I've had lots of requests over the summer to share what I do for the first day and week of Kindergarten. I'm always a little hesitant to do these kinds of posts. Each school, team and community as well as the kids are so different. And although this will be my fifth year teaching FDK, I am no means an expert. I make mistakes, and I am tweaking and trying new things every year in hopes of making my program more meaningful and effective for the students I teach. But I do understand how anxiety reducing it is, especially for new teachers to see exactly what another teacher who has taught the grade before does/has done. So I have decided to share, but as you read this, please keep in mind that this is just one way of many many ways you could structure and run your first day and week. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: >> Arrival/Entry: 25 min. << Even if you don't have duty first thing in the morning, you'll want to be outside at duty time to meet and greet your new students and parents for at least the first day if not the first week of school. Show them where they can put their backpacks as they enter the Kindergarten pen. When the bell rings, show students how to line up with their backpacks and follow you into the classroom. As you come into the classroom for the first time, introduce the entry routines. Have students hang their coats and backpacks on their hooks, take their outdoor shoes off and put their indoor shoes on. Some of our parents send extra clothes on the first day so we help the kids take them out and put them in their bins. As students are done their entry routines they pick a learning centre to explore. Here is a view from my teacher table before we went out to greet the kids on the first day of school. >> Learning Centres #1: 20 min. << Always start with simple and self-explanatory or open-ended centres on the first day! You and your partner will most likely be busy helping students with entry routines and even possibly helping a few upset friends calm down. Don't make it even more stressful by putting out centres where they are going to require instruction or help! Some examples of things I put out during this learning centre block: Lego Centre: Play Dough Centre: These alphabet play dough mats can be found in my TPT store here. Writing Centre & Creation Station: My linking chart can be found in my Step by Step: Kindergarten Writing Plans unit here. Some other centres I open on the first day are: blocks/building, puzzles, whiteboards & dry erase markers, dramatic play (with minimal furniture and props), bookshelf, iPads and sandbox. If you want to see more centre examples from Learning Centres #1 you can check out my these blog posts: - Classroom Reveal 2016 - Classroom Reveal 2017 - Classroom Reveal 2019 >> Carpet Time #1 - Procedures & Routines: 25 min. << At the end of centres I say "Hands on top, that means stop" and have the students stop and put their hands on their heads. Then I say "When I say go, please put centres away and come to the carpet, go!" We then go around and show students where to put items away. Once most students have made their way to the carpet, I sing this song to reinforce carpet rules: Carpet Song (to the tune of Frère Jacques) Are you criss-cross? Are you criss-cross? Eyes on me. Eyes on me. Hands in your lap. Hands in your lap. Quietly. Quietly. Then I add: I like the way that ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting. I like the way that ________ is sitting, Oh so very quietly! (fill in names of students who are modeling great carpet behaviour in the blanks) Then, I introduce myself and my partner and welcome the students to our classroom. I also hand out name tags (usually just their name printed on sticker paper) to help me and my partner remember their names. Then I tell them that we are going to practice a name song to learn each other's names and also learn a few important rules about the classroom. We start with the "Name Song". I usually start by singing my partner's name and have her demonstrate the actions. If I have a big class, I start with 5-10 kids and then tell the students we will do the rest throughout the day. Then we go over the bathroom procedures. We have a bathroom that doesn't lock so we talk about only 1 person in the bathroom at a time, and turn the stop/go sign to "stop" when you enter the bathroom and change it to "go" when you come out. You can grab the stop/go templates for FREE here. Then we start an "At Centres" anchor chart. We put the title "At centres, super students..." and have students brainstorm what super students do during centre time. Usually the SK's will already know some things super students do at centre time (e.g. try different centres, use materials gently, share items with others, put things away when you are done, work on something the whole time etc.) so ask them to share what they know and write them down. Throughout the day after each centre block you can ask them if they have any other ideas to add until the anchor chart is full. Now I know this sounds like a lot and if you can't fit it in I would do the "At Centres" anchor chart before the next centre block instead, because you do want to go over any snack procedures you want them to follow before snack! >> Snack: 15 min. << In our class, I pick a couple of students at a time to line up in a straight line and remind them to wash their hands in the sink and dry their hands on the towel. Then we ask them to go and get their lunch bags and sit at a table. I don't assign seats so they can sit wherever there is a chair at a table. I set a large timer for 10 minutes. I love this timer because the kids can see the red part getting smaller as the time gets less and less. If they are done snack and the timer hasn't gone yet they are asked to put their snacks away, make sure the spot they were sitting at is clean (I have 2 mini brooms and dust pans they can use to clean up their space if needed) and then pick a book from the bookshelf and read on the carpet until the timer goes. When the timer goes I have students put their books and snacks away and come to the carpet. >> DPA: 10 min. << I introduce GoNoodle and I have a student who is sitting nicely come up and pick a song. While that student is choosing a song, I remind all students to be looking at the screen and thinking of what song they might like to choose in case they are chosen next. We do 2-3 GoNoodle dances. I review GoNoodle rules as needed after each song (stay in your space, hands to yourself etc). My partner usually supervises GoNoodle while I set up the next set of learning centres. >> Carpet Time #2 : 20 min. << We get going on creating our co-created alphabet line from the first day! This is what we did last year and what we are planning to do again this year. I start with talking about how we are missing some important things on the walls in our classroom. What are some things we should put up on the walls that would help us with our learning at school? I have the kids share what they think and we talk about the importance of an alphabet line and how it helps us with our learning (it helps us learn our letters/sounds, it helps us know the order of the letters etc.) Then I show them the plan I have in mind (the picture above). Then I say "We need to brainstorm some things that start with each letter so we can take a picture for each letter with things/actions or people that start with that letter!" Then we start brainstorming for each letter. First we add all of the students names under each corresponding letter. Then I have them tell me any item they want to see in our co-created alphabet line and what letter it begins with (if they can). We continue this for a few more days until all of the letters have at least 3-4 things. >> Learning Centres #2: 30 min. << We review our "At Centres" anchor chart quickly and students are invited to explore simple centres again. We mix in literacy-based centres in the morning. We circulate and talk to the students, help wanderers find centres and if I have time I pull kids and take head shots so that I have photos to use to make name cards for the word wall and to add to the cover of their writing portfolio's. FREE name card templates can be downloaded here. The templates for writing portfolio's can be found here. >> Prep: 30 min << Last year I had a prep period every day at this time but if not I would continue centres until lunch. Be sure to tidy up at least 10 minutes before lunch and review lunch time rules and routines (both for while they are eating and for playing outside)! >> Lunch & Lunch Recess: 60 min << Eat lunch! But also remember to do any important first day routines. At my last school parents filled in dismissal forms after they dropped their child off and we had to pick them up from the division chair and go through them quickly to familiarize ourselves with dismissal permissions. Touch base with your teammates if you have any too, they will remind you of any important first day procedures you may have forgotten! >> Entry / Book Box / Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << As students come in, I remind them of entry routines and invite them to grab their book box. This is a good way to see who can recognize their name. Have them sit on the carpet and read/look at their books quietly until everyone is reading from their book box. I keep this super short on the first day and have even done a story from Storylineonline.net instead (I highly recommend this site for indoor recesses too!) when we had staggered entry (the SK's came in the morning and JK's joined in the afternoon) so that the kids were engaged while we were helping the new friends that just joined. You can grab my FREE editable book box labels here or by clicking on the image below: >> Learning Centres: 75 min. << Especially if you have any new students joining in the afternoon, review the "At Centres" anchor chart. Quickly introduce the afternoon centres. I mix in numeracy based centres in the afternoon. Then we choose a few friends at a time to pick a centre until everyone has picked somewhere to start. Here are some centres I put out in the afternoon on the first day: A Number Provocation: Number Locks: Sorting & Shapes Sensory Bin: Some other centres I put out/have open in the afternoon on the first day are: blocks/building, dramatic play, creation station, puzzles, iPads, snack, a simple shape provocation, a simple patterning provocation, bookshelf and sandbox. Once everyone has picked a space to start in and are playing at centres, I pull any kids that I didn't get a picture of in the morning and small groups to do their September writing piece (only if I can!). You can download this first guided writing sheet by clicking here or on the image below (September to 2025 is included in the file.) This will be going up on our writing wall as our first piece of writing and it helps me see who can write their name independently. I make note on my clipboard who can recognize their name, who can copy their name, who can recognize letters in their name etc. so that I can make name bags for students who need more practice with their name. These name bags will be our first guided literacy groups eventually. You can grab name bag printables from my TPT store for FREE here. We have a snack table in the afternoon so students are invited to eat at that table when they feel hungry. For the first week or so I stop and ask students who have not yet eaten to go to the snack table about 15 minutes before centre time is over, to make sure that they eat what their parents sent with them and to remind the kids to eat. >> Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << Have students practice clean-up routines and come to the carpet. If you have time, have students share what their favourite thing from the day was. Then talk about dismissal routines and outdoor play rules. Make sure you are specific and clear about what is and isn't allowed so the students know the expectations before you get outside! >> Outdoor Play & Dismissal: 30 min. << Get ready to pack up and go outside. I have a bin with their agendas/zippys so I pull them out one at a time and call the student to get ready. Remind them to show their agenda/zippy to their parents when they get home and bring it back to school every day. Be sure also to tell students where you want them to line up after they are ready too! Once all students are ready, review the outdoor rules one last time. Tell students where to put their backpacks when they get outside. Also review what to do when the bell rings. I have students put their backpack in a line by our gate and then come to their backpack and get back in line when the bell rings. I remind students that it will take a little longer on the first day because I am still learning their parents and to wait until I call them to come to the front to be released. Remind them that they must wait until you call them so that I know they have been picked up by a safe adult and how important that is. I show them my dismissal clipboard and tell them I check each student off as they leave to make sure everyone left safely and if they leave out another gate without letting me or my partner know I would think they are missing! The kids seem to get it when we tell them why we don't want them leaving through another gate, especially without telling us first, when you tell them why it's so important. Also, make sure you check what the dismissal rules are at your school is as well. Can you let them go 5 minutes early if the parents want to take them early? Some schools are very strict about not letting anyone out before the bell unless they are signed out at the office. Check these things before the first day so you know what the rules are and can explain to parents that it is a school wide rule! We have all walkers so we get out early and let the kids play. As the parents arrive we make sure to go and greet them so that we can learn who the parents/pick-up people are for each child. When the bell rings, students line up at their backpacks and I call one student at a time to meet their pick-up person. Once everyone is picked up you can go back into the classroom! Phew! That was a lot. There is so much to remember to do on the first day. People often say if the kids all come, have fun and leave safely at the end of the day it is a first day win and it is so true. Don't stress too much about your centres or any guided work you wanted to do. Always focus on the rules, routines and procedures and only get to the the guided work (like the September writing page I mentioned) if you have time! The rest of the week is much of the same so I'm just going to post my week plans from last year, in case you want to take a look. You can download it by clicking here or on the image below. If I had previously written a blog post about an activity I have linked it in the PDF. If you open the PDF and hover your mouse over the page you will see the clicker change into a little hand where there are links on the page. Kelso's Choices is a social-problem solving program that the school's I have been at have used since my first year of teaching. It introduces a lot of Kindergarten friendly ways to solve social problems independently. You can learn more by going to their website: http://kelsoschoice.com I hope you find this helpful and it gives you some ideas on what to do on the first day of school/week. Good luck on the first day! - Yukari UPDATED 07.14.21: This post was written in 2017 and since then I have made lots of updates to my program. I'm not going to rewrite the whole post right now (I hope to do so in the future!) but I wanted to quickly highlight some new first day/week resources that I now use: The name poem I use during the first week of school can be found in my sight word poem pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fill-in-the-Blank-Sight-Word-Poems-for-Kindergarten-5914838 The read alouds I now use (and the corresponding lesson plans and printables can be found in my "Kinder Read Alouds - September" pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/KINDER-READ-ALOUDS-SEPTEMBER-4266690 Here are some photos from the lessons: I also shared my centre plans for September to March in my "Kindergarten Centre Plans for the Entire Year!" last August. However, it is a growing document and I only have up to March completed. Other projects took priority this past year and I don't know when April to June will be added.. but hopefully you can use and enjoy September to March for the time being! If you download the file, most of the images are clickable and it will either take you to a product, a blog post, an Instagram post or an Amazon page, depending on what the centre is! You can download these here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-FREE-Kindergarten-Visual-Centre-Plans-5848330 I hope you find some of these resources/ideas helpful! - Yukari

I've had lots of requests over the summer to share what I do for the first day and week of Kindergarten. I'm always a little hesitant to do these kinds of posts. Each school, team and community as well as the kids are so different. And although this will be my fifth year teaching FDK, I am no means an expert. I make mistakes, and I am tweaking and trying new things every year in hopes of making my program more meaningful and effective for the students I teach. But I do understand how anxiety reducing it is, especially for new teachers to see exactly what another teacher who has taught the grade before does/has done. So I have decided to share, but as you read this, please keep in mind that this is just one way of many many ways you could structure and run your first day and week. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: >> Arrival/Entry: 25 min. << Even if you don't have duty first thing in the morning, you'll want to be outside at duty time to meet and greet your new students and parents for at least the first day if not the first week of school. Show them where they can put their backpacks as they enter the Kindergarten pen. When the bell rings, show students how to line up with their backpacks and follow you into the classroom. As you come into the classroom for the first time, introduce the entry routines. Have students hang their coats and backpacks on their hooks, take their outdoor shoes off and put their indoor shoes on. Some of our parents send extra clothes on the first day so we help the kids take them out and put them in their bins. As students are done their entry routines they pick a learning centre to explore. Here is a view from my teacher table before we went out to greet the kids on the first day of school. >> Learning Centres #1: 20 min. << Always start with simple and self-explanatory or open-ended centres on the first day! You and your partner will most likely be busy helping students with entry routines and even possibly helping a few upset friends calm down. Don't make it even more stressful by putting out centres where they are going to require instruction or help! Some examples of things I put out during this learning centre block: Lego Centre: Play Dough Centre: These alphabet play dough mats can be found in my TPT store here. Writing Centre & Creation Station: My linking chart can be found in my Step by Step: Kindergarten Writing Plans unit here. Some other centres I open on the first day are: blocks/building, puzzles, whiteboards & dry erase markers, dramatic play (with minimal furniture and props), bookshelf, iPads and sandbox. If you want to see more centre examples from Learning Centres #1 you can check out my these blog posts: - Classroom Reveal 2016 - Classroom Reveal 2017 - Classroom Reveal 2019 >> Carpet Time #1 - Procedures & Routines: 25 min. << At the end of centres I say "Hands on top, that means stop" and have the students stop and put their hands on their heads. Then I say "When I say go, please put centres away and come to the carpet, go!" We then go around and show students where to put items away. Once most students have made their way to the carpet, I sing this song to reinforce carpet rules: Carpet Song (to the tune of Frère Jacques) Are you criss-cross? Are you criss-cross? Eyes on me. Eyes on me. Hands in your lap. Hands in your lap. Quietly. Quietly. Then I add: I like the way that ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting. I like the way that ________ is sitting, Oh so very quietly! (fill in names of students who are modeling great carpet behaviour in the blanks) Then, I introduce myself and my partner and welcome the students to our classroom. I also hand out name tags (usually just their name printed on sticker paper) to help me and my partner remember their names. Then I tell them that we are going to practice a name song to learn each other's names and also learn a few important rules about the classroom. We start with the "Name Song". I usually start by singing my partner's name and have her demonstrate the actions. If I have a big class, I start with 5-10 kids and then tell the students we will do the rest throughout the day. Then we go over the bathroom procedures. We have a bathroom that doesn't lock so we talk about only 1 person in the bathroom at a time, and turn the stop/go sign to "stop" when you enter the bathroom and change it to "go" when you come out. You can grab the stop/go templates for FREE here. Then we start an "At Centres" anchor chart. We put the title "At centres, super students..." and have students brainstorm what super students do during centre time. Usually the SK's will already know some things super students do at centre time (e.g. try different centres, use materials gently, share items with others, put things away when you are done, work on something the whole time etc.) so ask them to share what they know and write them down. Throughout the day after each centre block you can ask them if they have any other ideas to add until the anchor chart is full. Now I know this sounds like a lot and if you can't fit it in I would do the "At Centres" anchor chart before the next centre block instead, because you do want to go over any snack procedures you want them to follow before snack! >> Snack: 15 min. << In our class, I pick a couple of students at a time to line up in a straight line and remind them to wash their hands in the sink and dry their hands on the towel. Then we ask them to go and get their lunch bags and sit at a table. I don't assign seats so they can sit wherever there is a chair at a table. I set a large timer for 10 minutes. I love this timer because the kids can see the red part getting smaller as the time gets less and less. If they are done snack and the timer hasn't gone yet they are asked to put their snacks away, make sure the spot they were sitting at is clean (I have 2 mini brooms and dust pans they can use to clean up their space if needed) and then pick a book from the bookshelf and read on the carpet until the timer goes. When the timer goes I have students put their books and snacks away and come to the carpet. >> DPA: 10 min. << I introduce GoNoodle and I have a student who is sitting nicely come up and pick a song. While that student is choosing a song, I remind all students to be looking at the screen and thinking of what song they might like to choose in case they are chosen next. We do 2-3 GoNoodle dances. I review GoNoodle rules as needed after each song (stay in your space, hands to yourself etc). My partner usually supervises GoNoodle while I set up the next set of learning centres. >> Carpet Time #2 : 20 min. << We get going on creating our co-created alphabet line from the first day! This is what we did last year and what we are planning to do again this year. I start with talking about how we are missing some important things on the walls in our classroom. What are some things we should put up on the walls that would help us with our learning at school? I have the kids share what they think and we talk about the importance of an alphabet line and how it helps us with our learning (it helps us learn our letters/sounds, it helps us know the order of the letters etc.) Then I show them the plan I have in mind (the picture above). Then I say "We need to brainstorm some things that start with each letter so we can take a picture for each letter with things/actions or people that start with that letter!" Then we start brainstorming for each letter. First we add all of the students names under each corresponding letter. Then I have them tell me any item they want to see in our co-created alphabet line and what letter it begins with (if they can). We continue this for a few more days until all of the letters have at least 3-4 things. >> Learning Centres #2: 30 min. << We review our "At Centres" anchor chart quickly and students are invited to explore simple centres again. We mix in literacy-based centres in the morning. We circulate and talk to the students, help wanderers find centres and if I have time I pull kids and take head shots so that I have photos to use to make name cards for the word wall and to add to the cover of their writing portfolio's. FREE name card templates can be downloaded here. The templates for writing portfolio's can be found here. >> Prep: 30 min << Last year I had a prep period every day at this time but if not I would continue centres until lunch. Be sure to tidy up at least 10 minutes before lunch and review lunch time rules and routines (both for while they are eating and for playing outside)! >> Lunch & Lunch Recess: 60 min << Eat lunch! But also remember to do any important first day routines. At my last school parents filled in dismissal forms after they dropped their child off and we had to pick them up from the division chair and go through them quickly to familiarize ourselves with dismissal permissions. Touch base with your teammates if you have any too, they will remind you of any important first day procedures you may have forgotten! >> Entry / Book Box / Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << As students come in, I remind them of entry routines and invite them to grab their book box. This is a good way to see who can recognize their name. Have them sit on the carpet and read/look at their books quietly until everyone is reading from their book box. I keep this super short on the first day and have even done a story from Storylineonline.net instead (I highly recommend this site for indoor recesses too!) when we had staggered entry (the SK's came in the morning and JK's joined in the afternoon) so that the kids were engaged while we were helping the new friends that just joined. You can grab my FREE editable book box labels here or by clicking on the image below: >> Learning Centres: 75 min. << Especially if you have any new students joining in the afternoon, review the "At Centres" anchor chart. Quickly introduce the afternoon centres. I mix in numeracy based centres in the afternoon. Then we choose a few friends at a time to pick a centre until everyone has picked somewhere to start. Here are some centres I put out in the afternoon on the first day: A Number Provocation: Number Locks: Sorting & Shapes Sensory Bin: Some other centres I put out/have open in the afternoon on the first day are: blocks/building, dramatic play, creation station, puzzles, iPads, snack, a simple shape provocation, a simple patterning provocation, bookshelf and sandbox. Once everyone has picked a space to start in and are playing at centres, I pull any kids that I didn't get a picture of in the morning and small groups to do their September writing piece (only if I can!). You can download this first guided writing sheet by clicking here or on the image below (September to 2025 is included in the file.) This will be going up on our writing wall as our first piece of writing and it helps me see who can write their name independently. I make note on my clipboard who can recognize their name, who can copy their name, who can recognize letters in their name etc. so that I can make name bags for students who need more practice with their name. These name bags will be our first guided literacy groups eventually. You can grab name bag printables from my TPT store for FREE here. We have a snack table in the afternoon so students are invited to eat at that table when they feel hungry. For the first week or so I stop and ask students who have not yet eaten to go to the snack table about 15 minutes before centre time is over, to make sure that they eat what their parents sent with them and to remind the kids to eat. >> Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << Have students practice clean-up routines and come to the carpet. If you have time, have students share what their favourite thing from the day was. Then talk about dismissal routines and outdoor play rules. Make sure you are specific and clear about what is and isn't allowed so the students know the expectations before you get outside! >> Outdoor Play & Dismissal: 30 min. << Get ready to pack up and go outside. I have a bin with their agendas/zippys so I pull them out one at a time and call the student to get ready. Remind them to show their agenda/zippy to their parents when they get home and bring it back to school every day. Be sure also to tell students where you want them to line up after they are ready too! Once all students are ready, review the outdoor rules one last time. Tell students where to put their backpacks when they get outside. Also review what to do when the bell rings. I have students put their backpack in a line by our gate and then come to their backpack and get back in line when the bell rings. I remind students that it will take a little longer on the first day because I am still learning their parents and to wait until I call them to come to the front to be released. Remind them that they must wait until you call them so that I know they have been picked up by a safe adult and how important that is. I show them my dismissal clipboard and tell them I check each student off as they leave to make sure everyone left safely and if they leave out another gate without letting me or my partner know I would think they are missing! The kids seem to get it when we tell them why we don't want them leaving through another gate, especially without telling us first, when you tell them why it's so important. Also, make sure you check what the dismissal rules are at your school is as well. Can you let them go 5 minutes early if the parents want to take them early? Some schools are very strict about not letting anyone out before the bell unless they are signed out at the office. Check these things before the first day so you know what the rules are and can explain to parents that it is a school wide rule! We have all walkers so we get out early and let the kids play. As the parents arrive we make sure to go and greet them so that we can learn who the parents/pick-up people are for each child. When the bell rings, students line up at their backpacks and I call one student at a time to meet their pick-up person. Once everyone is picked up you can go back into the classroom! Phew! That was a lot. There is so much to remember to do on the first day. People often say if the kids all come, have fun and leave safely at the end of the day it is a first day win and it is so true. Don't stress too much about your centres or any guided work you wanted to do. Always focus on the rules, routines and procedures and only get to the the guided work (like the September writing page I mentioned) if you have time! The rest of the week is much of the same so I'm just going to post my week plans from last year, in case you want to take a look. You can download it by clicking here or on the image below. If I had previously written a blog post about an activity I have linked it in the PDF. If you open the PDF and hover your mouse over the page you will see the clicker change into a little hand where there are links on the page. Kelso's Choices is a social-problem solving program that the school's I have been at have used since my first year of teaching. It introduces a lot of Kindergarten friendly ways to solve social problems independently. You can learn more by going to their website: http://kelsoschoice.com I hope you find this helpful and it gives you some ideas on what to do on the first day of school/week. Good luck on the first day! - Yukari UPDATED 07.14.21: This post was written in 2017 and since then I have made lots of updates to my program. I'm not going to rewrite the whole post right now (I hope to do so in the future!) but I wanted to quickly highlight some new first day/week resources that I now use: The name poem I use during the first week of school can be found in my sight word poem pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fill-in-the-Blank-Sight-Word-Poems-for-Kindergarten-5914838 The read alouds I now use (and the corresponding lesson plans and printables can be found in my "Kinder Read Alouds - September" pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/KINDER-READ-ALOUDS-SEPTEMBER-4266690 Here are some photos from the lessons: I also shared my centre plans for September to March in my "Kindergarten Centre Plans for the Entire Year!" last August. However, it is a growing document and I only have up to March completed. Other projects took priority this past year and I don't know when April to June will be added.. but hopefully you can use and enjoy September to March for the time being! If you download the file, most of the images are clickable and it will either take you to a product, a blog post, an Instagram post or an Amazon page, depending on what the centre is! You can download these here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-FREE-Kindergarten-Visual-Centre-Plans-5848330 I hope you find some of these resources/ideas helpful! - Yukari

Hi friends! Today I'm going to post about how I taught measuring length this year. As always here is the unit plan and lessons outlined for easy planning if you want to follow along with my lessons! Click on the image to download it as a pdf for free! I always start my measurement unit by talking about shorter and longer. First we introduced the vocabulary short, shorter, long and longer and then completed this chart whole class. I had strips of construction paper ready and I had the students tear the construction paper into 2 pieces and then tell me which one was shorter and which one was longer. Then we glued it on to the chart. During centres I had my students stamp their names on these templates. I quickly made these in PowerPoint by creating a table with 8 columns (because the longest name in our class was 8 letters) and adjusted the height so that they were squares. I copy and pasted to have 3-4 tables on a page and then printed, copied and cut so that each student would have a template. During the lesson we went over our learning goal "We are learning to compare length", talked about what length meant and reviewed our length words short, shorter, long, longer and introduced shortest and longest. I then put their names in the middle of the carpet and we first grouped them according to how many letters were in their names. Then I had students tell me which students had the shortest names and we glued it on the chart below. (Sorry I had to blur the names! I hope you still get the gist of the lesson/activity!) Then we found the longest name and glued it on the bottom. we kept filling it in until we had all of the students up on the chart. On the third day we watched Sid the Science Kid: Exploring Measurement on YouTube and we learned the four measuring rules. Then the next two days we worked on co-constructing our measuring rules anchor chart for our "measurement tools" section of our interactive math wall. As we picked the rule to demonstrate, I told them that we were going to do a happy face (good) example and a sad face (bad) example. They loved this, especially doing the sad face example! I took the pictures as we made each example, printed them off and then we sorted the pictures and taped them under the rule that it matched the next day. The kids took turns picking an item to measure and showing the class a good examples and a bad example for each rule :) On the sixth day we watched Sid the Science Kid: Exploring Measurement on YouTube again... and then we tried the activities from the video! First we used the tallest student in our class to measure the width of our classroom. (Since I don't have any pictures of us doing the activity here is a screen shot from the video.) and then we figured out who the shortest student in our class was and we traced her body onto butcher paper. We cut it out, I taped it to a table and it was open as a centre activity for the students to investigate measurement with snap cubes. (Again, since I don't have any pictures of us doing the activity here is a screen shot from the video.) As one of the summative assessments we measured our feet! I demonstrated whole group and I worked with the students in small groups to complete this activity. This little guy really blew me away. The bears moved while he was writing so the picture doesn't reflect the number well but when he did measure end to end with no spaces there was a little bit of space at the end of his foot. He said "Well one more bear would be too much but I think maybe half a bear would fit, how do you write 5 and a half?" LOVE! In hind sight though I would have just helped him sound it out in words instead of writing it in highlighter for him since he would have been able to do that! Here are some of the independent learning centres that were open during this unit: Play Dough Snakes! We set out green play dough, sequins, googly eyes and pony beads. The only requirement was that the students make 3 or more play dough snakes and order them from shortest to longest. I had two types of mats the one you see below and one with just a big rectangle that said "Make 3 or more play dough snakes. Order them from shortest to longest." for the kids who could order more than 3 :) After they ordered their snakes they decorated! I encouraged patterning on the snakes with the sequins and beads by setting out my example below. These were a big hit for a few days and so easy! I just grabbed some paint chips from Home Depot and wrote their names on them with a Sharpie. Then I cut them to size or taped on an extra spot if they had more than 6 letters in their names to prep them. The students had fun comparing their names to other friends names and some even worked together to recreate our comparing name lesson and ordered the whole class. I do recommend laminating these though... they got pretty beaten up really fast! For those that wanted to I also set out a recording sheet where they could compare their name with a friend's name and record if their friend's name was shorter, the same or longer than their name. After I assessed for the vocabulary shorter and longer and found out which students needed more practice, my ECE sat with them to do this "Length Hunt" activity as a guided group. The were each give a popsicle stick and went around the classroom to find things that were bigger than a popsicle stick and smaller than a popsicle stick. Then they brought the item back to the table and drew a picture of it in the correct spot. Some even labeled their picture if they could! They did really well and now we are proud to say that the WHOLE class has a good grasp of the vocabulary shorter and longer ;) All of the printables you see in this post are in my math unit "Measurement for Kindergarten: Hands-On Centres & Printables"! You can see more details by clicking here or on the images below: I even have some capacity centres/activities that I plan to use already in there and I will blog about it when I wrap up measurement along with comparing temperature and mass! That's it from me! Do you have any fun lessons you do for teaching length? ______________________________________ Added 08.11.21 I now have a digital unit for non-standard measurement! If you are a virtual teacher (or a classroom teacher who wants to use the lesson portion whole group/the unit on your SMARTBoard) you can see the details for the unit by clicking here or on the images below:

Hi friends! I'm here to share with you how I taught patterning to my class this year! Click here to see what I did last year. Here is what I planned for whole group lessons: Click on the image above to download my unit plan from google drive. On the first day we introduced patterning and we created this anchor chart with bingo dabbers. On the second day we watched a patterning video "The Bunny Goes Hop" by Harry Kindergarten (my favourite video for patterning!) and we played the game Mystery Patterns! I would call students up and put them in a pattern. Then I let the students guess what my pattern is! I start with something easy like boy, girl, boy, girl to start and slowly make it more difficult if they are having success with identifying the pattern :) On the third day I taught them how to play the game Fuzz Bugs Patterns on the SMARTBoard. On the fourth day we watched "The Patterns Practice Song" by Scratch Garden on YouTube and learned that we can make number and shape patterns in addition to the colour patterns we have been talking about. On the fifth day we went through the "Patterns In Our Life" PowerPoint and talked about patterns in our daily lives. You can find this PowerPoint in "Patterning for Kindergarten: Centres, Printables and More" on TPT. And on the sixth day we completed this "What's Missing?" chart! The students had to tell me what needs to go in the blank spot and name the pattern. I got this idea from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. Here are some centres we had out so that the students could explore patterning: At this centre I set out 4 different colours of play dough and the students practiced making AB, AAB, ABC and ABCD patterns. At this centre I bingo dabbed some sentence strips with orange, purple and green bingo dabbers and then put out these glitter pumpkins for the kids to reproduce and extend patterns. I set out pom poms, ice cube trays and tongs for the students to create patterns by color or size. We also used these pattern block pattern cards to practice reproducing and extending patterns. We also incorporated some fine motor practice by making a ball of play dough, sticking a pipe cleaner in it and then threading pony beads through it to make patterns. I asked the students to use 2 hands at first and then to try threading it with 1 hand for a challenge. We also had Pattern Match from Turtle Diary on the SMARTBoard as a centre choice for a few days. In small groups the kids made these little pattern books with my ECE. We used bingo dabbers on the first day, shape stamps on the second day, stamper markers on the third day, And stickers on the fourth day. You can find this pattern book, the play dough pattern mats and the pattern block cards in my patterning unit "Patterning for Kindergarten: Centres, Printables and More" on TPT. Click here or on the images below if you are interested in taking a look! Some students also worked with me to create a reference wall for patterning. We had AB, ABB, ABC and other for the headings. If the students made an "other" pattern they also had to write a sentence and tell me what the name of their pattern was for it to go on the wall. This little guy made an AABBCC pattern! We used these sentence cards that we added to our math tool board to help us write sentences about the patterns we made. That's it from me! I hope you were able to get some new ideas for patterning! What fun things do you do when you teach patterning? _______________________________________ Added 08.10.21 I now have a digital patterning unit! Click here or on any of the images below for more details:

1st Week of Kindergarten Plans & Ideas including a freebie. Teaching little learners with purpose and fun.

NO DAVID! I LOVE reading this story the first week of school! It is a great way to talk about class rules and expectations. ...

Practice counting with this fun, hands-on Apple Count to 10 Playdough Mats. Such a fun apple themed math activity for preschoolers.

In this blog you will see a journey being taken by students and teacher to build up our minds, muscles and imaginations together through inquiry, exploration, investigation, problem solving and teamwork!

KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 1 I am thrilled to be sharing this huge Counting and Cardinality Unit with you! This is the math unit we start the year with in kindergarten. The kids love all of the hands-on activities we get to do, and I love how easy it is to keep them engaged.

A collection of math and literacy FREEBIES for pre-k through first grade! Books, games, centers, activities and more! FREEBIES!

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Looking for a fun Preschool Construction Theme for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On Construction Learning Activities for Preschool or Kindergarten.

Free, fun and useful Kindergarten - 1st Grade, Common Core aligned lesson plans, math games, calendars, behavior charts, materials and more!

Get ready! The new 2016 Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum is HERE! I am so grateful for the wonderful response to my checklists for the “old” curriculum. Many of you have asked for a new version, so here it is! Here is a complete set of the curriculum expectations for Ontario Full-Day Kindergarten, conveniently broken down into the 4 frames for your easy reference. The 4 frames of the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum are: Belonging and Contributing Self-Regulation and Well Being Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours Problem Solving and Innovating Print which ever frame you need, or print them all. Many educator teams are using these checklists to keep track of long-range planning and of course they are invaluable during report card time. If you print in colour, the bands on each sheet correspond to the colour coding in the Ontario Curriculum Document.   Have Fun!!!

I love creating bulletin boards that represent the learning of the children in my classroom. Our old curriculum was very subject bound. At times we would have a writing, art, science or math focus on them. I love the freedom of our new curriculum as it has changed to the Four Frames. There are so many cross-curricular links and I love being able to show that off. One of my personal favourite ideas is to make a collage of current photos and collages we have made of the learning in our classroom. We have five different bulletin boards in my classroom so we use one board for each frame except we use two to separate demonstrating literacy and mathematical behaviours. If you're interested in checking these out, click on the image below to pick it up from my store! There are five title pages and four pages with the corresponding expectations for each of the Four Frames. The titles are identical to what I have in the photos above but the expectations look better in the download. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful for your classroom!

Hi friends! I'm so excited to share a project that turned out so well in my classroom! I really wanted the students to have more ownership in our classroom this year and to use resources that we put up on the walls. After discussing this with my ECE we decided to co-create the alphabet and number line with the kids. First we co-constructed the alphabet. I googled co-constructed alphabet and found this image to use as the basis of our body alphabet. Photo by TSJ Photography And here is how it turned out! We backed the consonants onto black construction paper and the vowels on red construction paper. Then we added some red glitter to the vowels. Here is a close up of the letter H. Next we worked on the co-constructed number line. Before we started the number line we learned number formation with Dr. Jean's "The Numeral Song". You can listen to the song here. Then I split up the tasks over a few days. On the first day I took pictures of the kids holding their fingers up to make numbers. I also sat with a group and had them copy the number and the number word off of our number cards from our math word wall. On the second day we dotted the numbers on the ten frames with bingo dabbers. I called 3-4 students at a time and had them choose a number they liked best. I kept going until we had at least one ten-frame for each number. On the third day I had the students come and trace the lyrics to "The Numeral Song" to put at the bottom of the poster. Here is a photo of the finished product: And here is a close up! I also tried to get a shot where you can see most of the letters and numbers! They are above our whiteboard. Both the body alphabet and the co-constructed number line were huge hits in our classroom! Have you ever made a co-created alphabet line or number line with your students? If you have a blog post on it please leave a link in the comments! I would love to check it out! Thanks for reading!

These kindergarten anchor charts will give you the tools you need to teach math, reading, friendship skills, and much more!

Kindergarten artists created these special self-portraits to give their moms for Mother’s Day. The artists learned that a self-portrait is a drawing or painting of themselves. I love the innocence of Kindergarten drawings, and knew their moms would love their drawings too. I struggled with directing the students too much so all the portraits looked the same, but directing them enough so they would have success with their portraits. I decided to take the students through an exercise of exploring their faces and bodies so they did not miss any parts. We pulled our shoulders up to see what we would look like if we didn’t have a neck and they thought that would look pretty silly! We also discovered that our eyes are in the middle of our heads, not our noses. After exploring their bodies, students eagerly began drawing their portraits while adding their own unique touches. After the portraits were finished and the tissue paper backgrounds were added, their classroom teachers helped them write notes and Mother’s Day wishes to their moms around the border. . This project meets the following Michigan Visual Arts Standards: Explore the elements of art through playful sensory experiences. Recognize that art can be created for self expression or fun. This project can be found on our online art gallery ARTSONIA Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services Entry Filed under: News From Mrs. Persch. Posted in News From Mrs. Persch Tags:Artsonia, Kindergarten Art Projects, line, Mother's Day, self portraits, tissue paper.

Kids will be WOWED with this hands-on, fall science experiment where they will explore Why do Leaves Change Color for kids! Fun Leaf Activity!

KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 1 I am thrilled to be sharing this huge Counting and Cardinality Unit with you! This is the math unit we start the year with in kindergarten. The kids love all of the hands-on activities we get to do, and I love how easy it is to keep them engaged.

At the beginning of the year, while I was waiting to see what interests started popping up for Inquiries, we spent time getting to know each other and building our community! Of course, we read books to get us thinking. Here is one the kids loved that talked about how our facial features are different. I passed out mirrors and the kids all looked closely at themselves. We discussed how our faces had different shapes. Our eyes had a color, but also a shape! Same with our noses! We all made a blackline sketch of our faces to show how we saw ourselves in the mirror. The next day, we had a discussion about what practice means. They did a beautiful job for a first try, but if they did it again, do they think they would do better, worse, or the same? They all felt they would do better! We discussed that practice helps us get better! So we tried again and they felt that their second try was even better than the first. The next day we read The Color of Us. It is one of my favorites! The names used to describe the different colors of people are beautiful! During our exploration time, the kids took turns matching water color paint to their skin tone and painting the skin on their second self portrait. During this process, they learned how to paint with watercolor by rubbing the brush against the side to get rid of the drips and taking care of our water colors by washing their brush after each color. After it dried, they painted their eyes, mouth and hair. I always love these self portraits! They dictated to us what their biggest goal was for them to be able to do be the end of Kindergarten and we wrote their goal on their self portrait. Here are some of their goals: "I want to learn how to grow big muscles." "I want to learn how to write my name correctly." Here is one of my favorites: Here is the display of their work: Next, they want to create a friendship painting using their handprints inspired by one my kids made last year that is dislayed in the hallway! I can't wait to see how they make it their own!

I've had lots of requests over the summer to share what I do for the first day and week of Kindergarten. I'm always a little hesitant to do these kinds of posts. Each school, team and community as well as the kids are so different. And although this will be my fifth year teaching FDK, I am no means an expert. I make mistakes, and I am tweaking and trying new things every year in hopes of making my program more meaningful and effective for the students I teach. But I do understand how anxiety reducing it is, especially for new teachers to see exactly what another teacher who has taught the grade before does/has done. So I have decided to share, but as you read this, please keep in mind that this is just one way of many many ways you could structure and run your first day and week. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: >> Arrival/Entry: 25 min. << Even if you don't have duty first thing in the morning, you'll want to be outside at duty time to meet and greet your new students and parents for at least the first day if not the first week of school. Show them where they can put their backpacks as they enter the Kindergarten pen. When the bell rings, show students how to line up with their backpacks and follow you into the classroom. As you come into the classroom for the first time, introduce the entry routines. Have students hang their coats and backpacks on their hooks, take their outdoor shoes off and put their indoor shoes on. Some of our parents send extra clothes on the first day so we help the kids take them out and put them in their bins. As students are done their entry routines they pick a learning centre to explore. Here is a view from my teacher table before we went out to greet the kids on the first day of school. >> Learning Centres #1: 20 min. << Always start with simple and self-explanatory or open-ended centres on the first day! You and your partner will most likely be busy helping students with entry routines and even possibly helping a few upset friends calm down. Don't make it even more stressful by putting out centres where they are going to require instruction or help! Some examples of things I put out during this learning centre block: Lego Centre: Play Dough Centre: These alphabet play dough mats can be found in my TPT store here. Writing Centre & Creation Station: My linking chart can be found in my Step by Step: Kindergarten Writing Plans unit here. Some other centres I open on the first day are: blocks/building, puzzles, whiteboards & dry erase markers, dramatic play (with minimal furniture and props), bookshelf, iPads and sandbox. If you want to see more centre examples from Learning Centres #1 you can check out my these blog posts: - Classroom Reveal 2016 - Classroom Reveal 2017 - Classroom Reveal 2019 >> Carpet Time #1 - Procedures & Routines: 25 min. << At the end of centres I say "Hands on top, that means stop" and have the students stop and put their hands on their heads. Then I say "When I say go, please put centres away and come to the carpet, go!" We then go around and show students where to put items away. Once most students have made their way to the carpet, I sing this song to reinforce carpet rules: Carpet Song (to the tune of Frère Jacques) Are you criss-cross? Are you criss-cross? Eyes on me. Eyes on me. Hands in your lap. Hands in your lap. Quietly. Quietly. Then I add: I like the way that ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting, ________ is sitting. I like the way that ________ is sitting, Oh so very quietly! (fill in names of students who are modeling great carpet behaviour in the blanks) Then, I introduce myself and my partner and welcome the students to our classroom. I also hand out name tags (usually just their name printed on sticker paper) to help me and my partner remember their names. Then I tell them that we are going to practice a name song to learn each other's names and also learn a few important rules about the classroom. We start with the "Name Song". I usually start by singing my partner's name and have her demonstrate the actions. If I have a big class, I start with 5-10 kids and then tell the students we will do the rest throughout the day. Then we go over the bathroom procedures. We have a bathroom that doesn't lock so we talk about only 1 person in the bathroom at a time, and turn the stop/go sign to "stop" when you enter the bathroom and change it to "go" when you come out. You can grab the stop/go templates for FREE here. Then we start an "At Centres" anchor chart. We put the title "At centres, super students..." and have students brainstorm what super students do during centre time. Usually the SK's will already know some things super students do at centre time (e.g. try different centres, use materials gently, share items with others, put things away when you are done, work on something the whole time etc.) so ask them to share what they know and write them down. Throughout the day after each centre block you can ask them if they have any other ideas to add until the anchor chart is full. Now I know this sounds like a lot and if you can't fit it in I would do the "At Centres" anchor chart before the next centre block instead, because you do want to go over any snack procedures you want them to follow before snack! >> Snack: 15 min. << In our class, I pick a couple of students at a time to line up in a straight line and remind them to wash their hands in the sink and dry their hands on the towel. Then we ask them to go and get their lunch bags and sit at a table. I don't assign seats so they can sit wherever there is a chair at a table. I set a large timer for 10 minutes. I love this timer because the kids can see the red part getting smaller as the time gets less and less. If they are done snack and the timer hasn't gone yet they are asked to put their snacks away, make sure the spot they were sitting at is clean (I have 2 mini brooms and dust pans they can use to clean up their space if needed) and then pick a book from the bookshelf and read on the carpet until the timer goes. When the timer goes I have students put their books and snacks away and come to the carpet. >> DPA: 10 min. << I introduce GoNoodle and I have a student who is sitting nicely come up and pick a song. While that student is choosing a song, I remind all students to be looking at the screen and thinking of what song they might like to choose in case they are chosen next. We do 2-3 GoNoodle dances. I review GoNoodle rules as needed after each song (stay in your space, hands to yourself etc). My partner usually supervises GoNoodle while I set up the next set of learning centres. >> Carpet Time #2 : 20 min. << We get going on creating our co-created alphabet line from the first day! This is what we did last year and what we are planning to do again this year. I start with talking about how we are missing some important things on the walls in our classroom. What are some things we should put up on the walls that would help us with our learning at school? I have the kids share what they think and we talk about the importance of an alphabet line and how it helps us with our learning (it helps us learn our letters/sounds, it helps us know the order of the letters etc.) Then I show them the plan I have in mind (the picture above). Then I say "We need to brainstorm some things that start with each letter so we can take a picture for each letter with things/actions or people that start with that letter!" Then we start brainstorming for each letter. First we add all of the students names under each corresponding letter. Then I have them tell me any item they want to see in our co-created alphabet line and what letter it begins with (if they can). We continue this for a few more days until all of the letters have at least 3-4 things. >> Learning Centres #2: 30 min. << We review our "At Centres" anchor chart quickly and students are invited to explore simple centres again. We mix in literacy-based centres in the morning. We circulate and talk to the students, help wanderers find centres and if I have time I pull kids and take head shots so that I have photos to use to make name cards for the word wall and to add to the cover of their writing portfolio's. FREE name card templates can be downloaded here. The templates for writing portfolio's can be found here. >> Prep: 30 min << Last year I had a prep period every day at this time but if not I would continue centres until lunch. Be sure to tidy up at least 10 minutes before lunch and review lunch time rules and routines (both for while they are eating and for playing outside)! >> Lunch & Lunch Recess: 60 min << Eat lunch! But also remember to do any important first day routines. At my last school parents filled in dismissal forms after they dropped their child off and we had to pick them up from the division chair and go through them quickly to familiarize ourselves with dismissal permissions. Touch base with your teammates if you have any too, they will remind you of any important first day procedures you may have forgotten! >> Entry / Book Box / Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << As students come in, I remind them of entry routines and invite them to grab their book box. This is a good way to see who can recognize their name. Have them sit on the carpet and read/look at their books quietly until everyone is reading from their book box. I keep this super short on the first day and have even done a story from Storylineonline.net instead (I highly recommend this site for indoor recesses too!) when we had staggered entry (the SK's came in the morning and JK's joined in the afternoon) so that the kids were engaged while we were helping the new friends that just joined. You can grab my FREE editable book box labels here or by clicking on the image below: >> Learning Centres: 75 min. << Especially if you have any new students joining in the afternoon, review the "At Centres" anchor chart. Quickly introduce the afternoon centres. I mix in numeracy based centres in the afternoon. Then we choose a few friends at a time to pick a centre until everyone has picked somewhere to start. Here are some centres I put out in the afternoon on the first day: A Number Provocation: Number Locks: Sorting & Shapes Sensory Bin: Some other centres I put out/have open in the afternoon on the first day are: blocks/building, dramatic play, creation station, puzzles, iPads, snack, a simple shape provocation, a simple patterning provocation, bookshelf and sandbox. Once everyone has picked a space to start in and are playing at centres, I pull any kids that I didn't get a picture of in the morning and small groups to do their September writing piece (only if I can!). You can download this first guided writing sheet by clicking here or on the image below (September to 2025 is included in the file.) This will be going up on our writing wall as our first piece of writing and it helps me see who can write their name independently. I make note on my clipboard who can recognize their name, who can copy their name, who can recognize letters in their name etc. so that I can make name bags for students who need more practice with their name. These name bags will be our first guided literacy groups eventually. You can grab name bag printables from my TPT store for FREE here. We have a snack table in the afternoon so students are invited to eat at that table when they feel hungry. For the first week or so I stop and ask students who have not yet eaten to go to the snack table about 15 minutes before centre time is over, to make sure that they eat what their parents sent with them and to remind the kids to eat. >> Carpet Time #3: 30 min. << Have students practice clean-up routines and come to the carpet. If you have time, have students share what their favourite thing from the day was. Then talk about dismissal routines and outdoor play rules. Make sure you are specific and clear about what is and isn't allowed so the students know the expectations before you get outside! >> Outdoor Play & Dismissal: 30 min. << Get ready to pack up and go outside. I have a bin with their agendas/zippys so I pull them out one at a time and call the student to get ready. Remind them to show their agenda/zippy to their parents when they get home and bring it back to school every day. Be sure also to tell students where you want them to line up after they are ready too! Once all students are ready, review the outdoor rules one last time. Tell students where to put their backpacks when they get outside. Also review what to do when the bell rings. I have students put their backpack in a line by our gate and then come to their backpack and get back in line when the bell rings. I remind students that it will take a little longer on the first day because I am still learning their parents and to wait until I call them to come to the front to be released. Remind them that they must wait until you call them so that I know they have been picked up by a safe adult and how important that is. I show them my dismissal clipboard and tell them I check each student off as they leave to make sure everyone left safely and if they leave out another gate without letting me or my partner know I would think they are missing! The kids seem to get it when we tell them why we don't want them leaving through another gate, especially without telling us first, when you tell them why it's so important. Also, make sure you check what the dismissal rules are at your school is as well. Can you let them go 5 minutes early if the parents want to take them early? Some schools are very strict about not letting anyone out before the bell unless they are signed out at the office. Check these things before the first day so you know what the rules are and can explain to parents that it is a school wide rule! We have all walkers so we get out early and let the kids play. As the parents arrive we make sure to go and greet them so that we can learn who the parents/pick-up people are for each child. When the bell rings, students line up at their backpacks and I call one student at a time to meet their pick-up person. Once everyone is picked up you can go back into the classroom! Phew! That was a lot. There is so much to remember to do on the first day. People often say if the kids all come, have fun and leave safely at the end of the day it is a first day win and it is so true. Don't stress too much about your centres or any guided work you wanted to do. Always focus on the rules, routines and procedures and only get to the the guided work (like the September writing page I mentioned) if you have time! The rest of the week is much of the same so I'm just going to post my week plans from last year, in case you want to take a look. You can download it by clicking here or on the image below. If I had previously written a blog post about an activity I have linked it in the PDF. If you open the PDF and hover your mouse over the page you will see the clicker change into a little hand where there are links on the page. Kelso's Choices is a social-problem solving program that the school's I have been at have used since my first year of teaching. It introduces a lot of Kindergarten friendly ways to solve social problems independently. You can learn more by going to their website: http://kelsoschoice.com I hope you find this helpful and it gives you some ideas on what to do on the first day of school/week. Good luck on the first day! - Yukari UPDATED 07.14.21: This post was written in 2017 and since then I have made lots of updates to my program. I'm not going to rewrite the whole post right now (I hope to do so in the future!) but I wanted to quickly highlight some new first day/week resources that I now use: The name poem I use during the first week of school can be found in my sight word poem pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fill-in-the-Blank-Sight-Word-Poems-for-Kindergarten-5914838 The read alouds I now use (and the corresponding lesson plans and printables can be found in my "Kinder Read Alouds - September" pack here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/KINDER-READ-ALOUDS-SEPTEMBER-4266690 Here are some photos from the lessons: I also shared my centre plans for September to March in my "Kindergarten Centre Plans for the Entire Year!" last August. However, it is a growing document and I only have up to March completed. Other projects took priority this past year and I don't know when April to June will be added.. but hopefully you can use and enjoy September to March for the time being! If you download the file, most of the images are clickable and it will either take you to a product, a blog post, an Instagram post or an Amazon page, depending on what the centre is! You can download these here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-FREE-Kindergarten-Visual-Centre-Plans-5848330 I hope you find some of these resources/ideas helpful! - Yukari

Get creative with September Coloring Pages! Fun printables for fall, school themes, and more. Perfect for kids of all ages.

Apple science experiment to explore the effect of different liquids on apple slices. A fun, science experiment for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten