Scholastic
Scholastic: Welcome to the First Day of School!
Prepare for your students first day of school with these inviting activities. This site features several great ideas for teachers to incorporate in their beginning of school lessons.
Scholastic
Scholastic Instructor: Fabulous First Day Ideas
This site offers suggestions for first-day of school activities for primary and intermediate level teachers.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Back to School Planning Guide
Multiple back to school resources. Includes icebreakers, quick first day ideas, and unit plans.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: First Week of School, Day 3
Sixth graders read a poem to see the importance of class rules and behaviors.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: First Week of School, Day 4
Sixth graders will role play with the teacher to reinforce classroom procedures.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: First Week of School, Day 2
Sixth graders will take a test and be surprised at how similar their teacher is to them.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: First Week of School, Day 5
Sixth graders understand what the bucket of kindness is and how they can use it to earn rewards as a class.
HotChalk
Hot Chalk: Lesson Plans Page: Themed Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans Page provides a teacher exchange of ideas tied to the season, time of year, or holiday.
Scholastic
Scholastic: All About Me & the School Experience Unit
Great idea for the beginning of the year. Uses the book Clifford's First School Day by Norman Bridwell as the starting place for students to make their own book about going to school.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Greeting Exchange Auf Deutsch
This is a great "first day of first-year German" activity. Using the melody to "Are You Sleeping" introduce students to a typical exchange of greetings. If taught on the first day of school, students will be able to "speak German"...
Council for Economic Education
Econ Ed Link: How Labor Got Its Day
If you asked students what comes to mind first when they think of Labor Day, what do you think they would say? The last days of summer? A family picnic? Shopping the Labor Day sales? The purpose of this lesson is to broaden and deepen...
9/11 Memorial & Museum
National September 11 Memorial & Museum: First Fallen: Father Judge [Pdf]
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has partnered with the New York City Department of Education and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education to develop a robust set of 9/11 lessons for K-12 classrooms. Each lesson...
Other
Primera Escuela: First School
A diverse variety of fun activities for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners. Among other subjects you'll find: alphabet, animals, holidays and events, coloring pages (for fairy tales, holidays, vocabulary, etc.) crafts and more....
Other
Building Community in the Classroom (Lesson Plan)
Exercise in which participants introduce themselves by sharing information about their ethnicities and backgrounds, highlighting the similarity and diversity among members of the class.
Scholastic
Scholastic: New Teachers
If you are a new teacher, this is a great resource. Features advice and support from experienced teachers, teaching strategies. classroom tools, and hot topics.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The New Student [Pdf]
"The New Student" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a little girl who was nervous about starting a new school, but she makes friends the first day. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Students as Scientists
This curricular unit contains two lessons that let students actually do the work of scientists as they design their own experiments to answer questions they generate. In the first lesson and its associated activity, students conduct a...