“What you do on the first day of school will determine your success or failure for the rest of the school year” (Wong, 2009, p. 3).
First Day Schedule Teacher Intro - 8:10 Get to Know You Survey - 8:20 Rehearse Turn-in Procedure - 8:35 Get to Know You Bingo - 8:45 Rehearse Turn-in Procedure - 9:15 Rehearse Circle Time Procedure - 9:20 Story for Circle Time - 9:30 Rehearse Circle Time Departure Procedure - 10:00 Snack Time - 10:10 Classroom Scavenger Hunt - 10:25 Lining Up Procedure Rehearsal - 10:50 Specials - 11:05 Lunch - 11:50 Recess - 12:05 Coming into the Classroom Procedure Rehearsal - 12:25 Self Portraits - 12:35 Bathroom Procedure Rehearsal - 1:20 Discuss Classroom Norms and Rules - 1:35 Stand Up, Sit Down - 2:05 Rehearse Clean-up Procedure - 2:25 Explain Dismissal Procedure - 2:45 Dismissal - 2:55
First day of School Script: “Hello, and welcome to the third grade! My name is Mrs. Clement and I am excited to be your teacher this year! I’ve written my name on the board so that you can become familiar with it, and as you have already noticed, your names are on your desks so that I can become familiar with your names as quickly as possible. I want to thank you all for coming in and finding your seats immediately and looking for further directions on the board. You can expect to do this every time you enter the classroom. This is one procedure that we have in our classroom that you will practice until it becomes natural to you. Today we will spend some time getting to know each other and learning our classroom procedures. First, I will tell you a little bit about myself! My wonderful husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary! I recently graduated from Spring Arbor University, which is near Jackson Michigan. At Spring Arbor, I studied and practiced my teaching skills so that I would be prepared for this day in our classroom! I also studied math and science so that I can share that knowledge with all of you. My family is important to me. I am the second oldest of the siblings in my family. How many of you are also the second oldest? That is one thing that I have in common with you so far! I have an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister. We are very close now, I consider them to be my best friends! But we used to fight over silly things that siblings fight over when they are young. I love to spend time at the lake with my husband and my family. We go boating and swimming! My favorite color is blue and my favorite animal is a giraffe. Those are a few important things that I wanted you all to know about me as well as a couple fun facts! Now I want to learn about all of you! I have a survey for you to fill out so that I can start to get to know who you are and what you like and dislike. I am passing around the survey, I’d like you to take a few minutes and fill it out as completely as you can.”
(Name Bingo, 2007)
During Circle Time on the carpet, the teacher will be reading aloud to the students. The book they will be reading is Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Seuss, 1990)