Soon summer will be over and the new school year will begin. The first week of kindergarten will be full of new beginnings with our brand new students. Do you need help creating lesson plans for the first week of this new kindergarten school year? Keep reading for lesson plans as well as freebies to download for your new students.
The first week of kindergarten is all about introductions to one another, rules and procedures of the school and the classroom, as well as getting familiar with the various parts of the classroom. Even though there is typically a ton of emotions, there is at least an underlying excitement for this new experience.
First Week Of School Lesson Plans
Lesson plans will help you maintain academic structure and your schedule throughout the year, but especially during the first week with your new little learners. Making sure your have activities pre-planned allows for a much smoother school day. Here is an example of the activities I have planned out along with a downloadable **Freebie** editable lesson plan template.
Insta-Portrait Freebie
One of the fun activities for this week is an Insta-Portrait. The students are asked to draw a self portrait and write their name. This is a fun, engaging, and meaningful way to introduce each student, as well as, start the academic process of teaching letter recognition and writing skills. It is also teaching where supplies are located and when they are finished, how to clean them up.
This is also a fantastic assessment tool. Observing the students during this activity can help determine what levels the kindergarteners are at with fine motor skills, handwriting, drawing and coloring, as well as following directions.
Name Activity Freebie
Another fabulous **FREEBIE** is this printable name activity will help kids explore their names. This is typically the first word that students truly learn to spell and most kids really love to write it. Of course it is their name!!
For this activity, take sticky notes and write a letter of the child’s name on each note. You can put them in order or mix them up and ask the child to put them in order. (This depends on how far into learning to spell their name the child is.) The next area is to rewrite their name on the space. Next they can count how many letters are in their name using the number line. They can then be able to answer the question in the last section. The next part is to write one letter in each box. Then on the line write how many letters are in their name. This is a fun activity for the first week of school because it helps them explore various topics, including writing, spelling, number lines, and more. Head over to THIS post to download your Build Your Name Freebie!
Back To School Kit
Need routine paperwork in one easy download? This new product a must have for teachers to give out on first day of kindergarten or open house night.
Check out blog post “First Day of Kindergarten” for more ideas and “4 Name Activities Perfect For Little Learners From TikTok” for more name activities.
Are you posting the lesson plans weekly? You have SOO many good ideas that I’d love to include in my class. I used several of your ideas from this post last week!
Hi Mary! I am trying to, but it doesn’t always happen. 🙁
Thank you for all of your amazing ideas. I am back in K this year after a 9 year hiatus. So basically feel like a brand new teacher!!
May I ask how you do your morning meeting?
Would you willing to post week 2, 3, and 4 lesson plans? Love to see and have been very helpful and greatly appreciated!!
Would you be willin gto post week 2, 3, and 4 of your lesson plans? Love to see and are so..helpful!
thanks for the great ideas. very helpful at this time of the year.
Good Afternoon!
I LOVE your lesson plan format!!!!! Do you have an edible lesson plan hat you are willing to share!
Please contact me either way:
email address is: teachhayden@yahoo.com
Yes, I have an editable template that I share with members of my weekly newsletter. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing these! I love the first week lesson plan! For some reason, I click on the images and the download does not open up. Any other way that I can get the lesson plans? Thank you!
Thank you for your comments. The link you have requested has been updated. Thanks again.
Abbie so sorry to bother but I still unable to download the free lesson plan and template. I click on the link now and it takes me to signing up for the Teacher’s Lounge which I have already signed up for. Sorry if this is something I’m doing wrong. Just such an amazing resource that I would hate to miss out on.
I’m also having trouble accessing or downloading the free lesson plan and template after I joined the teacher’s lounge…please help!
I am sorry you are having trouble with this free download.
Here is the link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LAprUA6nxob7OxbWSH6aVtBNGnape_hK/view?usp=sharing
I hope that helps.
Hi! I really would like to see a copy of the first week lesson plans. When I click on the pic it only gives an option to pin it not to enlarge and view. Is there any way you can send me a copy? I just watched your live and love all of these activities.
Here is a link for the **freebie**
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LAprUA6nxob7OxbWSH6aVtBNGnape_hK/view
Hope that helps
Great lesson plans! I’m so glad I found this post. As a kindergarten teacher, I’m always looking for new and engaging ideas for my students. I love the activities you’ve included for the first week of school, especially the phonics centers and the sight word bingo game. I can’t wait to try these out with my own class! Thank you for sharing!
Love these lesson plans! As a kindergarten teacher, I always look forward to trying new ideas and activities to make the first week of school exciting and engaging for my students. The incorporation of singing and movement is brilliant for young children, as it helps them release energy and build confidence in a fun way. I’m definitely going to try out the “All About Me”center activity with my class. Great post! 😊
Thank you for the comment.