Planning For the First Week of School
When you start planning for the first week of school there seems to be a never ending to-do list and so much to do. As you head back to school, that first week can be quite overwhelming.
I have trouble sleeping the night before the first day. I think it is excitement and anxiety all rolled into one. You just never know what your class is going to be like.
How to Start Planning for Back to School
I like to have everything organised and planned so that is one less thing I need to worry about. One of my first tasks to get ready for back to school is setting up the classroom, I keep the classroom minimalistic. In fact, the classroom is bare bones:
furniture in place
basic play-based investigation areas labelled and minimal resources out
labelled boxes for student purchased school supplies around the edge of the carpet area
a list of children’s names on the door
bag racks labelled so every child has a designated space
welcome letter for parents on the door with our tea and tissues gifts close by
a basket of small soft toys next to my teacher chair
laptop and interactive panel plugged in and synced
I do not have class displays or posters up because I like to introduce them or co-create them with the children. I have plenty of purchased and teacher made resources but I like to introduce them to the children and model how to use them as learning tools before putting any of them up in the classroom.
Co-create Classroom Displays for Your Classroom
Whenever possible, I like to co-create displays and posters with the children. This way, they become useful resources that the children see as purposeful and feel some ownership with. The children are much more likely to refer to and use learning displays if they understand the purpose of these learning tools and have been taught how to use them.
As I lay awake the night before the first day, trying to sleep, I find myself mentally running through my plans for the following day. Even though I know I am prepared with plenty of fun and engaging activities to do, I know that first week is not about covering the curriculum.
How to Build Relationships and Set Expectations
That first week is about building relationships with each, and every child. During the first couple of weeks, I focus my full attention on getting to know each little individual. I let them know that I see them and that I will look after them. We start to build our classroom community right from day one.
That first week is also about setting expectations around behaviour both inside and outside the classroom. Everything is new and everything – everything!! needs to be modelled, discussed, and taught. The children will be feeling overwhelmed and anxious as well, so I explicitly teach every single behaviour and expectation. I do not rush these important lessons and we will repeat them and practice them slowly and carefully for many days to come.
Build a Classroom Community
These first few weeks are when the tone for the rest of the year is set. There will not be a focus on curriculum learning intentions. The focus will be on building relationships, building a classroom community, and building strong behaviour expectations.
If you are interested in learning more about building a classroom community, you might like to read this blog post: How to Build a Classroom Community
My planning may not reflect this focus but relationship building, and behaviour expectations will underpin every single planned activity so please keep this in mind when you look over my planning.
I know I have over planned and there is no way we will cover everything, but I do like to have extra activities ready as a backup. I do not expect to even cover half of my planned activities, so please don’t feel inadequate if you reach the end of the day with lessons incomplete or not even started. Remember you can modify activities and swap lessons around to suit your particular cohort too.
PREP Planning for the First Week of School
I usually print my planning as a weekly timetable, but I have found in Prep, especially in the first week, daily planning works best. I have each day pre-planned but only print the first day on a single sheet. I put it on a clipboard and carry it around with me all day. I write a lot of observational notes about lessons and children on this printed daily plan.
At the end of the first exhausting day, I refer to my notes to inform the next day’s planning. I can slot in lessons not taught the first day, take out or modify activities that may be too challenging or too easy, or add lessons that I noticed would be a priority for this particular cohort.
YEAR ONE Planning for the First Week of School
The year one planning is set out as a weekly timetable with each day fully planned. There are details about the investigation areas and notes on how to link them to the curriculum and explicit lessons. I print this weekly plan as an A3 sheet, fold it and put it on a clipboard too. It is also carried around with me all day, and just like in Prep, I write a lot of observational notes about lessons and children on this printed plan. Put a couple of blank A4 sheets under the folded weekly printout because there is not a lot of writing space on the weekly planning document.
Again, that first day is exhausting!! At the end of the day, I still reflect and refer to my anecdotal observations to inform the next day’s planning. I highlight any must-do lessons not taught the first day as a reminder to add them into next weeks planning or fit them into the current week. Sometimes my planning is way off and I need to take out or modify a lot of lessons. In this case, I would make all the modifications digitally and then print out the new weekly plan.
My Digital Planning Documents
These planning documents contain links to free printable resources, some store products and educational video clips I use in the classroom. Remember to save the digital planning to your computer so you can easily access these learning resources in the future.
I love looking at other teacher’s planning and so I thought you might too. The planning documents I am sharing with you here are my real life first week plans and suit my teaching style and my philosophy.
Please don’t feel they are all must-do lessons. Take any ideas and resources that appeal to you and create a planning document which suits your teaching style, your school and your curriculum.
If you are interested in my planning process, you might be interested in a couple of other blog posts I have:
Weekly Timetable for My Play-based Classroom
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