First Day Of School

First Day of School Arrival

 The first day of school is always very busy at arrival time because parents remember something they need to tell me or ask me, and the children want to wander around the room pulling things out. On the tables, set out crayons and paper with the words “I drew this on the first day of school” printed on the bottom. Save these for their portfolios. Also put Legos on the table to keep the kids busy. Your assistant can help steer the wanderers back to the table to help keep the first day chaos down to a minimum.

Center Time

It’s nice to have a wide variety of materials in the centers for the children to use, but this can be overwhelming at the first of the year. It’s better to have less to begin with, let them get used to the room and how things are set up, then bring more materials out a few at a time. I introduce most materials at small group time before I put them in the center. I don’t have closet space to put things away, so I actually do have lots of things on the shelves at the beginning of the year, it just isn’t all available. It’s also a good idea to keep everything in the same place all year because it is less confusing for the kids. You don’t want to rearrange things on your shelves too much because the kids will never understand how and where they should be put away.

Tips for each center:

• HOUSEKEEPING:  Don’t add dress-up clothes until September (2nd month of school for us).
• BLOCKS: At the beginning, only have the basic wooden blocks. Don’t add cars and trucks or animals until later.
• ART: Art Center has a lot of materials. The first few weeks, the only materials available are paper, markers, crayons, glue, and scissors. Wrap the other materials in butcher paper and write the contents on the package. When you feel the kids are ready for something new, open a “present” (the kids love to open a new present).
• WRITING: This is done basically the same way as art. The first week, only paper, markers, and pencils are available.
• MATH and ABC:  put the manipulatives in 2-gallon zip-lock bags and sit the bags down in the tubs. That way the kids can’t get into them and spread them all over the room before we’ve had a chance to go over the center rules. (This particular shelf is large and cannot be turned around.)
• READING:  Only have a few board books out in the beginning. More books are added later.
• SCIENCE: This shelf is turned around backwards until we are ready for it.