The FBU girls love themes! If you have a theme for your classroom, planning activities for the first day centered around your classroom theme is always super fun!(If you do not have a theme and would like help coming up with one, please let us know!) I like to do a school tour on the first day. My classroom is bee themed, so I take one of my favorite bees and hide it. Before hiding my friend, I take pictures of him so I can show the kids. Then I tell the kids about my bee , show them the pictures, and explain that he is missing. We talk about what he looks like and sounds like. We then head off on a hunt around the school looking for him. We visit all of the important areas of our school (office, library, gym, clinic, playground, cafeteria, etc.). As we are learning about all of the different places and meeting some important people, the students ask if anyone has seen our special bee friend. All of the staff are in on the hunt and have a clue sending us to our next stop. The kids get super pumped! While we are hunting, my assistant brings my bee out of hiding and places him somewhere in the classroom. The kids are super excited to make it back to the room and see him there!
Keeping with our bee theme-we talk about bees, make bees to hang in the hallway, eat bee shaped cookies, and draw pictures of the hunt for our bee friend. When asking my students what their favorite part of their first day was, they always say hunting for the bumble bee.
Theme it up! Carry it through your activities! Your students will love how everything goes together! Adding your theme to the first day is a great way to start the school year!
This is Mr. Bumble! On the first day of kindergarten, the classroom door was left open. He buzzed out the door, and now we must find him!
That is a cute idea! I have done the same thing with the gingerbread man and when we return to the classroom, there is a plate of gingerbread cookies for the students to enjoy.
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