Last Minute Teaching Job - What to do about classroom early on?

[simonsez]

My wife is a 3rd grade teacher.  We recently moved from the East Coast to the Midwest.  She was unable to find and land a FT teaching position for the longest time until about one hour ago.  School (with students) starts tomorrow!  We are ecstatic at her opportunity but also stressed since nothing has been setup in her classroom.

She obviously cannot have her classroom set the way she wants for the first day and probably even for the first week.  Also, school philosophies and curriculum vary from school to school so it isn't like she can just jump right in as if she was still at her old school.

For the teachers out there - what are some activities that are useful/instructive to elementary students but do not require much setup classroom/lesson plans/anything to be organized?

She doesn't want to just play movies for the first few days.

[westtoeast]

Congrats on the job! I teach middle school and usually do some of the following during the first few days:
1. Lessons on growth mindset (google or pinterest and you'll find tons of ideas)
2. Goal setting activities (think short term and long term goals, and break down steps/actions needed to get there)
3. Teambuilding games (search for indoor and outdoor games... if she can run to the store tonight something like "see which group can build the tallest tower with only paper cups, straws and tape" can be really fun)
4. Ask students to journal on some "get to know you" topics. Questions I like to ask include "what do you wish your teachers knew about you," "how do you spend your time when you get home from school," and "what's the most helpful thing a teacher has ever done for you?"
5. Teach and practice routines. It is really helpful to have students literally practice things like lining up and quietly walking to the lunch room or practice how to come in, put away coats and backpacks, and settle in with "morning work" first thing.
6. Have students design a "time capsule" of all their favorite things. You can open it again at the end of the year to see how students have changed. Have them draw pictures or write on index cards things like their favorite movies, singers, books, TV shows, foods, games, etc.

Good luck!

[frugal rph]

I would ask for volunteers among the parents dropping their kids off on the first day.  At my son's school, there are more parents who want to volunteer than there are activities for them to do. 

[Dee18]

Pair students up to introduce each other to the class.

[GoConfidently]

Copy paper and pencil - draw something that you enjoyed this summer. Then pair-share with a classmate. Then write a short story about the memory.

Students write the classroom rules - have groups talk about what's important in the classroom and how they want to be treated. Then use that to write the classroom rules as a group. It gives them ownership and makes it easier to enforce the rules.

Goal setting like mentioned above, but add in a letter to myself activity with goals that will be opened on the last day of school

Show and tell on day 2 - kids bring in a favorite/special item and present it to the class (takes up a lot of time and allows students to get to know each other)

Teach and practice morning meetings (if committed to continuing throughout the year) - https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/what-is-morning-meeting/

Story time - studies have proven that listening to stories read aloud is very important. Choose a story with a  broad message (friendship, community, helping others, etc.) and read aloud. Then follow up with a writing or creative activity.

Any curriculum work she can pull from her previous job for the first few days is fine as long as it's age appropriate. It would be far more damaging to the long-term expectations and attitudes of the students to watch movies than to do a few days of work that aren't perfectly aligned with the new district. And she should be begging, borrowing, and stealing lessons from her team to get through the first week.