My First Day Project - The First Day

The first day is here. It's third grade, 8:35am, and students are arriving. I'm ready, and here's the plan:

When students arrive to the classroom, I will greet them at the door. "Hi! I'm Ms. Wisniew. Welcome to your classroom! Find your name and have a seat."

Once all students have entered, and are seated in their assigned seats (they will have assigned seats for the first week), I will introduce myself again, talk about some things I like, my favorite book, animals, where I went to school, why I'm excited to teach 3rd grade, etc. We'll go over and practice our Call to Attention. We'll go over today's schedule, which is posted on the board. Then, I will pass out some questionnaires for them to fill out to get to know each other and for me to get to know them. After they have those filled out, they can talk to people in their table group and discuss their answers. While they are working on this, I will be taking roll, and asking students if they celebrate their birthdays. Next, I'll put 2 giant pieces of paper on the board and hand out some sticky notes. Students will write a third grade fear and a third grade excitement on their sticky notes and place them on the papers, without signing their name. Then I'll read them all aloud and students can see how similar their fears and joys are to other students. These are for me to review and use.

Around 9:15, I'll collect the questionnaires and we will go over our procedure for transitions. We'll practice, I'll model, and students will model. We'll begin some name games, where everyone stands in a circle and says their name along with a corresponding movement or hand gesture. I will begin to demonstrate. Then, everyone says the name and does the movement/hand gesture. After that, still in a circle, we will say our name as fast as we possibly can. Then once we've been around the circle, we'll start again, saying our name as slowly as we possibly can. After this, we'll all know everyone's names very well! I'll give students a few minutes to talk in their table groups again and get to know each other by providing some sentence stems or questions they could ask each other. Then, they will show me how to transition back into their seats like we talked about.

Around 10, we will talk about what they want in a teacher. They will talk with their table group and come up with 3 things they agree are important to them in a teacher. Then we'll write them all down from each group on an anchor chart and post it in the classroom. I'll add a few of my own that I think are important to keep me accountable to. Then, we'll talk rules. What rules do they want to hold themselves and their classmates accountable to? Again, we will discuss in our groups and come up with 3 important ones. We will narrow it down to 5 critical rules for our classroom. If I deem it necessary, I may choose to add some important rules they left out. We will talk about consequences and what happens when rules are broken in this classroom.

Around 11, we will go over some procedures we use every day - especially flexible seating and the different group structures that we have, compared to most classrooms. We will talk about things we will learn this year - what they can expect in regards to homework, growth mindset, family interaction, etc. We will go over our entering the classroom procedure, bathroom/snacks/water/leaving the classroom procedures, materials/supplies/tech, classroom library/silent reading procedures, teacher mailbox and turn-a-card procedure. With all procedures, as appropriate, we will practice and model the expected behavior several times. At the classroom library procedure, students will actually choose books they want to start reading.

We will go over our lining up procedure, I'll show them how it's done, we'll practice it a few times, have some students model for us, and then we'll line up for lunch at 12:15. Let's say that they have lunch, then recess, then specialist, and don't come back to the classroom until 1:45. During this time, I'll be going over their questionnaires and preparing the lesson I'll teach when they get back.

Once students return, we will have a lesson on characters and talk about the books we chose for silent reading. I will introduce a book we will read together. We will go over the turn & talk procedures.

Students will have another, 10-minute recess at 2:10. When they return, we will go over our self-assessment procedure and they will have a chance to practice it. Then, we will go over and practice our dismissal procedure, line up, and they will dismiss for the day around 2:45 - 2:55.

Remaining procedures will be taught the next day. On day 2 we will go over all classroom jobs and what they entail. On day 2, they will also have their first Word of the Week (RESPECT), math and reading/writing lessons. They will be assigned classroom jobs on day 3. On day 3, we will also have a science lesson and play with some STEM supplies. On day 3, we will also begin math and reading/writing workshop procedures.