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They’re Finally Here! Our First Week of School

August 9 By Linda Kamp 18 Comments

They’re finally here! My brand new class of second graders! I’ve been waiting…. and waiting…and WAITING for them to arrive! And they finally did!  Here’s a little recap of all of our first day of school activities and how you can use You’re Finally Here! for best first week of school ever!

We read the MOST precious and perfect first day book, You’re Finally Here! by Melanie Watt, author of the lovable little Scaredy Squirrel. This little bunny of a book character is waiting and waiting for his readers to arrive. I convinced my class that, I too, I’ve been waiting… and waiting…. and WAITING for them to arrive!

We’ll use this book all week for my shiny new students to explain what took them so long to get to my class, to get to know each other, to get up and get moving, play games, give opinions, do some writing, and of course, have fun!

On meet the teacher night, as my new 2nd graders approached our classroom, they were greeted with this….

 You're Finally Here first week of school activities with the most perfect first day of school book ever!

Every single child asked when we could read the book! (Mission accomplished!) I’ve recently made an adorable You’re Finally Here! read aloud video on YouTube to show your class if you don’t have the book, are teaching remotely, or just want to let students read it again!

you're finally here video cover

Click here to watch the video on YouTube
Our first day of school finally arrived. We read our book the very first thing, before anything else…. Then I asked, “What took you so long?”
You're Finally Here first day of school class anchor chart

I made a big fuss over how LONG I’d been waiting and how happy I was that they were finally here! I have to admit they had some pretty good reasons to keep me waiting!

They're Finally Here! First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

As a getting to know you activity, my new friends turned to a neighbor and explained what took them so long to get to my class.  Next they wrote about all the things they had to do before they could come to second grade.

You're Finally Here first day of school writing activity

Book activities source

Later that day, we talked about times they’ve had to wait. We talked about times in school they might have to wait, like waiting their waiting in line, or waiting for a friend at recess.

You're Finally Here! The bored game back to school activity
Groups of students played The Bored Game so they could connect, share stories, laugh and roll their eyes together, and find things they had in common. Their responses were priceless!
First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

Students can also use the digital version on Google Slides or  preloaded into Seesaw, for distance learning or to use as a partner activity on devices in the classroom.

You're Finally Here! The bored game back to school activity

Book activities source

Before dismissal we wrote about our day.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

I wanted to check on everybody and give them an outlet to express their relief or concerns, and to generally get a sense of how my students were doing.  I make a copy of these to save as a beginning of the year writing sample. Doing so gives me a writing baseline I can use to determine growth.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt
Book activities source

This digital version for distance learning or working on devices in the classroom, is another way to check on students socially and emotionally.

You're Finally Here! first day of school activities social emotional activity.

Book activities source

The next day, we talked about all the things my students wanted to learn and do now that they were in second grade.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt
Book activities source

We made this character craft and wrote some of our goals for the new school year.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

 

My class had a lot of fun with those eyebrows! We had a whole conversation about placing the eyebrows to show different emotions.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt
Book activities source

I used our bulletin board as a backdrop to take first day pictures then later in the week to display our writing.  The  digital version, included in the unit, is an easy way to take a picture of each student and send it to their parents.

Digital first day of school photo template

First Day Photos Source

On Wednesday, we got out our brand new writing journals! Our new friend the book character bunny scolded us and said how unfair it was for his readers to keep him waiting. “As unfair as having to go to bed when you’re not tired!” So to introduce our journal routine, I gave each student this prompt. Students wrote about a new one each day for the following week so students could practice our journal routine.

 

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt
Book activities source

On Thursday, we got up and got moving with a How Long? hop. I love all of the references to time in the book, and I make sure to capitalize on that each year. I designed a lot of our activities to reference time and transition which is one of the themes of the book. Students worked with partners to roam the room and answer some time related questions on task cards.

First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

How long does it take to brush your teeth?

You're Finally Here! first day of school roam the room game

Book activities source
How Long? hop: First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

How long does it take to find a needle in a haystack? Students can also play the game digitally.

You're Finally Here! first day of school roam the room game

Book activities source
First week of school activities with You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

On Friday, after a fun and full first week, I hung our book character crafts and sent everyone home with these keepsake cards!

First day of school keepsake cards and activities for You're Finally Here! bFy Melanie Watt

You can see last year’s You’re Finally Here! fun with even more activities and additional bulletin board ideas!

First week of school activities for You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

A Note About the Book:

(July 2021) UPDATE: Recently, the Canadian publisher of You’re Finally Here did not renew the U.S. licensing agreement with Scholastic, so US bookstores and Amazon can no longer carry it. Do they not know how wildly popular this book is for the first day of school?  What is happening now on Amazon is that 3rd party sellers are charging ridiculous prices for the copies they have.  Amazon Canada does have the book, but I’m being told this year they aren’t shipping to US addresses. I was able to order copies  last year in 2020, but this year, no. Fingers crossed it changes next year!  CLICK HERE to see the book on Amazon Canada and HERE for the book on IndigoChapterBooks.com in Canada. 

If you don’t have the book no worries!  I’ll read it to your class on YouTube! I made an adorable, animated read aloud video that your students will love!

you're finally here video cover

CLICK HERE  to watch the You’re Finally Here! video

If you haven’t already, you’ll completely fall in love with this book and the video! As you can see, this little gem is the MOST perfect first week book ever!

You're Finally Here first day back to school activities unit cover

CLICK HERE for You’re Finally Here! book activities
CLICK HERE for the French version, Enfin Te Voila!
Be sure to save this post so you have it when you plan your first week of school!
Visit these posts for more back to school ideas:
10 Tips for Managing Meet the Teacher Night
Tips for managing meet the teacher night.
Favorite First Week Activities
Favorite activities for the first week of school
4 Things to Teach in Science At the Beginning of the Year
Teaching ideas and beginning of the year science activities for 2nd and 3rd grade.
How to start your literacy centers at the beginning of the year
How to start your centers at the beginning of the school year article
Have a fantastic first week of school!
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    Filed Under: Back to School, Popular Posts, Reading Tagged With: back to school, books, first day of school, read alouds, You're Finally Here

    Comments

    1. Karyn says

      August 11 at 3:33 am

      What a fantastic unit! This looks adorable! I will have to look for the book and get your unit!

      Reply
    2. Melissa says

      August 14 at 9:14 pm

      Melanie Watt is a favorite! I'm glad I found the book at my public library as it appears to be out of print/stock here in the United States.

      Reply
    3. Linda says

      August 14 at 11:52 pm

      Hi Melissa! Yes, the book is available in Canada from Amazon Canada and IndigoBooks.com. I'm glad you found a copy at your library!

      Reply
    4. Ms.Mejia says

      September 3 at 11:12 pm

      I absolutely love this! Oh I need to get my hands on that book!
      Vanessa

      Reply
    5. Maureen O says

      July 7 at 3:18 pm

      I hope to adapt activities for fifth graders. Thank you for the great ideas!

      Reply
      • Sarah says

        July 2 at 10:09 am

        Hello!

        I was just looking for first day / week activities. I am teaching Grade 5 for the first time and was wondering if this is an acceptable book for the grade? I don’t know how often picture books are used in Junior grades?

        Reply
        • Linda says

          July 2 at 11:20 am

          Hi Sarah,
          I think the book and the activities are a bit young for 5th grade. Picture books are used almost daily in the primary grades, but I’m afraid I have never taught 5th so I don’t want to steer you wrong.

          Thank you for stopping by and best of luck in 5th grade!
          Linda

          Reply
    6. Unknown says

      August 3 at 4:47 am

      OMG….I love it. Thank you for all the ideas. I am going to try some this year.

      Reply
    7. Unknown says

      August 24 at 7:27 pm

      Just curious, what is the easy button?

      Reply
    8. Linda Kamp says

      August 25 at 1:57 pm

      Your class will love this book!

      Reply
    9. Linda Kamp says

      August 25 at 1:59 pm

      The easy button is a big red button from Staples that, when you push it, says "That was easy!" I have it sitting next to my computers in the classroom and when students get a 100% on an AR quiz, they push the easy button and the class calls out, "Way to go!". My class loves it!

      Reply
    10. Kathryn Schmitt says

      June 6 at 4:23 pm

      I love “You’re Finally Here”!! Fabulous plan that I’d love to purchase. I checked Amazon to purchase the book. It’s priced between $150.00 and over $700.00!! Is it out of print and that valuable???? Please advise.

      Reply
      • Linda says

        June 6 at 4:52 pm

        Hi Kathryn!
        Yes, the book is still in print. The publisher did a reprint in December and it sold out immediately on Amazon. It is still available on Amazon Canada and Indigo Books though. If you scroll to the bottom of this post I have links to both online stores where you can find the book. Both are in Canada and the Canadian Dollar to US Dollar exchange rate works in our favor! I recently ordered some additional copies and the shipping took about 8 days, so not too bad. Thanks so much for asking!

        Reply
    11. Barb says

      August 3 at 11:18 am

      I’ve never even heard of this book! But it looks so much fun and so do your lesson plans.
      Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
      • Linda says

        August 6 at 2:17 pm

        You’re welcome Barb! It’s the most perfect book for the first day of school!

        Reply
    12. Katrina Turner says

      February 1 at 2:46 pm

      Thanks for these great activities which I have purchased – especially love that you included Australian class years! Quick question- how do you copy onto black paper? Can you see it? I haven’t tried this before.
      Also the linked youtube story is no longer available but the trailer is- found it by another video so all good- just wanted to let you know 🙂
      Thanks from Australia,
      Kat

      Reply
      • Linda says

        February 2 at 9:55 am

        Hi Kat,
        You are so welcome! Believe it or not, you can actually see the lines when you copy onto black construction paper. YouTube videos seem to come and go but the trailer is adorable! Have a wonderful new school year and I hope your students enjoy the book!

        Reply

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