in my Step Into Kinder pack. There are also routine cards and guidance which are perfect for new teachers or anyone. There are lots of editable pieces to this pack as well!
Have an idea on something that you would like added to this pack? Leave a comment below or let me know about a great routine that works for you at the beginning of the year!
If you want to read more about lessons plans for August then check out this post.
