Read to your students. Most children love to listen to an adult read aloud, and books are a great teaching tool. One terrific and popular book that you can read to the students sometime during the first week is "The Kissing Hand," by Audrey Penn. The story features a raccoon who is scared to go to school on the first day. Many of the students will relate to the story, and it may make the timid children in your classroom feel better about going to school. Another good ice-breaker is a silly story about school, such as "Morris the Moose Goes to School," by B. Wiseman. Your students will be delighted by Morris' antics, and even the most nervous student will relax and smile at the silly moose.
Put on a puppet show. Prekindergarten is more about learning social and school skills than learning the alphabet, although many schools do teach prereading or even reading skills in prekindergarten. The first week is important for setting up behavioral expectations in the students.
A great way to illustrate good behaviors is to use puppets to model good and bad choices. Choose one puppet to make bad choices, and the other to make good choices. Focus on things that prekindergarten students are likely to do, such as tattling, pushing in line and taking things without asking. Have the students "teach" the bad puppet how to make good choices. The puppets can also model inside and outside voices, classroom songs (such as songs to sing while you clean up the classroom), how to sit still on the floor, how to listen to the teacher and how to raise a hand when a question is asked.
Create some art for the classroom and to take home. Children love to create, and the parents will be thrilled to see what their children have done during the first week.
Set out precut, simple paper figures of children. Print each child's name on one figure, and see which children can "find" their figure by recognizing their name. Then, have the children color their figures. They can color hair, eyes and clothing. Use the figures for a bulletin board display.
A good activity to send home is to make an "I did it!" badge or necklace celebrating the first day or week of school. String dried macaroni on some yarn and attach a printed paper badge that says, "I had a great first day!" You could also glue the printed circle on a frozen-juice-can lid. (Let the students color it first, if you wish.) Then, use hot glue to attach a pin, and pin it to the students' shirts.