First Day of School Plans and Give Away!

I get super excited about the first day of school!  It is one of my most favorite days!  The kids are filled with their nervous excitement and are really looking to see what their year is going to be like.  Because of this, I LOVE showing my little ones around the campus in an extra-special way! Instead of just giving them the old “Here’s this…here’s that” tour, I make it much like a scavenger hunt.  This year it’s based on Back to School Tortoise by Lucy M. George. 

It’s a super cute book that reminds me a little of Wemberly Worried and First Day Jitters all in one book.  Tortoise has a lot of worries about going back to school and questions what it will be like.  When he finally gets to school, there is a twist…do you think you might know who Tortoise really is? He’s the teacher! How cute…I know! 

Well, after the read aloud I introduce how we actually have Tortoise here! I mention that he’s really shy though.  When I go to pull him out…he’s not there- there’s only a note. This note leads to another note…then another, then another! 
(The one shown is to the cafeteria)

We get to travel around the school in search of Tortoise while also meeting the important people of the school and getting to know where the important places are!  My kids LOVE it just as much, if not more, than I do.  The notes actually rhyme too, so that’s always a fun measure of who can spot the rhyme already on the first day.

The notes finally lead us back to the classroom where we find a note telling us that Tortoise jumped back in the book, but that he has left us a treat.  For this year, I was thinking of doing something like these adorably cute turtle cookies made by Kirbie’s Cravings.

So cute!  That is assuming I will have time before the first day.  But, we all know how that goes.  So, plan B is to by some turtle gummies or maybe tortoise pencils or something along those lines.

We also do a few reflection sheets inspired by our tortoise read aloud and adventure. Click below for a free sheet.

First Day Favorite Part Pages


Click on the Link below the picture to get your First Day of School with Tortoise Unit, which is on sale right now. I'm also randomly giving one away to a lucky winner who responds to this post. I'll randomly pick Thursday Night!

First Day of School Activities and School Tour Scavenger Hunt with Tortoise

Here's what my first day looks like in a time table fashion:

We start on an Early Out Wednesday to ease them into it. 

8:30-8:45 Meet students and give directions, They put backpacks up where their VIP Name Tags are, find a seat, and work on coloring VIP Name Tags. 

8:45-9:00 Practice stopping what they are doing to chimes several times.  Take lunch count during one of the stops. 

9:00-9:15 Read Back to School Tortoise and line up straight and quiet

9:15-9:45 Tortoise Scavenger Hunt Tour
9:45-9:50 Tour finished, discuss Tour, and line up for Recess

9:50-10:00 Recess

10:00-10:15 Work on Shell Page from First Day of School with Tortoise Unit 

10:15-11:10 Morning Message, Icebreaker Game, Name game, Poem: Hello, Greeting: High-five Hello.  

11:15-12:00 Lunch
12:00-12:25 Read aloud The Night Before First Grade then fill out Before and After Tortoise Sheet
12:25-12:45 Discuss First Day and do My Favorite Part Tortoise Sheet
12:45-1:00 Share brown bag item I brought in and explain directions, hand out bags with directions stapled on.
1:00-1:10 Clean up and pack up
1:15 Dismissal

Second Blogging down and plenty more to follow.  Next, I'll be blogging about how I run Math Workshop with some freebies included.