first day

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first day
By Cathy-Dee

For the first day (actually first week) I do very little curriculum work and no assessments. We spend the first week settling into the routines, rules of school, getting to know one another, etc., I will start with some
reading instruction on the first day, learning our first words, a little bit of printing, etc., which in some ways are informal assessments, but nothing too formal. This is with grade 1. With grades 2 or 3 you could start with curriculum especially some review work to get them started. But you still want to spend quite a bit of time just working on classroom routines and rules. If you

can get things working smoothly in those first few weeks of school, then the rest of your year tends to go much more smoothly.

I save my main assessments for weeks 2 and 3. The kids tend to be more relaxed and comfortable with being back in school and I feel you get more accurate responses on any testing you do.