First Day of School Procedure Task Cards

Procedures, habits, routines, rules – fill the first days of school. It is necessary to lay the foundation for a successful year for your students and yourself. Don’t get caught in the trap of teacher talk, talk, talk. After a little while your students will only hear wah, wah, wah. You don’t want to be Charlie Brown’s teacher!

To make teaching classroom habits and routines more interactive, enter Procedure Task Cards. The cards have a wide array of procedures and routines necessary for a smooth start to the school year. The product includes: 40 task cards and a blank set (to make your own, if desired).

Prior to the first day of school I sort the cards into categories, for example: entering the classroom, going home time, hallway behavior, etc. On the first day/week of school, I keep the cards in a prominent place so I won’t forget to go over each one.

When I’m ready to talk about our procedures and routines, I randomly (I make sure everyone has had a card at some point in the day) hand out the stack of cards that I want to cover at that particular time. Now it’s time for the kiddos to get involved. One student will read a card, we talk about the routine for that card. Since I teach 2nd graders, they have been in school for a few years so many of them already know the procedures. This makes our discussions move a little quicker. Also, if there are “new to the district” students I can adjust our discussions. The student who just read the card will select the next person to read their card, and so on. This continues until all the cards have been read in my pre-chosen stack.

As a follow up to our task card routine discussions, we play a game. This may happen on the same day or whenever it fits during the first week of school. To play the game, I read a card, the students tell the procedure/routine. If they are correct, they get a point. If incorrect or not complete enough answer I get the point. Usually they win! Well, you get the picture. The reward is usually a brownie point on our classroom brownie pan.

I hope you enjoy this freebie! Pop over to my TpT store to get your Procedure Task Cards.

I’d love to have you visit my blog for more goodies!