Facing History and Ourselves
Making Meaning of Community
In the post-pandemic classroom, it's more important than ever to begin the school year by building a strong sense of trust and community. Using the Make Meaning and Big Paper teaching techniques, groups develop a definition of community...
Curated OER
Control the Classroom from Day One
Avoid the beginning-of-the-year scramble by having a strategy for the first few days of school.
ESL Kid Stuff
Intro ESL Lesson (Ages 3-7)
If you are working on colors, printing names, introductions, and other projects in the first few weeks of school, use a series of activities designed for English language learners. It includes cute ways to wish your little ones hello and...
ReadWriteThink
The Chinese New Year Starts Today
As part of a celebration of Chinese New Year, class members research the Chinese zodiac and examine the description of the personality attributes associated with the animal of their birth year. Individuals then craft a persuasive essay...
Teach Hub
New Year’s Resolution Classroom Activity
Create a sense of accountability among scholars with a lesson that focuses on making and keeping New Year's resolutions. Writers compose a five paragraph essay focused on three resolutions—promises to self improvement, to their family,...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: How Do People Access Books in Afghanistan?
Third graders continue to practice the close reading skills of capturing the gist and reading again for important details in the sixth instructional activity in a larger unit. This is a great beginning-of-the-year unit for establishing...
Curated OER
Preparing For The First Day Of School
Youngsters analyze a book discussing a child's fear on the first day of school. They discuss the characters in the book, The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Then they discuss their own fears and uncertainties about starting a class with...
National First Ladies' Library
Trouble in Little Rock: The Desegregation of Central High School
Middle schoolers study one aspect of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; the battle over desegregating the public schools. They study the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas by producing a newspaper,...
Worksheet Place
Back to School Acrostic Poem
Acrostic poems are a great way to get your class in the back to school mode. Each poet will compose a poem using the letters of the words 'back to school' as the beginning of the first lines of each line of the poem. There are many...
Curated OER
Beginning The New School Year
Third graders investigate the concept of living in a community of learners. They engage in a variety of activities with the highlight being a story about a meerkat and a lion. Students read a play related to the story and discuss the...
Santa Clara County Office of Education
Bulletin Board Ideas
It's hard to find time to create really good bulletin boards, or stray from your year-to-year comfortable displays. Stress no more! Check out a list of monthly bulletin board ideas guaranteed to get you through the school year. With a...
PreKinders
Pre-K Assessment Forms
This is a Pre-K teacher's must-have resource for pre-assessing learners at the beginning of the school year! Covering everything from alphabet recognition and sorting objects to social-emotional development and work habits, this resource...
Core Knowledge Foundation
First Grade Skills Unit 1
First graders participate in skills practice with 32 lessons focusing on sound-spelling correspondence—sound combinations, consonant digraphs, double letter sounds, tricky spellings, and words. Lessons begin with a warm-up, review and...
Curated OER
How Did You Get To School Today?: Graph
In this transportation bar graph worksheet, students will ask their classmates how they got to school and record responses to complete the graph.
Curated OER
New Year's Resolutions
Students write about New Year's Resolutions made about personal improvement, family and friends, and school and the outside world. They write a first draft and a final draft of a five-paragraph essay about their resolutions.
Curriculum Corner
Watch Me Grow!
Encourage creativity and reflection with a hands-on activity book. Scholars document their personal appearance, age, height, friends, and feelings about the first day of school to the last.
Curated OER
My Teacher Can Teach Anyone!
Begin the school year with enthusiasm using the book entitled My Teacher Can Teach Anyone! In this reading for meaning lesson, primary readers listen to the story and discuss what is happening and why the boy in the story might be...
Education World
September Bookmark
Welcome students back to school with these fun, printable gifts. Including both a bookmark and book plate template, this resource is a good way to get children excited about cracking open the first book of the new school year.
Curated OER
Back to School Alphabet Activity
For this back to school worksheet, students arrange 20 words that pertain to the beginning of the school year in alphabetical order. Note: Although these are common nouns, the words are capitalized.
Edutopia
How to Remember Names
Do you have trouble remembering all of your new pupils' names at the beginning of each school year? Here are seven handy ideas that you can try out when faced with a whole new group of names to memorize.
Curated OER
Back To School Ideas_Compiled
Help your class participate in hands-on activities to get them back into the swing of going to school everyday. This list is designed for all grade levels with unique ideas for each (note that many ideas are geared for elementary, but...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Quest for Magic Minutes
A "Magic Minute" activity asks class groups to develop a commercial to advertise a way to turn a time-waster into a time-saver. Ad groups begin by brainstorming time-wasters and then problem-solve was to turn them into time-savers. After...
Curated OER
Children Around The World
Learners read a multicultural book called "This Is the Way We Go to School" by Edith Baer and Steve Bjorhman. They become culturally aware of the different nationalities around the world and different ways that they may do things on a...
Curated OER
My School Year Memory Book
Students create memory books of what they have learned and experienced to use throughout the school year using photographs taken of the them as they are involved in different tpes of activities such as art projects, reading groups, seat...