First Day of School Classroom Management

With so many things to cover and address on the first day of school, it’s important for the day to run as smoothly as possible. However, we know that this can be a tall order for a kindergarten classroom! In this post, I’m sharing tips to help you create a plan for your first day of school classroom management.

Classroom Management Challenges on the First Day of School

The first day of school can pose several classroom management challenges, particularly in a kindergarten classroom.

• Calling Out: Many kindergarteners haven’t been in a classroom setting before and are used to saying what they’re thinking as soon as the thought pops into their head. This leads to a classroom full of students sharing their thoughts without raising their hands. 
• Leaving Expected Spaces: Whether you need students to stay at their desks, remain seated on their carpet spots, or walk nicely in line, it can be challenging on the first day of school! 
• Conflicts with Peers: Many kindergarten students haven’t developed skills like problem-solving and turn-taking quite yet. On the first day of school, you might notice that students have trouble interacting appropriately with their peers.
• Big Feelings: The first day of school is full of big emotions, especially for students who haven’t been in a school setting before. It can take a lot of time for some students to warm up to the idea of being in the classroom on the first day of school, which can definitely impact the flow of the day.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list, it can give you an idea of the types of hurdles that you might experience at the beginning of kindergarten. However, it doesn’t mean that your classroom can’t run smoothly on the first day! 

Reinforcing Positive Behavior from Day One

One of the best ways to address your classroom management challenges on the first day of school is to reinforce the positive behaviors you see. It is much easier for students to meet expectations when they know what it is you’re looking for. As you praise the positive behaviors happening in your classroom, the rest of the students can follow suit.

A Simple Classroom Management Tool for the First Day (and Beyond)

A whole class reward is an excellent way to set the tone for your classroom management from Day One. In just a few simple steps, you can set up a classroom management system that will help you start your year on the right foot with your students.

Step One: Choose a Behavior

The best part of a whole class incentive is that you can target behaviors that are common among your students. If you’ve ever been in a kindergarten classroom on the first day of school, you know that the classroom management challenges I shared at the beginning of this post are very common! 

You can proactively target one of these behaviors from the very first day of school by including it in your reward system. For example, You might decide to reward students who raise their hand instead of calling out, since that’s a huge challenge at the beginning of the year! You might also decide to reward the class when students stay in their assigned spaces during seatwork or circle time.

No matter what behavior you choose, it’s important to explain it to your students so they understand the expectation. I like to use a simple visual to communicate the target behavior to students and then display it as a reminder.

Step Two: Choose a Reward

The next step is to choose the reward that you will provide to your students when they reach the goal of the incentive. In the case of my favorite reward system, students will work towards earning all of the pieces of the reward chart. Once all of the pieces have been earned, the class earns a reward. It’s important to choose a reward that can be easily given to the class as soon as possible after earning it. Plus, when the reward is communicated clearly, students are more likely to buy into the system. 

If you would like to use this classroom management tool as early as the first day of school, it’s very important to choose a reward that will be easy to implement. There are so many moving parts on the first day of school, you don’t want your reward to fall through the cracks. This might be a quick dance party that doubles as a brain break or ten minutes on the playground. Rewards don’t have to be complicated in order to be effective! The most important thing is that you are consistent in providing the reward to your students once they’ve earned it.

Step Three: Reinforce Positive Behavior

Once you’ve picked out your target behavior and reward, it’s time to be on the lookout for positive behavior! Even though this is a whole-class incentive, you don’t need to wait for the entire class to be demonstrating the target behavior at the same time. This would be impossible on the first day of school!

Instead, watch for students who are demonstrating the target behavior to recognize in front of the class. After thanking them for their positive behavior, you can invite them to add a piece to the reward. They will be so excited to add a donut to the box!

Free Donut Whole Class Incentive Reward System

Would you like to use this simple classroom management tool at the beginning of the school year? Just click the button below to grab it for free! This free download has all of the printables that you will need to get this reward system up and running, including the labels, reward cards, goal cards, donuts, and donut box.

Save This First Day of School Classroom Management System

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board of kindergarten ideas. You’ll be able to quickly find this classroom management system when you’re planning the first day of school.