Susan Jones Teaching: The First Week of First Grade

I swear, 5 years later and I still forget just how little and "new" to school 1st graders are. The growth is just so amazing and HUGE in first grade that all I can do is picture last year's class at the end of the year. I forget that when they come into 1st grade they are squirrely and wild and talkative and can't seem to follow any directions.

In between shaking my head and pulling my hair out, I remember that this is all part of the challenge! The great first grade challenge. Can these students turn into the straight-line walking, directions following, raising hands before we speak type of students that I dream of?!?

My new class... I can't wait to get to know them more and see them grow and learn!

Getting back into the swing of things has been a bit more challenging this year since I look like this:

**technically I am 34 weeks pregnant now and my belly is probably even bigger**

But alas, we are still trucking along! Here's some of the fun we had this week:

The first day of school we took out some buttons and starting graphing. It gave me some time to get paperwork sorted through and also let me see who could sort and follow directions easily. I offered this graph up on my blog for free last year!

We read The Kissing Hand and talked about our 1st day of school feelings. They ranged from happy and excited all the way to scared and "really mad." Craft idea from Kindergarten Days. These little racoons and sentence stems will be the first student decor up on our big, blank walls!

We also completed quite a few activities from my First Week Fun unit, including this mini-book about our new class!

We started a few, easy centers to get used to the routines and procedures during center time:

CVC cards with magnets and recording sheets - made them a long time ago!

We also had a bit of coloring fun in math with this great book from Steve Harpster! This was an easy after-lunch, let's relax and color and review some simple numbers to 10 type of activity!

Last, but not least, we brainstormed some of the fun we had over the summer and then I let my students write their first story of the year. No rules or organization, just write about some of the things you did this summer. This is also in my First Week Fun pack.

Phew! I'm tired again just looking at everything we did this week. Next week, we will start the real learning! Phonics, reader's workshop, writer's workshop.. etc!

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The First Week of First Grade - Activities and More!