The first day of school is approaching quickly!  There are many options to choose from when planning Day One.  Here are three activities we consider to be "must do"  to get the new school year off to a great start!

We realize that many of our readers began the new school year earlier than here in the USA, and some have year-round school - whatever your schedule, these activities are highly recommended to do right now!

1.  "Take What You Need" - This is an excellent strategy to begin building a sense of community in the classroom.  It also supports the development of a much richer relationship between you and your students.  Read all about it in my blog post on Edutopia!  This is not only fun, but is actually an incredibly powerful strategy to begin building community.  Your community creates the safe space for students to take risks and make mistakes - without no mistakes there is no learning!  You will see immediate results.  Be sure to do this first thing on the first day!

2.  Create-a-Story - this is a fantastic strategy which actually has multiple purposes and benefits:

• Independent Learners - This strategy enables your students to begin working/learning independently - immediately, a very important 21st century skill.
• Immediate Assessment - with this one activity you can immediately see where each student is developmentally in terms of their thinking and their writing skills.
  
• Writing Skills - this activity is also an excellent "jumping off" place for all the types of writing the students will learn this year.

3.  Student Portfolios - Celebrating Growth! - I always like to have a sample of each student's work on Day One!  Here is an excellent guide to creating student portfolios which can be paper or digital.