Free First Week of School Lessons for ELA

Is there a bigger stress than planning the first week of school? You don’t know your students. It’s hard to judge how long activities will take. And you need to cover procedures, without putting students to sleep. To help take the pressure off, I am sharing my first week of school lesson plans for free.

Planning the First Week of School

For a couple of years, the first week of school was a game of Goldilocks for me. One year, I spent too much time hammering in procedures – while half the class dozed off. Another year, I jumped too quickly into content without laying the groundwork of classroom expectations. And no surprise, I found that to have the best first week of school, you need to be somewhere in the middle.

My free first week of school lesson plans strike that balance! Over five days, you’ll form a solid classroom routine, dip your toes into content, and cover essential procedures. Take a look inside my first week of school routine.

Day One: Introduction and Routines

Let’s talk about the first day of school lesson plans. These are somehow the easiest and the hardest to plan. There are some first-day staples, like introducing yourself to students, but it can also be a bit awkward (and easily go awry).

Inside the free first day of school lesson plans, I break down my ideal first-day schedule. The first half of the class is spent on introductions. Students will make name plates and participate in community building. You will introduce yourself. 

The second half of class you will dip your toe into classroom management. You’ll walk through notebook expectations, mentor sentences, and class dismissal.

Day Two: Practice Routines

On day two, you’ll continue with classroom expectations, while also practicing your daily routines. Students will start the day with bellringers. This is the perfect opportunity to practice arrival routines and expectations for warm-ups.

Then, you’ll move into a syllabus scavenger hunt. This is a hands-on way for students to get familiar with classroom expectations, while also laying down the rules for group or partner work. Double duty!

You’ll end class with a read aloud and dismissal routines. Read alouds during the first week of school helps you build a reading community. It sets the tone that reading is a normal part of your schedule and helps build stamina for reading right from the start.

Day Three: Set Up Notebooks

It might seem overbearing to spend 20-25 minutes setting up notebooks, but it’s the only way that notebooks didn’t turn into a chaotic mess by month two. During the first week of school, I recommend going over notebook expectations and modeling for students how to use their notebooks.

The bulk of day three will be spent placing tabs into student notebooks and helping students configure their notebook layout. So, you might also practice gluing in an interactive notebook page.

Outside of this, you’re continuing to reinforce your normal classroom routines: bellringer, read aloud, and dismissal.

Day Four: Reading Community

As I mentioned before, building a reading community starts the first week of school. On day four, kick off your class as usual with a bellringer and transition into a community-building activity. 

Then, it’s all about the books. If you have a classroom library, go over library expectations, including checking out books, returning books, and when they can explore the library. Next, give students time to find a book they like. They can check out a book from your library, the school library, or the scholastic book fair (if your school is participating).

If you take students to the library, make sure you also cover routines and expectations around visiting the library.

Day Five: Focus on Bell Ringers

As you wrap up the first week of school, you’ll have a pretty established routine that students are getting familiar with. On the final day, I like to talk more in-depth about bellringers. 

Five days in, students know they have a bellringer each day, but you want to cover routines and expectations. Where do they turn in bellringers? Do you grade them? What should they do if they finish their bellringer early?

I also like to do more community building at the end the week. Have students create an About Me slide that they submit to you. You can go over technology expectations with this activity as well.

The first week of school can be tough to plan for. So, you have to strike that balance of community building, classroom management, and establishing routines. Therefore, when you download the free first week of school lesson plans, you’ll get a breakdown of my daily schedule, plus free classroom activities like bellringers, nameplates, student surveys, and more.