First Day Hooray
Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources
This page contains First Day Hooray lesson plans,
teaching resources, and a fun student project.
First Day Hooray, written by Nancy Poydar, is a back to school themed picture
book that shows the anticipation, apprehension, and excitement that children and
school employees feel about the first day of school.
All over town, Ivy Green
and the school employees are getting ready for the first day of school.
It is the day before school starts and Ivy Green is buying new shoes
and a lunch box. This picture book also focuses on some of the important people
who work at a school: bus driver, custodian, principal, and teacher.
Miss Wheeler, the bus driver, is going over her route and has many new stops to
learn. Mr. Handy, the custodian, is buffing the floors and arranging furniture.
Mr. Masters, the principal, is reading over his notes and organizing welcome
signs and materials. Ms. Bell, Ivy's teacher, is hanging alphabet letters and
writing name tags.
The story shows what everyone is doing the day before school starts to get ready,
the dreams that they have that night, and the morning of the first
day of school.
The illustrations in the book capture the anxiety and the
excitement that everyone is feeling about the first day of school.
As you are reading this book to your students, there are plenty of opportunities
for you to ask your students to share how they got ready for their first day of
school, the worries that they had, and the dreams that they had the night before.
After reading this book aloud to my students, I share with them
how I prepared for the first day of school, the things that I was nervous about, and
everything that I was excited about.
I would have my students brainstorm a list of other school employees (nurse,
cafeteria workers, secretaries, librarian, etc) that work at our school and
discuss their important roles and jobs. If it was possible, I would invite
one or two of these school employees to stop by my classroom and share with
my students how they prepared for their own first day of school.
On this page you will find a unique project that I have
created specifically to go along with this cute back to school picture book.
Book Shaped Writing Templates
First Day Hooray Lesson Plans
This five page banner is included for free in this set of First Day Hooray teaching resources.
First Day Hooray Lesson Plans
Author: Nancy Poydar
These First Day Hooray lesson plans will be emailed to you and then you can download them instantly.
Print as many copies as you want! Save and reuse forever!
Since I feel that it is important to emphasize reading from the very first day of school, I have
created book shaped templates for this set of First Day Hooray teaching resources.
The book shaped bulletin board accent pieces (shown later on this page)
that are included in this set of teaching resources have different reading slogans
written on them. These book accent pieces and the matching bulletin board banner will
help you to create a First Day Hooray bulletin board display that highlights
the importance of reading.
Since I am also a teacher, I understand that teachers often need to change
or adapt a resource that we find to meet our own needs. I have provided 3
different versions of these book templates in order to help you select
the version that would best suit your own needs.
Book Templates #1:
The first set of book templates has standard sized writing lines and a drawing area.
Below is an example of the first draft worksheet for the first book template.
First Draft Worksheet Book Template #1
This assignment will not take your students very long to complete.
The book templates are on one worksheet and they are easy to cut out.
These book templates measure 7 inches in width and 9 inches in height.
This quick creative writing assignment will provide you with student
work samples that you can post on your bulletin board during the first week of school.
You will be able to create a dynamic Back to School classroom bulletin board display of
your students' projects by using the colorful bulletin board display banner and reading
accent pieces that are included in this set of First Day Hooray teaching resources.
There are 7 colorful book templates
in this set of First Day Hooray teaching resources:
red, blue, green, brown, pink, and purple.
Book Templates #2:
The second set of book templates has double spaced writing lines.
Below is an example of the first draft worksheet for the second book template.
First Draft Worksheet Book Template #12
Book Templates #3:
The third set of book templates has been left blank so
that they can be used for a variety of different purposes.
You could use these blank book templates for students to draw a picture
about the story or about their first day of school. You could also use these
blank book templates to glue photographs of your students.
I know that it takes teachers a lot of valuable time to assemble their bulletin
board displays.
Many teachers spend hours of time cutting out large display
letters or making a banner on their own at home on their computers.
This time is valuable and better spent on developing your classroom curriculum,
so I have designed a matching 5 page banner for your
bulletin board display.
You can laminate this banner so
that it is more durable and you can use it again next year.
This five page banner is included for free in this set of First Day Hooray teaching resources.
To help you decorate your bulletin board display with a reading theme, I have included
12 different book accent pieces in this set of First Day Hooray lesson plans.
First Day Hooray Lesson Plans: 12 Book Accent Pieces
First Day Hooray Lesson Plans
Author: Nancy Poydar
These First Day Hooray lesson plans will be emailed to you and then you can download them instantly.
Print as many copies as you want! Save and reuse forever!
RELATED TEACHING RESOURCES SET:
Classmate Interview Megaphone Templates:
Fun Back to School Activity
Students Interview Their New Classmates
Are you looking for a fun Back to School
lesson plan idea that involves your students getting to know each other?
Your students will enjoy completing this unique project on the first day
of school. They will have fun getting to know their new classmates by
interviewing them and writing about their partners
inside their classmate interview megaphone templates.
Click on the link below to go the page where this
set of Back to School teaching resources is found:
Go To: Classmate Interview Megaphone Templates
Click on the links below to view teaching resources
that I have created for these popular picture books.
Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans For Picture Books
the Beginning of the School Year
- Amelia Bedelia First Day of School Lesson Plans by Herman Parish
- Enormous Crocodile Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl
(Read this book on Roald Dahl's birthday: September 13) - First Day Hooray Lesson Plans by Nancy Poydar
- First Day Jitters Lesson Plans by Julie Danneberg
- The Giving Tree Lesson Plans by Shel Silverstein
- How I Spent My Summer Vacation Lesson Plans by Mark Teague
- The Way To Start A Day Lesson Plans by Byrd Baylor (Caldecott Honor winning book)
Alphabetical List of Book Titles:
Click on the links below to view the teaching resources that
I have created for these popular novels and picture books.
- Amelia Bedelia First Day of School Lesson Plans by Herman Parish
-
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Lesson Plans Page 1
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Lesson Plans Page 2
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
(1953 Newbery Honor winning book)- A Christmas Carol Lesson Plans by Charles Dickens
- The Enormous Crocodile Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl
- Esio Trot Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl
- First Day Hooray Lesson Plans by Nancy Poydar
- First Day Jitters Lesson Plans by Julie Danneberg
- The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl
- The Giving Tree Lesson Plans by Shel Silverstein
- How I Spent My Summer Vacation Lesson Plans by Mark Teague
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas Lesson Plans by Dr. Seuss
Shiloh Lesson Plans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
(1992 Newbery Medal winning book)- Stellaluna Lesson Plans by Janell Cannon
- Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving Lesson Plans by Dav Pilkey
- The Way to Start a Day Lesson Plans by Byrd Baylor
(Caldecott Honor winning book) - The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
(1987 Newbery Medal winning book)
The Whipping Boy Lesson Plans Page 1
The Whipping Boy Teaching Resources Page 2
The Whipping Boy Student Projects Page 3
Thank you for visiting my First Day Hooray by Nancy Poydar page.
Please be sure to check out the other pages on Unique
Teaching Resources for a large variety of fun lesson plan activities
that will engage your students in learning and save you valuable time.
Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Creator and Site Manager
Unique Teaching Resources
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First Day Hooray Lesson Plans Page
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I'm writing to tell you that my students just finished the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory group projects. They worked so hard, and the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory projects turned out great! We had them to show for student led conferences. The parents were very impressed, and so were many of the other teachers and my principal. They all commented on my students' work and your creative templates. My students had so much fun doing these projects. I also used the multiplication pizza sticker charts. My students loved those as well!! Thank you so much for all of your amazing products.
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My students are working on their Charlie and Chocolate Factory projects that I bought on your website. One of my students said how nice the other character wheels were and he said, "Besides this is just fun!" Not bad for a third grade boy!!
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