4 Ways to Have a Great First Day

Your planning is done. Your pencil pots are immaculate. Your walls look like a centrefold from House and Garden. Now what? What are you actually going to do with those 30 children when they walk into your room for the first time? Here are my tips to a great first day (bonus: a lot of these save you time, too!)

1. See what they do

• No named hooks in the cloakroom (seriously, they can find an empty peg!)
• No seating plan. See who sits where. Is anyone left out? (Not nice, but tells you a lot and you can find someone kind to sit them with). Gives them a fresh start without prior judgements from past teachers who recommend certain children are kept apart. Point out to them that this is their chance to prove to you that they work best with their friends (a lot of people do because they trust them).

2. Engage them right from the start

•  Have a VERY brief introduction. Basically, say hi. Don’t list rules, expectations, routines. It’s too much for them to take in and it’s boring. 
• Start with a team activity. Right away. Lesson 1.

Our first day - for ideas
I incorporated a bit of rule-making in mine. I did an activity inspired by the Bill of Rights. I gave each child 2 strips of paper. They wrote a rule or right on each (I talked to them briefly about positive wording, e.g. “listen to others” rather than “don’t shout out”). Next, they came together to discuss them. They had to narrow them down to 5 rules out of their 8. They could combine them rather than discarding them if they wished. Finally, they rank them in order of importance and stick them onto a large paper (see the pic at the top). I love this as a first activity because you can see how they interact, if there are any bossy ones! 

Next lesson, we did Maths. I introduced times tables speed tests and we did our first one. This takes a while the first time. After that, we had a go at learning a Numberock song about time. 

After break, we read The Dot and did some Vashti-inspired art work. ​

We ended the day with a book tasting: I put several books out on each table. We discussed ways of choosing a book (looking at the cover, reading the first page, checking that you can understand it). The children went round in friendship pairs and chose a book for paired reading. 

As you can see, we did a full day of lessons. They were busy, engaged and therefore better behaved. 

3. Chat and Watch

Instead of a 'getting to know you activity', in which you actually learn very little, make sure that your lessons allow for time to watch them and to chat to them. Taking the day described above as an example, when they were doing their Bill of Rights activity, I watched and listened. I took in how they were interacting with each other. When they were doing their artwork, I spent 5 minutes at each table and just chatted to them informally. You'll find out loads more this way that if you ask them to write about their summer (cringe) or to write 2 truths and a lie etc. 

4. Pile on the Praise

Make sure you praise them as much as possible. Especially if you're having to deal with some behaviour management issues. The praise will counteract it. I also target those children that I've been warned off. Try to make it as sincere as possible (no sing-song voices). This is part of the fresh start for some of them. Another tip here, try not to over-focus on those children you're not expecting to have the best behaviour. They notice. They're used to being the centre of attention, for better or worse, and it may surprise them to blend in for a while. 

So, there you have it. My 4 top tips to an awesome start. Let me know in the comments below if you have any tips or if you try out any of these ideas and don't forget to share this with anyone you think may be interested!