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

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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:

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.

Lunch Box Templates #2:

Lunch Box Templates #3:

Lunch Box Templates #4:

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 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?

Secure payment method through Paypal. Use your credit card or Paypal account. Download link is emailed to you today! Print as many copies as you want. Save and reuse this fun project forever!

MATCHING APPLE TEACHING RESOURCES SET:

Apple Writing Templates: Flip Book

Students Write an Essay or Story Inside
Apple Templates That Form a Flip Book

These two sets of apple teaching resources would look great
displayed together on a Back To School bulletin board.

Go To: Apple Writing Templates

Click on the book covers below to view
the fun, unique, and extra large projects that I have
designed for these popular novels and picture books.

Amelia Bedelia First Day of School Herman Parish (2 Projects)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl (4 Projects)

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens (2 Projects)

The Enormous Crocodile Roald Dahl (6 Projects)

Esio Trot Roald Dahl (4 Projects)

First Day Hooray Nancy Poydar (1 Project)

First Day Jitters Julie Danneberg (1 Project)

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Roald Dahl (1 Project)

The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein (1 Project)

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Mark Teague (1 Project)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dr. Seuss (1 Project)

Shiloh Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (1 Project)

Stellaluna Janell Cannon (1 Project)

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving Dav Pilkey (1 Project)

The Way to Start a Day Byrd Baylor (2 Project)

The Whipping Boy Sid Fleischman (2 Projects)

Click on the book covers to see the fun, unique, and extra large projects that are available for each book.