Curated OER
A New School Year
Looking for a way to incorporate writing on the first day of school? Young writers will predict what the best thing about the new school year will be, note what they hope to learn, and explain how their teacher can help them. They will...
Dearborn Public Schools
10 Tips for Incoming Freshman in High School
Everyone entering high school could use some helpful hints for their first few weeks. A list of ten tips guide new freshmen through social interactions, classroom dynamics, and extracurricular activities.
Character Kids
The Fourth and Fifth Rs - Respect and Responsibility
Set the tone for a successful school year with a list of strategies to instill respect and responsibility. With tips for classroom management and ways to get parents involved, the resource is valuable for new and veteran teachers alike.
Anglais Facile
100 Ideas to Start the Year Back-To-School Icebreakers
It's back-to-school time, and what better way to get learners to know each other than with icebreakers? Bring a list of icebreakers, ranging in grade levels, to the new members of your class.
Oregon Education Professional Development Commission
The First Days
Designed for first-year teachers, this 116-page packet has it all. Questions you should ask administrators and fellow teachers, a checklist of things to do before school starts, a school-year calendar to record special school events and...
Teacher Printables
Biography Question Page
Break the ice on the first day of school with a fun interview activity. Kids ask each other 12 questions (sample questions are included in the margin), and finish the activity by writing a final biography about their partner.
Facing History and Ourselves
Frame a Special Item
If you could frame something important to you, what would it be, where would you hang it, and why would you choose this particular thing to frame? These questions launch a lesson designed to help class members get to know each other....
Facing History and Ourselves
Dual Identities
Many of us have multiple identities. There's who we are at home, school, friends, and strangers. And often these identities come with different names. The third activity in the First Days of School series examines how names reflect...
Curated OER
Picture Fists Full of Kisses
Ease children's back-to-school jitters with this primary grade lesson based on the book The Kissing Hand by Ruth E. Harper. Starting off with a singing of the song "I Wish I Had a Little Red Box", children go on to discuss and...
K20 LEARN
Move, Flip, and Slide! Building Relationships and Community In the Classroom
Here's a fresh take on those first days of school introductions. Learners use Flipgrid to create a video that introduces themselves to their classmates. The richly detailed and carefully scaffolded lesson provides specific directions for...
Curriculum Corner
Classroom Hunt
Make connections with the biggest advocates for the children in your class—their parents! A set of classroom tools includes parent communication forms, opportunities for parents to volunteer, and a page for them to help you get to know...
Facing History and Ourselves
Teaching Strategy: Contracting
The final lesson in the First Days of School series focuses on how to build a classroom community where all class members can feel safe, heard, and valued. The resource includes step-by-step directions for engaging pupils in developing...
Facing History and Ourselves
Our Names and Our Place in the World
Names come with all sorts of nuances and can influence how we see ourselves and how others see us. To gain insight into the power of names, class members journal about their names and then read a short essay about a girl and her feelings...
Poofy Cheeks
Back to School
A new school year means building relationships with a new group of interesting, unique young children. Get the process started with this simple survey that asks for students' basic information as well as their favorite subject,...
Education World
My Favorite Things
Celebrate your learners' individuality with this simple back-to-school learning exercise. Offering six sentence frames asking for students' favorite subject, book, lunch, and more, this activity will help break the ice during the...
US Institute of Peace
Organizations Working for Peace
We're all in this together! Show young scholars that peace is a process and having the support of like-minded people can make it happen. 13th in a series of 15 peace building activities, groups conduct research on a peace organization,...
Curated OER
Living With Rules
Young children explore the concept of the Golden Rule in this fun primary grade lesson. To begin, the class sings the song "The Lion and the Mouse" before discussing what the Golden Rule means and how it applies...
Lions Clubs International Foundation
Introduction to Mindful Breathing
The first of eight lessons introduces learners to Breath Awareness—an exercise that brings focus and thoughtfulness through breathing before engaging in other activities.
Laura Candler
ABC’s of Me!
Young authors share all about themselves with this printable autobiography resource. Including 26 different sentence frames, one focusing on each letter of the alphabet, students write about everything from an adventure they...
Anti-Defamation League
Shirley Chisholm: Unbought, Unbossed and Unforgotten
A 13-page packet introduces high schoolers to a lady of amazing firsts. Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress, the first Black woman to run for President of the United States, and a leader of the Women's Rights...
Overcoming Obstacles
What Is Overcoming Obstacles?
Just like becoming proficient at playing an instrument or sport requires practice, so too does developing the skills to overcome life's obstacles. That's the big idea in the first lesson in a life skills course. To begin, participants...
Quia
Charlotte’s Web Lesson Plan
Make your classroom into a place of kindness and compassion with E.B White's Charlotte's Web. The first four pages of the lesson plan guide you through several steps and projects, including discussions on Charlotte and Wilbur's...
Just Health Action
What Makes a Community Healthy?
Young people have an opportunity to make it a beautiful day in their neighborhoods with an activity that asks them to identify what is healthy and unhealthy in their community and develop some ideas about what they can do to fix the...
Curated OER
Back-to-School Meet & Greet
Student are welcomed into a new learning environment through reading and age-appropriate activities that help relieve the anxiety of beginning school in a new place and with new friends. In this Clifford-themed lesson plan, students...