Activities for the first couple of days

I love all these teaching blogs. So many great ideas and they've all truly been an inspiration to me. After "stalking" MANY, MANY, MANY blogs, here are activities I will be doing the first few days of school. (Which starts next Wednesday!!!)

I will be reading the Gingerbread Man and doing the Gingerbread Man hunt from Mrs. Southard at Fun in first. I thought this was such a great idea to tour the school and have a little fun as well. It's been hard finding those little Debbie's gingerbread cookies that Mrs. Southard uses. I even considered baking the cookies myself. But didn't want to spend my night before the first day of school baking 25+cookies (25+ so I'd have extras, just in case some break or I eat a few. :) )So I researched and found this at walmart.com and bought it. I can bake a huge gingerbread CAKE or brownie or even a huge sugar cookie! I'd prefer those much more than gingerbread. It would be much easier to bake one huge one, and I can use it during Christmas. My daughters would love it!)
I'll also have Magic playdough for the kids. I first read about it at the Clutter-Free classroom, and then Fun in first posted about her first two days of school and included this awfully cute poem to go with the magic playdough. (Click here to go to her site and download it for yourself. )

I always read David Goes to School by David Shannon and we discuss what David does and what we should do in first grade. The kids LOVE hearing about all the wrong things David does and will come up with what David should have done. I take this opportunity to review my rules and consequences in my classroom as well. I'll also read Chrysanthemum and discuss about how mean words can hurt our hearts and do the heart activity as explained by Cara at The First Grade Parade.
I'm also reading The crayon box that talked.
After reading this book, I will take pictures of the children to make our own crayon box. I printed these crayons onto colored construction paper and will put the kids' pictures at the tip of the crayon with their names. I'll put the kids' crayons into a big crayon box that I will make with the saying "Although we're all different, we all belong together" or something similar. I can't decide which saying yet. I will post a picture of the final product next week. Click on the image to download the crayons.
I'm torn between these two books!
They both discuss about being nervous about going to school. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions! After I read one of them (maybe both :) because I love them both!) I'll have the students write about how they felt the night before school. (This will also show me where each student is at with their writing. Click on the image to download.)
Every year I have the kids draw self portraits. (I have them do one at the end of the year too. I display these two portraits on the child's desk during open house. The parents, kids and I love seeing the difference between the two. :)

I believe that's it. WHEW! That was a long post. :) I am absolutely excited about school starting! I can't wait to meet all my little ones.

Go check out Fun 2B in first's linky party for beginning of the year/fall activities!