Question Details
I really don’t know what I need to have in place in my classroom, ready for the class to come in. I can’t imagine what I need, but I’m worried I won’t be well enough prepared.
Answer
It’s really hard to imagine what you need to have done ready for your first day with the students! Don’t be afraid to ask other teachers what they do – nobody expects you to know everything; you are just starting something new! I liked to have a few games in my mind, which would suit different times of the day. So getting to know you games, but also calming games such as colouring or joining dots, or closing eyes and imagining. That way, if an activity finishes early, you have something to fill a bit of time, and you can use the activities to learn a bit about the student – are they high-energy or calm? How are their fine motor skills etc.
It’s quite hard to visualise what you need to have ready, before you have met your students. But it’s useful if you know your classroom well – do you know where everything is? Is everything you might need in a place where you can find it? Are there enough paper/ pens and pencils etc? Are they clean and sharpened? Are the displays as you would like them? Does everything work (and is everything safe – no broken chairs, sharp edges, things to fall over). Are there labels to point the students to the things they will need: scissors, coloured pencils etc? You don’t want to be looking for resources once you have started an activity, so it might help to consider what you are going to be doing in the first week and making sure that the resources for the class are all there and ready to use.
On the first day, I always like to have a class list (with photos ideally) so that I can make observations about the children. I ensure children’s cubby holes/pegs are labelled so they know where to put their belongings and the children’s books are labelled with names. Ideally, all resources should be labelled too so that they are easily accessible. In the first week, you will want to become familiar with personalities and get to know your class before making decisions such as who you will buddy up to walk around the school or as taking partners. However, you can prepare some lolipop sticks with students names on them in advance so, if you feel buddies are needed, or you want to ask questions, you have the sticks available. I quite like to use this as an activity on the first day so that the children decorate their own lollipop stick – the larger ones are best to get the creative juices flowing!