11 Activities for First Day of Kindergarten Success
Activities for first day of kindergarten are plentiful and fun. But plan wisely my fellow educator! Too much fun can cause an exhausting day that sets a negative tone for the school year.
So, I start slow and am a purposeful planner. I plan activities that help with my daily routines for the rest of the school year and even sneak in some valuable assessment pieces. Here’s how I do it.
What Should You Do on the First Day of Kindergarten?
My first go to is to teach procedures and rules. I use visual posters for this along with modeling and acting out rules. This is done by showing what to do and what not to do. I have a lot of rules in the classroom so I break them up throughout the day to keep the little ones’ attention.
Taking my rules on the go is perfect for touring the school building. My group goes to all the classroom’s hot spots. Starting with the nearest bathroom is important for us. I recommend you do this especially if you don’t have one in your classroom.
Make the tour a smooth flow from your room. For inside places, I include the office, the nurse, library, music room, art class, the gym, and the cafeteria.
When my class tours the cafeteria before lunch, I made sure students get to walk through the line. I show them where their tables are for sitting and eating. This makes “real” lunch time a bit easier.
For outside places, make sure the students know which doors to exit the building from. I show them where pick-up and drop-off areas are for both car and bus riders. Most excitedly, we tour their playground location with me explaining out of bounds areas and giving them time to play and explore.
My group’s touring time is a wonderful opportunity to introduce students to important staff members including the speech pathologist, OT and PT, the principals, the janitor, and the nurse. These people are given a heads up that my class is visiting. I only ask them to wave and say hello. Sometimes the therapists enjoy it when I point out certain kiddos who will get to see them for special education needs.
Check out Caroline’s favorite things for kids with special needs.
What Should Teachers Do on the First Day of Kindergarten?
Aside from teaching rules, my next focus is to get a picture of each individual student so I can use pictures to label everything. My cell phone is ready to go to snap pictures of each child.
Sometimes, I get lucky and have pictures of students if we’ve had an open house before school starts. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen each school year so I can’t have everything lined up and ready to go.
So, I make sure that I have a cute year-round appropriate backdrop for a quick photo shoot. I like to do this at the end of the day when I’m giving students free play time. Using my attendance sheet, I call the kids over one at a time.
Once I’ve snapped the picture, I check it on my phone to make sure their eyes are open and their smiles are bright. Then, that night I type their name on top of each picture and print.
I use these pictures for everything. Most importantly, I have them ready for the next day so I can use them on my classroom jobs chart. I find printing them on heavy cardstock (I like light yellow) without laminating them, gets me to the finish line the fastest.
My next printing priority is to print a duplicate copy of student pictures for both my menu chart and my who is here attendance chart. These are great academic skills that are no prep activities for me for the rest of the year. Can I get a hallelujah?!
These pictures are saved on my computer so I can add any new students’ pictures right in the set. This insures that they are the same format and font. I’ll use these all year long for making books, games, and so much more.
Even without student pictures, I start my helper chart in my set of activities for first day of kindergarten. I explain each job in my classroom jobs and choose students to carry out the task as I explain each one. Kindergartners love jobs, and I love the help!
What Activities Can You Do With Kindergarteners?
Getting the beginning of the year assessment out of the way is a wonderful tool I use for activities for first day of kindergarten. I love a good baseline and nothing is more telling that what students can do on day one.
I created a super simple assessment with a rubric to score my students’ successes. Using this same assessment quarterly lets me easily document growth. This sit down activity shows me multiple things and only takes about 30 minutes.
I loving having this as the first formative assessment item I put into my students’ portfolios. I’ll also use this information to establish groups within my class before more formal assessments are completed.
To complete this in my classroom, I have pencils and crayons available on student tables. I have assigned spots for students to sit at. More spacing between students than a typical day seems to work best for me to prevent any copying. Because of this assessment, I do not have the spots at the students’ tables labeled with their names yet.
I read the instructions aloud to the group. Directions that I’m reading including name writing, writing letters, writing words, and writing numbers. On the back, I ask the students to draw a picture and write about it.
Now, I know that there will absolutely be students who are unable to complete the tasks that I’m asking them to do including writing their name. Because of this, I walk around with my pen and I write a student’s name at the top so I can keep track of whose paper it is. I do the same thing for students whose name has been written but I cannot read it.
If I’m really feeling ambitious, I’ll also give a color word assessment the first week. I make sure this is copied and ready to go just in case I need a filler. Probably, this assessment won’t happen on with the activities for first day of kindergarten, but I like to have it ready if the opportunity presents itself.
First Day of School Ideas for Kindergarten Teachers
Starting group time, my favorite, is a must for activities for first day of kindergarten. I begin this by assigning everyone a spot on the rug. Then, I explain that their spot is where they come to sit when it’s circle time and that sometimes their spots might change.
Next, I write my morning message on the board. In my best teacher voice, I read it aloud and point to each word while reading. Then, I discuss capital letters and have some volunteers come up and circle the letters.
Afterwards, I have the students complete the Who is Here graph. I usually use pictures for this but this won’t be available during the activities for first day of kindergarten because I haven’t taken the pictures yet! So I grab my sticky notes with or without words (student’s names) to place on the whole group chart.
Remember how I said the first thing I’m working on for activities for first day of kindergarten was procedures? That’s the point of the graph. I’m asking the students to practice getting up and down out of their spot, come to the board, and add to the graph.
Then I do the same thing with my lunch menu chart. I highly recommend having the lunch choices ready to go on your chart. Discuss what is for lunch and let the kids pick in advance. Tell them that they can change their minds when they get to the cafeteria if they want to. Let the lunchbox students put their pictures on the lunchbox column.
If I have an assistant or a parent helper, I have them pull lunchboxes out of backpacks (make sure they are labeled!). These are placed either in front of my cubby area or in a laundry basket by the classroom door. This strategy lets my students easily grab their lunchbox as we are leaving the classroom.
Lesson Plans for the First Day of Kindergarten
A curriculum map is vital for success and staying on pace in my classroom. I absolutely use this as a starting point for activities for first day of kindergarten.
My curriculum map has all the things for each week: the big book, letters and sight word, supplemental books, poems, and important dates. When I use my curriculum map, lesson plans for the first day of kindergarten and beyond fall into place easily.
My curriculum map hangs on my front wipe off board all year long. It’s my best friend as far as pacing guides go. Looking at the curriculum map, I have the skeleton for my lesson plans for the first day of kindergarten ready to go. Look at the picture above and you’ll see it under the red magnet man.
My big book is Crazy Color Creatures (see below!). The Crazy Color Creatures set has a week long lesson plan with it so I’m ready to go using that guideline.
Taking a peek at my curriculum map also reminds me that I’m working on student name recognition and the poem Jack Be Nimble. Changing the name to each student’s name while giving them the chance to jump over a candlestick (alright, so it’s really a wooden building block) is a fun transition to line up for the whole week.
Kindergarten Activities for First Day of School
I’ve already said that procedures and rules are the most important thing for kindergarten activities for the first day of school. This is only second behind getting all of my students returned safely to each family. To enforce order in your classroom, get your “time to line up” line ready to go.
One of my table activities for first day of kindergarten is to trace students’ feet. I use a washable black marker in case it gets on shoes and sheets of construction paper. First, I trace each student’s shoe, both the right and left. Then, I write their name in pen on the lower side of the right outer heel.
Next I give the paper back to the students, and they decorate their shoes. This can be with markers, stickers, crayons, pencils, stencils, stamps, or whatever else I desire. Once the students are done, I collect them and prep them for my classroom management plan.
Each set of shoes gets cut out and then laminated side by side like the student is standing with their feet shoulder width apart. Then I use clear packaging tape to secure these to the floor of my classroom in line up order. When it’s time to line up, everyone knows where their spot is.
The only exceptions are the line leader and caboose which changes daily. I do redo the feet throughout the school year. They get damaged and it’s a fun, easy activity to throw in after a school break.
Color Kindergarten Activities
The favorite pastime of many a young and old child is coloring. Coloring, including naming the colors, has moved down to preK but color word assessments is still a kindergarten must.
Depending of the school year, I might start with a color word assessment for the first week of school. The kids are given another assessment for color kindergarten activities before the end of the grading period. This allows me to document their skills for report cards and have an important portfolio growth item.
I’ve saved the best of the best for last: Crazy Color Creatures. If you haven’t been introduced to the Creatures, I’m happy to make the introduction.
The Crazy Color Creatures is a homemade rhyming book that features color words turned into characters. Each is sung to the tune of Skip to my Lou. The students and I love this song and book set.
If you do no other activities for first day of kindergarten, you MUST do Crazy Color Creatures. I have a ready to use lesson plan along with a printable book for each student to take home at the end of the week.
My classroom assistants get very excited when they see Crazy Color Creatures. Besides the fact that it gets stuck on repeat in my head every school year, it is my all time favorite back to school activity.
