First Day Activities

This boy is not loving that first day.

The first days of school are challenging and exciting for everyone. For kids who struggle with change, those first days are often quite difficult.

I wanted to give you a few ideas for the first couple days of school to help kids become comfortable in your classroom, help you get to know your students and help students to start to know themselves by showing off their interests. This is a crucial time for teachers, as well as students. As a teacher with students on the spectrum I tend to tread lightly as I get to know who they are and how they operate in the classroom. You’re not only taking note of interests, triggers, relationships and routines that the student brings with them, but also building trust in those days. One great thing to do is to show them who you are (through imovie or iphoto maybe?!). Let them get to know how your class will operate, what to expect everyday.

Remember provide visual supports for all of those possible concerns!

–Routines, routines, routines! Have your class routines set up before the kids even get in the classroom. Be ready to tell/show them what you will expect of them as soon as they walk into the room, through the class time and expectations for when class time is over. Establish these right away and stay consistent. Kids with autism struggle with generalization of skills and with the ‘hidden curriculum’ of school. They don’t know automatically know what they should do when they enter your classroom. They don’t know how to read the subtle signs and cues from their peers on what they should be doing. They don’t know your ‘look’ just yet. Be explicit. Be compassionate. And remember that almost every teacher has different expectations for how they run their classroom.

–A school map, highlighted with all their classes, labeled with the period number and even drawn out with a travel route.

–Information on Lockers; including videos, and small cards to hand out to kids.

Some lessons and ideas! (Most of these lessons will open you to another page with the same title. You will have to click the title words again and a pdf will download into your browser.)

Who Are We? Intro lesson This activity is a visual collage where a student identifies likes, dislikes and other things about themselves. You will need lots of materials for this lesson including scissors, paper, gluesticks, magazines, etc. This is just a lesson plan, you will need to make your own example to share with the kids.

My Personal Motto This activity was taken from a Speech Pathologist. This is for students who are higher functioning and have a bit of self knowledge. A list of personality characteristics is very helpful with this lesson.

Classroom Scavenger Hunt This activity is tons of fun. I’ve done it both as a tour where I show kids where all the necessary items are, have them complete a guided worksheet and pretend that they are on a museum tour. I encourage picture taking (mime style) and really talk up things such as the pencil sharpener and all it’s capabilities! This attached document is more independent. This important part of this is getting the kids moving through the room. If possible, pair them up or let them get with friends to complete it.

Info Postcard This activity is another get to know you that is more language based. While only requiring index cards and some coloring utensils, a student gets to tell about themselves and provide a writing sample. I’ve taken this from a language arts teacher and it was important to her to get that writing sample. As a specialist, it would be important to me to see the attempts or frustration with writing. You can change the back to whatever suits you and your students.