So what does a teacher do on their first day? We laughed a lot. We also spoke a lot. I led some discussions but the kids did most of the talking, sharing, and deciding. We discussed rules but not in a traditional sense with me setting them, rather we discussed what they already knew. What types of rules are helpful for a classroom? Why do teachers set rules? Do we need them posted or do we know them by heart? In fact, I wrote a whole post on the rules discussion we missed.
But we also worked on clerical stuff like lunch magnets, popsicle sticks, pencil cup name tags and where in the world do you put your lunch box. The kids asked questions, dispelled myths about their teacher – for some reason they say I am fun and I don’t know where they have that from. They also tried to figure out what the 10 pictures below meant to their teacher. They all thought I liked to collect china and liked to kick rocks.
And then we connected, we opened up and we just came together. I shared how nervous I get before the first day of school. I shared how excited I was and how I couldn’t wait to learn with them. I shared how we have one word that shows us as a class and that word is represent. We live up to that word in whatever we do.
I challenged them in the Bloxes challenge, which if you haven’t tried this with your students, you should. We spent time with the other 5th grade classrooms because we believe that we are on this grade level and that all of the kids are our kids. And then the end of the day. How to dismiss, how to remember everything, and already sad to say goodbye. These kids snuck into my heart faster than I had thought possible and I am thankful for them. I get to be a part of their life this year; what a gift. One student said it best at the end of the day as I waved goodbye, “Thank you.” And I wanted to say, “No, thank you.”
Pernille Ripp 
We worked on our connections, too. I teach sixth grade and along with a variety of activities, we began using a Webcomic site and we created Avatars that we then pulled together in a class photo. It's odd-looking, but I find it engages them on Day One and creates a sense of class community with playfulness.
What a great way to connect them, I think it vital to have a challenge or a task for them to complete the first day so we can start to build community.
We did very similar things in my fourth grade class. A lot of sharing and community building and talking about what they were nervous about. We also talked about their teacher being a REAL person (who knew?!) and how we'd function as a TEAM – perhaps not like previous classrooms. We got to know our computera and iPod touches and called it a day! 🙂
I loved watching your Bloxes video! The kids were really engaged!!Where did you get your bloxes?
Without giving you a detailed list of my "planned" first day with kids, I would hope that Monday (we start on July 23) will be the best day of the year. I want our time together to be so special that they won't want to go home, but when they do thy can't stop talking about it. Everything we do will be about getting to know each other. I happened on a list of new-to-me incebreakers and get-to-know-you games, so I'm looking forward to trying those.Also, everything we do will be about setting expectations and procedures without being so blatant.This is such an exciting time of year for me. I hope that my enthusiasm rubs off on my students.