First Day of Kindergarten!

Wow! I can't believe we just completed our first day of kindergarten. Summer sure did fly by! 

Here's just a few of the things we did on day one. This doesn't seem like a lot to do, but when you are taking a lot of time to discuss rules and procedures for everything, you don't have much time left. 

We started the day by collecting supplies as parents brought the students in. I had containers ready to put supplies in and a permanent marker to label some of the items with student names. This made the collection time go much faster. As supplies were collected, each student had a container of play dough at their kinderlink to use for creating. They loved this!

After collecting supplies, rules were given for lining up on their numbers and restroom procedures as we took our trip to the restroom and water fountain.

When we returned, we read "The Day the Monster Came to School." This is a cute story about a monster who did not follow classroom rules because he did not know the rules. The teacher told him he had to leave. Then the monster started crying and didn't want to leave. The students said he could stay if he promised to follow the rules. The students always love hearing this cute story. It really gets "rule following" off to a great start because we don't want to have a monster in our classroom. Then we go over our classroom rules and talk about rewards they can earn for their "good behavior" pockets. 

After this, we had recess time followed by a tour of the lunchroom to show them the lunchroom procedures and where we would be sitting. Then we went back to the classroom for our snack time. 

Then it was time for another read aloud. We read "The Kissing Hand" and discussed their feelings on the first day of school. Then they painted their hand prints beside the Kissing Hand poem and glued a heart in the palm of their handprint to take home to their parents.

After this, we had lunch time followed by activity in the gym.

We ended the day by creating our fun "My first day of school: I am a Kindergartener" headbands. These headbands are from "A Spoonful of Learning" on TPT.

By the time we got bus tags on students, bookbags packed, and treats given out, it was time to load the buses. We always load buses early the first few days of school.

I feel like the students enjoyed the day, and I can't wait until tomorrow to see their sweet faces again. Hopefully I will have more pictures and ideas for you very soon.

Have a great year!