The First Day Of 1st Grade

Preparing for THE First Day of School

My plans are very flexible for the first few days and honestly, I always plan too much. The first weeks are all about community building and procedures. The learning will come smoothly (and eventually) if these two are in place. You can grab a copy of my first day of 1st grade plans below, but please know I made it to only half of it (ha!) and the times are pretty much all wrong.

Since I won’t launch Work on Writing until we’ve built a solid writing foundation, I do lay out all of my materials for the few first weeks until our schedule normalizes. I love being able to grab whatever I need and easily trade something out if it’s not working or we need something else (i.e. brain breaks).

Starting Our Day

With school-start times being pushed back this year, we have a 45 minute window when students arrive with families. 45 minutes?!?! It’s a huge chunk of time and we definitely couldn’t color/write/read/anything for that long. So, I pulled out Crayon and Whimsy’s Ocean Animal Pattern Block mats and they were perfect! My friends loved creating ocean animals, and my new friends would trade mats when they finished. I had a few friends who weren’t interested in ocean animals, so they played with the blocks on their table. It was a *simple* and perfect way to start our day. Plus, everyone could feel successful at the activity!

After the first day, we introduce morning tub supplies one-by-one. First up, foam shapes and dominoes! We mix in some low-lift morning work options, as needed too!

After our families left (note – I had 0 criers this year!!!!!!), we learned how to clean up/push in our chairs/come to the carpet. This took one million minutes and dozens of tries. Then, I introduced our day’s “Game Plan” and taught our friends the Good-Morning song. As tedious as it sounds, doing his on the first day of 1st grade will set your school year up for success!

1st Day of School Read-Alouds

The most important part of the first day of school is getting students home safely. If they want to come back the next day, that’s just a bonus. Truly.

While the first day is full of sparkle and nerves and fresh Crayolas, dismissal is where things get real. And the truth is — the first day is different. Families might drop off but expect the bus home. A student might ride with Grandma today but ride daycare van tomorrow. That’s why confirming and reconfirming transportation plans is a non-negotiable.

Double-check with students. Look in their folders. Scan for sticky notes, scribbled messages, and dismissal tags. Message families via your app or email, and don’t be afraid to ask again mid-day.

Now that we were all on the carpet, we read How Will I Get to School this Year? It is a very silly book and a great way to level the playing ground. At this point in the morning, I don’t want to talk about going home because it will stress everyone out (myself included). But this simple, short book is a great way to talk about the ways we are the same. We then graphed how our friends get to school! (For some added laughter we also love reading The Pigeon HAS to Go the School!)

First Day of 1st Grade Procedures

Then, as an entire 1st grade, we have dinning room procedures practice with our Assistant Principals and staff that help in the dining room (Yes, I do have duty-free lunch and it’s amazing.) Do you see our imaginary trays?

Those first days are all about procedures, establishing a predictable structure, and setting students up for success. Snag this checklist of 130+ back to school procedures here.

The Art of the Back to School Read Aloud

Books anchor us. In those first wobbly days of a new school year — when names are unfamiliar, routines are rough, and every hallway trip feels like a parade — read alouds ground us in something shared. They make us laugh, offer familiar language we can all borrow (“It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”), and give us instant access to emotions and situations our students may not yet have words for.

Through stories, we model empathy, boundaries, kindness, and even how to navigate tricky moments — all without turning it into a lecture. Books spark conversation, diffuse tension, and help a class of strangers start to become a community. On day one, students may not know where to hang their backpacks, but they’ll know they belong on the carpet for a read aloud. 

Just for Fun Books:

• Froggy Goes to School
• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
• There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books
• The Book with No Pictures
• The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors

Books About Friendship

• Chairs on Strike
• We Don’t Eat our Classmates
• All are Welcome
• A Letter to My Teacher
• The World Needs More Purple People
• I Walk with Vanessa
• Our Class is a Family

Books About School

• Schools First Day of School
• Too Much Glue
• David Goes to School
• The Recess Queen
• The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes
• Our School is a Family
• What If Everybody Did That?

Brain Break – Math Style!

At this point, we were definitely ready for a brain break. We picked spots in the classroom where we had room to move and counted to 100 with Jack Hartman! (We’ll soon be working our way to 100 in math so this is a perfect warm-up.)

First Day of 1st Grade Pictures

Are you tired yet? At this point in the day, it was time for lunch and recess. During recess, I snagged pictures of my friends with this sign (I picked up the chalkboard at Hobby Lobby and wrote on it with paint pen…low maintenance is the way to go). The photos will go in the hallway where students hang their awesome work!

After recess, 85% percent of our time was spent preparing for dismissal and practicing dismissal. I’m really not kidding. We reviewed how all our friends were getting home, practiced lining up, and practiced walking to our dismissal spots around the school. Then, after doing this, we did a whole-school dismissal practice. Friends, dismissing is NO JOKE! Thankfully, all of the practice must have worked because ALL of my friends made it home safely (#sweetvictory).

First Day of 1st Grade Portraits

We did slip in a first-day self portrait that will be the front page of our Writing Portfolios this year. I love the idea of having a year-long writing progress to show parents and Cara Carroll offered a simple way to manage them, so I’m game this year!

First Day of 1st Grade Reflection

After a whole-school dismissal practice, we brainstormed what happened on our first day of 1st grade. This is our first introduction into end-of-day reflection and sweet way to think about our day. (Note – I take a picture of this board and sent it via Remind Text to my families, so they have some talking points when their students arrive!)

Students wrote about their favorite part of the 1st day. I know it is a stretch to write sentences on the first day, but friends – I was AMAZED! All 22 of my students could write a sentence without crying. Our Kinder teachers must have rocked-it last year. Most of my friends didn’t know how to use ‘because‘ (i.e. – the word ‘because’ is randomly stuck in this sentence…hehe, but everyone had a basic sentence. 🙂

Before having students put these into their home folders, I had a Speech Pathologist (who hasn’t started pulling kids yet) make a copy for me. This will be a great writing reassessment for me and a great addition to our writing portfolios. (You may grab this page in the FREE plans below.)

Friends, the first day is definitely a whirlwind with two main goals – (1) have the children leave smiling and (2) getting the children home safely. If you think I’m kidding, I’m really not. Those two jobs alone are hard enough – ha! 🙂

With 4 days under our belts, my friends are starting to become ‘mine’ and this is a great feeling. The first few days, I always worry if I will love this group enough or as much as the last one. Every day, with every new moment, the feeling dissipates and my excitement for a new year grows. 

Looking for some other ideas for the beginning of the year? Check these out. 

• First Week of School Editable Lesson Plans
• Strong Family Communication
• Launching Morning Tubs
• Scaffolding Beginning Writers
• Getting Students Talking Numbers
• Solid Phonics Instruction