First Day Jitters
Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources
This page contains First Day Jitters lesson plans,
teaching resources, and a fun student project.
First Day Jitters, written by Julie Danneberg, is a wonderful picture book to
read to your students the first day of school.
Can you remember your first day at a new school? Can you remember your
first day of school as a brand new teacher? First day jitters aren't
just for kindergarten students!
It's the first day of school and Sarah Jane Hartwell is nervous and wants
to stay in her bed. Mr. Hartwell tries to ease her nerves with calm
reassurance and wise advice.
The plot leads to a very cute and surprising
twist at the end of the story when the readers learn that the teacher is
the one who is nervous about her first day of school.
Reading First Day Jitters to your students will help
them to see that teachers and grown-ups have feelings and get nervous,
just like kids.
First Day Jitters is well written and covers all of the anxieties
of starting out at a new school. In your classroom, you are sure to have students
who are brand new to the school and who are experiencing first day jitters, no
matter how old they are.
This book is appropriate to read for the early elementary grade levels,
but I also feel that students in Grades 3 - 5 would enjoy listening to
this book.
Reading this book will give you a wonderful opportunity to focus on your new
students, welcoming them to their new school, and pairing them up with a welcome
buddy. The welcome buddies could be responsible for helping the new students,
showing them around the school, and introducing these students to new friends
at lunch time and recess.
As your are reading this book, there are opportunities for you to ask your
students to make predictions, discuss their own jitters, and share how their
parents helped them with their own first day jitters.
On this page you will find a unique project that I have created specifically to go along with this delightful back to school picture book.
Student Lunch Box Writing Templates
First Day Jitters Lesson Plans
This five page banner is included for free in this set of First Day Jitters teaching resources.
First Day Jitters Lesson Plans
Author: Julie Danneberg
These First Day Jitters 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!
As I was reading this book for the first time, I was imagining trying to create
a fun writing project for this back to school read aloud book.
I love the last illustration of the book, Mrs. Sarah Jane Hartwell
standing beside her new principal with her cute lunch box clutched in her hands.
Consequently, the theme for this set of First Day Jitters teaching resources
is a project in the shape of a lunch box.
I have not chosen a writing topic for this assignment, so you could choose to have
your students write a summary about the book, or your students can write about
their own first day jitters.
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 4
different versions of these lunch box templates in order to help you select
the version that would best suit your own needs.
Lunch Box Templates #1:
The first set of lunch box templates has standard sized writing lines.
Below is an example of the first draft worksheet for the first lunch box template.
First Draft Worksheet Lunch Box Template #1
This creative writing assignment will not take your
students very long to complete. The lunch box templates are on one
worksheet and they are easy to cut out.
These lunchbox templates measure 8 inches in width and 7 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 lunch box
accent pieces that are included in this set of First Day Jitters teaching resources.
There are 7 colorful lunch box templates
in this set of First Day Jitters teaching resources:
blue, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, and purple.
Lunch Box Templates #2:
The second set of lunch box templates has double spaced writing lines.
Below is an example of the first draft worksheet for the second lunch box template.
First Draft Worksheet Lunch Box Template #2
These templates have double spaced lines for lower elementary students to write on.
Lunch Box Templates #3:
The third set of lunch box templates has a writing and a drawing area.
Below is an example of the first draft worksheet for the third lunch box template.
First Draft Worksheet Lunch Box Template #3
These templates have a writing area and a drawing area inside the apple.
You can also use this apple section of the template to glue photographs of your students.
Lunch Box Templates #4:
The fourth set of lunch box templates has been left blank so
that they can be used for a variety of different purposes.
You could use these blank lunch box templates for students to draw a picture
about the story or about their first day of school. You could also use these
blank lunch box templates to glue photographs of your students.
For the color lunch box templates in this set, I did not
color the center area because I wanted to leave it white so that
students could use this area to draw and color their own pictures.
I know that it takes teachers a lot of valuable time to assemble their classroom 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 five page banner is included for free in this set of First Day Jitters teaching resources.
This time is valuable and better spent on developing your classroom curriculum
and grading papers, so I have designed a matching 5 page banner for your
bulletin board display (shown above).
If you have access to a laminating machine, you can laminate this banner so
that it is more durable and you can use it year after year for bulletin board
displays of these First Day Jitters lunch box projects.
To help you decorate your bulletin board display with a lunchbox
theme, I have included 4 different lunch box accent pieces in this set of
First Day Jitters lesson plans (shown below).
- Read About Our First Day Jitters
- Welcome Back to School
- Our First Day Jitters Lunchboxes
- Did You Have Jitters on the First Day of School?
First Day Jitters Lesson Plans: Lunch Box Accent Pieces
First Day Jitters Lesson Plans
Author: Julie Danneberg
These First Day Jitters 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!
Read all four of Julie Danneberg's books that
feature Mrs. Sarah Jane Hartwell to your students
during the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
Purchase these 4 books written by Julie Danneberg easily from
Amazon.com by clicking on the book covers found below.
MATCHING APPLE TEACHING RESOURCES SET:
Apple Writing Templates: Flip Book
Students Write an Essay or Story Inside
Apple Templates That Form a Flip Book
also used in the First Day Jitters lunch box templates.
These two sets of apple teaching resources would look great
displayed together on a Back To School bulletin board.
Click on the link below to go the page where this
set of apple writing templates is found:
Go To: Apple Writing Templates
Apple Themed Bulletin Board Display Sets:
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 Jitters
by Julie Danneberg 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 Jitters Lesson Plans Page
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