Those first few days in Grade One are always a big adjustment for the children. They are now coming to school all day, every day, there is no longer a rest time in the afternoon, and not nearly as much play time! When you are 5 or 6 this is a lot to get used to! What follows are some ideas for how to pass those first few days in first grade. I hope they are of use to you and that you find something to take away with you.

1. Teach procedures!!! They need to know how to line up, where to put their lunch boxes, how to use supplies etc. I do a lot of modeling, sing "This is the way we raise our hand, raise our hand, raise our hand 2x in the first grade etc." They use their new crayons to draw pictures of the procedures and I put them in a BIG Book that we reread often those first few days to go over the procedures.

Books: Chrysanthemum and Leo the Late Bloomer Rules: Have the students generate a class list of rules & sign them. You condense them into 3 or 4 rules. Display both, but read the condensed list every day from then on.

2. I also read Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? Then on the first day I take photos of each child. I mount each picture on oak tag and bind with the words Mary Mary who do you see? next page I see Ian smiling at me. Ian, Ian etc. The last page is a picture of the whole class with first grade smiling at me. The kids love it!! And, learn each others names quickly.

3. Another idea for the photos you take is to photocopy about five copies of each child for future activities - names & pictures on word wall. Class dictionary of names for writing centre with names and photocopied pictures. Some young learners cannot copy names from the word wall yet & they need a close copy. They love to write the names of their friends.

4. Name Game (phonemic awareness) Willaby Wallaby Willaby Wallaby Wee. An elephant stepped on me. Willaby Wallaby Woo. An elephant stepped on you. Willaby Wallaby Waty. An elephant sat on _____.(Katy) You sing it together, then the class supplies the rhyming name. Then, turn it into a writing activity. Students draw self-portraits, but they have elephant feet. You may then choose to make it into a class book.

5. Another name game you may play is "Hot Potato" Have the children sit in a circle. Find a small stuffed animal that may be passed around the circle to music. When the music stops the child holding the animal must say their name. Play a few rounds like this and then have them say their name and the name of one other person. The other person's name that they say is the one who gets the animal to start with again once the music begins.

Another way to use music and help the children to learn each others names, is to have the children walk around the classroom while you play music. When the music stops, they must face the person closest to them and say their name. First graders have lots of energy and this is a game that allows them to use a little bit of it!

You could also play "My name is _______, and in my backpack, I brought a ________ to school today", adding 1 person each time until the whole class has been involved. (A variation of that, is that they have a paper backpack, and need to draw something in it that BEGINS with the first letter of their name. (My name is Tanya and I brought sometoys to school today.) This activity reinforces names and initial sounds. Give them some help if they need it!

6. Journal Writing - They label their journals with their name & journal. Then they draw a picture of their family or say everyone who lives in your house. They can write about it, write the names they can spell, or just draw and colour.

7. Writing sample - name, date, numbers to 20 or as far as they want to go. (Day 2, I ask them to write the alphabet). Keep samples for their portfolios.

8. Math: Sorting Activity: I usually begin the year in math with sorting and graphing. Most of the activites are fairly simple and not too threatening for a first grader. It is really important that they feel successful those first few days. With that in mind, here is a sorting activity you may like to try. You may start by having the children sort themselves into groups (I.E. those wearing shorts, those not wearing shorts, or they may sort by hair/eye colour, etc.)

A great story to read Grade Ones when you are teaching sorting is The Lost Button by Arnold Lobel. Frog has lost a button and Toad tries to help him find it. Describing the button brings in all kinds of attributes: This button is black. My button is white. This button is white but it has two holes. My button is white and has four holes, etc... It is in the book Frog and Toad are Friends.

2 songs that we learn to sing on the first day during math time are "Days of the Week" and Months of the Year."

There's Sunday and there's Monday, there's Tuesday, and there's Wednesday, there's Thursday, and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday.

Days of the week (click, click) Days of the week (click, click) Days of the week, Days of the week, Days of the week!

Months of the Year (sung to the tune of 10 Little Indians)

January, February, March, and April, May, June, July, and August, September, October, November, December, 12 months in a year!

9. Smelly Name Tags: Here is a fun art idea I use on the first day of school. It can be a bit messy, but I never worry about this, so I find it a lot of fun. I try each year to create a bulletin board for the very next day based on their work. This really excites them, and they love to come in and find their work or point it out to others. What I do is give them a strip of tag board which has their name in pencil on it. They take a glue bottle and trace over their name. They then sprinkle different flavors of Jell-O over their names and it is absorbed by the glue. When it dries, they smell. They then have smelly names. I give them a tracer of a circle (for the head) and I photocopy a print of a T-shirt which they cut out, and give them yarn for hair and they put together themselves. They decorate their shirts using sparkles, markers, buttons and draw in their face. They glue on their hair. I then put their name under their creation of themselves and I title it "Smells like a good year!"

10. Take a tour of the school and introduce them to the people that they need to know (principal, secretary, caretaker, librarian, etc.)