First Day Activities

This book would be great introduction on explaining classroom rules. A Kindergarten teacher must keep in mind that not every student has been in a school setting before, meaning that the words "criss cross applesauce" and "line up" have very little to no meaning to them. The first day of class should really focus on setting expectations, outlining the rules and setting guidelines on what is expected. The teacher must of course serve as a good role model!

A fun activity to start the day and to assess your students' skills would be a basic coloring page. This coloring page could be saved and used later in a portfolio with a mid-year comparison as well as an end of the year comparison that both the students and the teachers can appreciate!

Another first day activity could be "The Many Pieces of..." activity. Students will write their name at the top of the page (which helps the teacher assess where the student stands on this skill) on their own or with the help of the teacher. As a teacher you can prepare for this prior to the first day by putting a dashed outline of their name that the students can simply trace. This would make the activity less time consuming and will greatly help the students who have had no prior school experience. A word bank can be provided for the advanced students and students who are lacking in school experience can simply illustrate their activity. The teacher then can label or caption the artwork.