A guide for using our resources

Children will describe their feelings about school and its routines.

Social and Life Skills: self-awareness, self-management

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

• In this classic, Sarah Jane Hartwell is very nervous about her first day at a new school.
• The surprising reveal at the end of the story shows kids that everyone gets first-day jitters!

• Make a first-day feelings graph! Write Our Feelings on the First Day of School at the top of a sheet of chart paper. Make columns with these headings: happy, sad, nervous, excited, mix of feelings.
• Give kids sticky notes and have them put their note in the column that matches their first-day feelings best. You can use the graph as a springboard for discussion. Do kids feel differently at school now than on the first day? How? Discuss how feelings can come and go, and how all feelings are OK!

• S is for school! Together, find and circle every uppercase and lowercase s in the issue.

Skill: writing

Materials: chart paper, markers

• Use an experience chart to get kids excited for the school year and set goals too! At the top, write We Can’t Wait! Underneath, write each child’s name followed by the phrase can’t wait to learn . . .
• Call on kids one at a time to dictate the end of their sentence, for example, Denise can’t wait to learn to read. Shawn can’t wait to learn about animals.
• You can revisit the chart again at the end of the year and have kids reflect on how much they learned!