First Week of School: 10 Teacher Tips You Must Remember

10 teacher tips for the first week of school to help teachers to have fun while saving time. Tons of back to school ideas and organization tips.

Back to School Tips for Teachers

Back to school has got to be the most critical time of the entire school year. There are many things to think about to transition from summer vacation to classroom instruction.

From classroom management and organization to choosing curriculum and planning units to getting ready for your students to enter your classroom door, you must be prepared and equipped for the first week of school! This can be stressful but enjoyable, too! These back to school tips should help in a fun way.

Adequate preparation for the first weeks of school is essential for success. I am excited to share the most important tips of what has worked for me as you head into and during that all-important first week. I hope to help you start the new school year off feeling confident, ready, and at ease!

If you are a new teacher just starting their school season, read these tips for new teachers to start you off right, as well as time management tips with many ways to save time.

Table of Contents

• Back to School Tips for Teachers
• 10 Teacher Tips for the First Week of School
  • Head Into School Ahead of Time
  • Create An Organized Classroom for the First Week of School
  • Pick Classroom Management Strategies for the First Week
  • Choose a Classroom Decor Style
  • Plan Out Your Year Before the First Week of School
  • Get Your Resources Ready Before the First Week of School
  • Prepare Activities for the First Day and Week of School
  • Teach Classroom Rules, Routines, & Procedures the First Week of School
  • Get to Know Your Students during the First Week of School
  • Quick Assessments for the First Week of School
• Back to School Fun Pack
  • A FREE set of Student Labels Just for YOU!
• More Ideas for Back to School Fun

10 Teacher Tips for the First Week of School

Head Into School Ahead of Time

Maybe this is a no-brainer, but it must be said! Setting up a classroom and preparing for a new school year takes time. There is a ton to prep and set up. Leaving it until the day before or even during the first week can add unnecessary stress to your week.

Go into your class at the beginning of the week before school begins. You may already be there to meet with the staff or your team; if not, this is a great time to reconnect with your colleagues. Check in with your administrators and let them know you are looking forward to a new school year.

Find some time to close your new classroom door and stay focused on what needs to be done. Get those bulletin boards ready, set up your furniture, and plan your seating. Be comfortable with the layout of your classroom, and make sure it is organized and ready for elementary students.

I am not telling you to spend the last week of your *precious* summer vacation in the classroom! Ensure you get some things done to enjoy the time with your new class once the first week hits.

Create An Organized Classroom for the First Week of School

It is incredibly important to have a classroom that is organized and ready for students. Making sure the important items in the class have a place and are accessible is key. Everything does NOT have to look perfect and have matching colors, labels, bins, etc. While those things are great and nice, they are not necessary.

Having a clean and organized set-up for your classroom books is helpful. I use a standing bookshelf that holds my theme and seasonal books. I also have shelves of labeled books in bins to make it easy for students to find what they are looking for. Learn how I set up my classroom home reading program and organize the books my students read.

I suggest organizing your classroom resources in tubs, boxes, folders, or whatever works for you. Keep them together and ready for when that time comes. Organize learning materials for the different subjects in different areas of the classroom.

You should have an area for school supplies and math manipulatives, a different space for your centers, and, of course, a teacher area with your own personal materials and supplies. Set up lessons for the first week of school in math that kids will love!

Where do you start? Use the free beginning of the year teacher checklist to help you get organized and save time. Let me also suggest Pinterest. It is a fantastic place to go for ideas and see what you might like in your classroom. Check out my Classroom Organization board for a ton of helpful ideas!

If you can get a hold of your class list, LABEL EVERYTHING!

Pick Classroom Management Strategies for the First Week

Before the first week of school, plan your classroom management plan. If the strategies you choose require specific materials, have them prepped and ready for the first days of school. Spend a good chunk of the first week of school teaching your students those strategies. Practice and role-play different scenarios so they understand the expectations in your classroom.

I am a huge believer in the power of positive classroom management. Classroom behavior management can take on many forms, meaning many things in a classroom. Without it, our classrooms would probably fall apart, and chaos would ensue (kidding, but seriously it’s important)! My favorite classroom management ideas and strategies are in this must-read post.

My four favorite classroom management systems are class coupons, classroom jobs, morning meetings, and team points. I love these approaches to handling children because they are positive rather than punitive. They encourage kids to be their best selves and work to improve themselves. They encourage kids to be open-minded and responsible. If you want more strategies and ideas, check out the ultimate classroom management resource!

Many fun class management tools are available on the market today that can help keep things light. I adore the No Yell Bell and the chime!

Choose a Classroom Decor Style

Let me start by saying that you do not need to have the most beautiful or color-coordinated classroom, either. Your classroom will be wonderful no matter what colors you choose for your bulletin boards or your bins. But chances are, if you are a teacher, you have an idea of how you want your classroom to look. You have probably searched Pinterest for design inspiration; a lot is out there.

I encourage you to choose a theme or a few colors and stick with them. Decorate your classroom like you would a room in your home, with care and consideration of its purpose and who will be in that space. Ask yourself if it will encourage student learning or distract them.

Plan Out Your Year Before the First Week of School

I cannot stress enough how important it is to do some pre-planning. It is an overwhelming task that needs to be done and better sooner than later. Read and know the curriculum for the grade you teach inside and out.

Spend time before the school year begins mapping out the units and themes you will teach. Have an idea of what each month will look like in your classroom. With some planning done, you will feel much more relaxed and in control during the first week of school.

To organize the school year, I suggest creating a year-long curriculum map with the themes and topics you will teach each month. Once you know your weekly schedule, create a weekly plan layout with the different subjects in different blocks of time. Enlarge the template and make many copies to leave in your workspace. Keep your plan ready and easy to glance at whenever you need it.

Below is an example of a weekly planning sheet I used previously.

You may also need detailed plans for your lessons. Have a template ready that you can use during your lesson planning. Create templates for the different subjects (e.g., math, and reading) you teach daily and attach those to your weekly plan.

Stay organized and on top of your daily tasks with a teacher task list that will help you save time. Grab this and more back to school organization templates in our free Back to School teacher training!

Get Your Resources Ready Before the First Week of School

If you have a yearly plan ready and know which resources you will use to teach different themes and topics, prep them beforehand. Get to the photocopier when no one is there and run off your class sets of booklets. Get those notebooks ready.

Prep unique materials for different subjects. Print resources that need cutting and laminating and get them prepped and ready. Set up your centers, gather your materials, and get bins of manipulatives together.

Use that first week of school (and before if you can) to get everything you will need for your first few weeks or even months of school. You WILL be exhausted once school is in session and will not feel like creating, setting up, or organizing your resources. Don’t be the chicken with your head cut off! DO IT EARLY! (you’ll thank me later)

Prepare Activities for the First Day and Week of School

The first day and week of school will come and go very quickly, but they are super important. Those days and moments with your new class will set the stage for the rest of the school year. It is essential to make good use of that time together. Think of what kind of year you want to have and how you want things to run. Plan back to school classroom activities that will help set those plans into motion. Take time to build a community together through community building activities.

Have a few activities planned ahead of time for each day of the first week of school. These back to school teacher tips suggest a few fun welcome activities, including name art. Over-plan activities that encourage new relationships to form, like icebreakers, team building activities, and scavenger hunts. Be flexible because important topics, discussions, and activities may need more time. Teach and use brain breaks frequently!

Teach Classroom Rules, Routines, & Procedures the First Week of School

Spend a good chunk of your first week of school teaching classroom rules, routines, and procedures. There is nothing more important during the first week. Take the time to prepare each procedure and routine that you want students to learn one at a time and practice them.

Decide early on your classroom rules, either on your own or together as a class. We spend a few class periods working on our classroom contract. This contract starts by brainstorming what we want our classroom to look, sound, and feel like. We vote and choose the ideas that we like best.

From there, a contract is written that we can all agree on. The contract is often referred to throughout the year. It helps start the year off on the right track!

We recite the Whole Brain rules each day. They are combined with actions, which encourages students to really develop a connection to their meaning. You can grab a set of FREE Whole Brain rule posters.

Get to Know Your Students during the First Week of School

Get to know and build relationships with students before they enter your classroom door. Send a note or make a quick phone call home to your new students, welcoming them and their families to your classroom. Encourage them to stop by and say hello when you are there, prepping your class before school starts.

Read each student’s file beforehand so that you don’t make judgments but are better prepared to meet their needs. If necessary, set up times to have informal meetings about particular students with the resource and support teachers to be more informed and ready.

Set up a time to chat with the previous year’s teacher and see if there is anything you need to know ahead of time. Ask them for any assessments they completed at the end of the year and copy those for your files.

Stay open-minded! Know that each child responds differently to different people and different teaching styles. What one teacher may have found to be a problem student may be a perfect match for you.

Quick Assessments for the First Week of School

Make or find some time during the first week of school to assess your students quickly. Make observations. Note how students act in class, how they respond to you and their classmates, and what essential skills they have or lack.

Create a quick assessment that you can give to students. Assess those skills they should know from the previous year to see their academic performance. Add the skills you plan to teach them over the next few months and see what they know. Do what you can to get a basic overview of each student to help you plan the future.

Do not worry too much about what they do and don’t know. Focus more on getting to know them during the first week. Make them feel comfortable and at home in your classroom.

Back to School Fun Pack

Looking for an all-in-one BTS resource? Try the Back to School Fun Pack by Proud to be Primary. It includes first day of school activities for kindergarteners, 1st, and 2nd grade. It has what you need to ease kids into the classroom in a fun and meaningful way.

There are crafts, writing prompts, welcome to school posters, door decor displays, hat, science experiment and STEM activities, poems, and organization materials, such as editable meet the teacher booklet!

A FREE set of Student Labels Just for YOU!

Grab this handy student labels freebie and print them to label everything from desks to book bins to take-home folders.

More Ideas for Back to School Fun

Community Building Activities for the First Week

First Week of School Activities

Back to School Classroom Activities

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