Increasing Engagement for the First Day of School

The days before my first day ever teaching, I remember other teachers telling me not to smile till December so that the kids new the drill and that I didn't mean business. I remember them saying that the first day is filled with nothing but drills and procedures because we are training our students.

I have a bone to pick with that. We don't train our kids, we teach them and remind them.

Far to often I see on Facebook that Sammy's daughter came back home on the color red, on her first day of Kindergarten or that Eric's son got in trouble on the first day of school so now he doesn't want to go back. What are we teaching our kid's then? I guess my real question is: If you are a teacher, what is your purpose for teaching? If it's to make school a fun and safe learning environment for children then why not start on day one.

My personal philosophy for the first day of school is that it should be so fun that your students go home excited and wanting to return the next day. I'm not saying procedures and rules aren't important because they most certainly are; what I'm saying is that they can wait a day.

When Meet the Teacher roles around, you're going to meet many different types of students that will be in your class. You're going to have the nervous child, the anxious one, the one that's been waiting for this day every since last May, the one who struggled last year and is nervous that this year will be just like the last. By starting the year off strict you are ultimately letting your students down. Instead of feeling like you need to be in control, try a more approachable attitude. You're going to want your students to trust you, and no one is going to get close to you if they're scared of you. Go easy on the clip chart Susan....it's day one.

I could list out all of the social emotional reasoning behind my philosophy, but I won't, because that's not the topic of this blog post. This blog post is here to show you a quick and easy idea that you can implement in your own classroom if you so chose. If your first day of school has already happened and you feel like you have to save this activity for next year, DON'T. Do it anyway. It's amazing what a little *magic* can do.

For the past 3 years I have always started the first day of school filled with activities and fun games (All while filling some space for basic rules and procedures). Each year I try to take it to the next level and this year was just that.

During the summer I bought a small garden gnome door for my classroom . I have always wanted a Desk Fairy door in my classroom and that was exactly what I was going to use it for. I wanted to read "The First Day Jitters" as I always do and make Jitter Juice which is like a first grade staple. Of course you can ALWAYS make Jitter Juice no problem, but let's up the stakes a little bit shall we? Put the juice in a box. That's right, a box. Before taping it up, leave a note in it from the Desk Fairy. (You can do this from the Desk Fairy even without a fairy door) BOOM. You have engagement. You have attention. You have fun and a memory. All of sudden you look around and you have an instant classroom community and it only took one box to do it.