How Smart Teachers Prep for an Easy First Day Back from Spring Break [Episode 248]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 248 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:05
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:14
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:29
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:36
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are walking you through what a soft landing first day back from spring break actually looks like, and sharing a teacher approved tip for protecting your first afternoon back.

Heidi 0:51
But let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:58
Okay, this week, try adding some rhythm to your classroom. So this could look like call and response chants or a clapping pattern for transitions, a quick song to kick off the morning, anything like that. Rhythmic group activities strengthen social bonds, and they support emotional regulation, and they reduce stress.

Heidi 1:18
And you get all of that from something that takes like 30 seconds.

Emily 1:22
Yeah.

Heidi 1:23
If you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star rating? It’s one of the main ways that new listeners find us, and it’s really so helpful.

Emily 1:33
Okay, coming back from spring break is wonderful, right up until Sunday night, when you realize you have no idea what you are teaching Monday morning.

Heidi 1:43
Yeah. And then that Monday arrives and the kids walk in like they have never been to school before in all of their lives.

Emily 1:50
Yeah.

Heidi 1:50
So it ends up that all of you are just doing your best to make it through to that final bell.

Emily 1:54
And then once the kids finally do walk out the door, you are so wrecked. You’re tired from trying to hold everything together, and you probably are facing a mountain of work to get everything back on track.

Heidi 2:08
Well, maybe that’s not how it goes for you guys, but that was definitely our experience of post spring break teaching for a long time. The idea of preparing for the transition back from spring break mode to full time classroom mode, like that wasn’t even on our radar.

Emily 2:24
No. And part of that was because by spring, who has the energy to be that strategic in your planning? And part of it was because what we considered preparing meant working through the break, which we didn’t want to do.

Heidi 2:39
I mean, honestly, we did spend a lot of spring break hours in our classrooms, because like in our mind, the alternative was just scrambling on that Monday morning.

Emily 2:49
Yeah, and that is so exhausting in a whole different way. But now that we know a little more, we understand that it’s not an either or situation. You are not stuck choosing between a highly structured day that requires working through spring break, or a loosey goosey day that you’re just trying to survive.

Heidi 3:06
Yes, you can have a productive first day back without sacrificing your energy or your free time. All it takes is just a little bit of strategy.

Emily 3:16
Yeah, you really can have it all, guys, we’ll show you.

Emily 3:19
Okay, so we’re going to consider this first day back your soft landing day. It gives enough structure that everyone has what they need to settle back into the routine, but it doesn’t take so much work that you’ll be left with a huge to do list. And in this episode, we’ll help you think through what that soft landing needs to look like in your particular classroom.

Heidi 3:42
We have talked about the logistics side of this. Episode 181 is all about finding pockets of prep before you break, and episode 186 covers the five things to do before you walk out the door. So today is the next piece in this process. Once you have done that prep, what are you actually going to do with it on day one?

Emily 4:03
To make it easy, we’re breaking the day into three phases, the reunion, which is your first hour or so, the bridge, which is your mid morning, and the re-anchor, which gets you through the afternoon. Each one has a specific job, and when you plan with those jobs in mind, the day has a shape that works for everyone in the room.

Heidi 4:22
Okay, let’s take a look at phase one, or the reunion. Plan on this taking your first hour so. The goal is getting kids reconnected with you, with each other and with the classroom before you ask anything academic of them.

Emily 4:37
And if you’ve ever tried to launch a math lesson at 8am on the first day back, you already know why the order here matters. You got to start with the reunion.

Heidi 4:45
Yeah. So a good first day actually starts right at the door. The kids haven’t even come in yet. Greet your students intentionally as they come in, you know, with a high five, eye contact, and a genuine, I’m so glad to see you. It just sets the tone for everything that follows. Even if this isn’t a routine that you normally have time for in the mornings, and we totally get it if that’s the case, but try to make an effort to include it on that first day back.

Emily 5:11
If you want to make the return a little more special, consider having something ready at students’ seat. It could be a little sticky note that says, I’m happy to see you, a sweet message on the board or some gentle music playing. Anything that signals that this is a warm place and you are excited to be with them again.

Heidi 5:29
Well, even if maybe you wouldn’t mind another week or two of break.

Emily 5:33
Hey, they don’t have to know what you really feel inside. This is the outside feelings.

Heidi 5:39
Yeah, we’ll just make it our little secret.

Emily 5:41
Yes. So after you’ve figured out your warm welcome, you will want some kind of structured reconnection activity.

Heidi 5:48
So I think a go-to activity for this transition time is, Tell us what you did during your break. That seems like it might be a good way to recognize each student and help them settle in, but there are a couple of reasons why you might want to rethink that approach. First, that kind of question really highlights inequalities.

Emily 6:06
Yeah, if one kid went on a cruise and another spent the week at home, that gap lands hard at exactly the moment you’re trying to build a connection.

Heidi 6:14
And the second reason you might want to avoid that question is for kids who are already finding that transition back to school really hard. Dwelling on the fun that just ended can actually make your job harder. It tends to increase oppositional behavior.

Emily 6:29
Yeah, we don’t want that at 8:15 on a Monday.

Heidi 6:32
No. So use forward focus prompts instead. A quick partner share works really well. Give them one specific thing to share, like one word to describe their break, or one thing they ate, or one thing they are glad to be back for.

Emily 6:46
Of course, the kid who went on a cruise deserves to be excited about that, but maybe the right format to share that excitement is by writing about it and not explaining it to the whole class at your morning meeting.

Heidi 6:57
Yes, or you can just talk to the students about their break as they come in the door. That allows for reconnection with you without spotlighting the differences in student experiences.

Emily 7:07
You can also lean into silliness. Ask everyone to share one genuinely boring detail from their break. Lead with your own. Maybe you washed socks and had a ham sandwich and lost your phone in the couch cushions.

Heidi 7:21
Kids really love hearing the mundane details of their teachers’ lives.

Emily 7:25
Yeah, it’s so funny how everything that you do outside of school feels like such a mystery to them, and when they hear you share something boring, it takes all the pressure off of them to come up with something interesting.

Heidi 7:38
Now, if you are already someone who does a regular morning meeting with your class, you probably don’t need to plan a separate connection activity, because your meeting is already doing that work.

Emily 7:47
But if you’re up for it, you can make your normal meeting routine feel a little special. You could revisit a favorite class game, bring back your class cheer, or add a new component to your meeting, like a daily affirmation that you have students repeat.

Heidi 8:00
This is the perfect time of year to sprinkle in that little bit of spark. By now, students are really comfortable with your classroom structure, but something small, like a new addition to your morning meeting routine just makes everything feel fresh at a time when the staleness can really start to feel heavy.

Emily 8:17
Okay, by now, you have warmly greeted everyone and had a chance to reconnect. Next up, you want to try having students do a quick reset of the room. Ask them to tidy their desks or clean out backpacks and folders. The movement wakes up the little bodies that might still be a little groggy, and resetting the space helps kids feel like they belong there again.

Heidi 8:39
To keep this from becoming chaotic, keep it structured. Make a specific list of things you want students to do. It’s even better if you have photos that you can show so they know exactly what you mean.

Emily 8:50
And here’s a little tip from an old pro, have a second list of classroom tasks ready for your fast finishers, or for the kids whose desks don’t need as much attention. This could be things like testing which glue sticks still work, straightening the class library, doing a deep clean of individual whiteboards, or sorting through the lost and found. This is when, when we were kids, it would be clapping the erasers outside.

Heidi 9:16
It always felt like a treat.

Emily 9:18
Yep.

Heidi 9:20
And that list of extra tasks is also going to be extremely useful when it is time to pack up your classroom at the end of the year. Just a little heads up.

Emily 9:28
Yeah, keep that list handy.

Heidi 9:31
Once your classroom is reset, move into something simple and familiar. On these transition days, one idea we always champion is assigning students independent work they can do without very much instruction from you.

Emily 9:43
And there are so many benefits of this. For one, it gives a feeling of immediate success. When kids accomplish something straightforward right away, it settles the room before you increase the demands.

Heidi 9:56
Plus, it frees you up to start to tackle some of your own tasks. If the kids are busy with a review packet, you can finally look at that overflowing email inbox that you hopefully have not checked in a week.

Emily 10:06
Or you could start to plan tomorrow’s lessons. That will help you know exactly what tasks to focus on during your prep time.

Heidi 10:14
Okay, so on your first morning back, think about four things: a warm welcome, a moment of reconnection, a room reset, and simple academics.

Emily 10:23
My own sequence on the first day back was actually a little different from what we’ve described. I went from the warm welcome straight into simple academics, which in my class was morning work. It was a familiar routine, and the kids knew exactly what to do without needing much from me, and it helped get them settled right away. Then came morning meeting and our chance to really reconnect. And then I rounded out the reunion time with a classroom tidy.

Heidi 10:46
So it can be really flexible. Do what works for you and your class. The order isn’t rigid. What matters is that you’ve covered all of the pieces before you try to move back into your full academic schedule.

Emily 10:57
And then by mid morning, you’re probably ready to start waking up that academic thinking. And don’t worry, you’re just easing back in. And so we’re going to call this the bridge.

Heidi 11:07
I love it. And the best tool here is low stakes review. You know, can’t say enough about that.

Emily 11:13
If we had a dollar for every time we talked about that.

Heidi 11:16
Seriously. We’d have $2…no. So think about something that gets their brains working with content that they already know before you’re asking them to take in anything new. This could be playing a Kahoot review game, having students draw concept maps about what they remember on a topic, or letting partners quiz each other.

Emily 11:36
Now, while review is so important to helping your students consolidate their understanding, it serves a bonus purpose for you the tired teacher. That’s because review is easy to plan in advance.

Heidi 11:48
Yes, this is so important. If you are trying to avoid working during your break, you need to start planning for your return before the break hits, right? But you might not know exactly where you’re going to land in your math or literacy units before the break, which makes planning new content for the return kind of tricky.

Emily 12:06
But if you just decide now to spend mid morning reviewing something from six weeks ago, you can plan that right away.

Heidi 12:12
So after your review activity, think of some other low effort academic tasks that will engage your students. This could be a great time for something like a reader’s theater, or you could pick up some new books to read aloud.

Emily 12:24
But whatever you plan, aim to keep your lesson block shorter than usual. Add a movement break between them. This is not the day to launch a new unit or give a major assessment. Save that for later in the week, when everyone’s stamina has had a chance to rebuild, including yours.

Heidi 12:40
Especially yours.

Heidi 12:42
All right, you made it to lunch. You started the day with a warm reunion and then transitioned into some light academic work. By the afternoon, you can move back to your normal schedule and your familiar structures.

Emily 12:54
Just continue to keep the cognitive demand low. Activities like centers, partner work, or anything students already know how to do will help everyone thrive. Familiar formats reduce friction and let you reinforce expectations without a lot of logistics.

Heidi 13:10
And if you work with small groups during a normal school day, we are giving you permission right now to consider skipping them on this first day back. We promise your kids will be fine.

Emily 13:20
We know some teachers want to get back to their normal routine as fast as possible, and pulling small groups helps you feel like things are on track. Then, for sure, go for it. But if you’re on the fence, you can totally skip it. We won’t tell.

Heidi 13:32
Yeah, let the kids work independently, and then use that time to plan the rest of the week. Consider it a pocket of prep.

Emily 13:38
Love a bonus pocket of prep. And do not feel guilty about this. You are meeting their needs and taking care of yourself at the same time, and that’s a huge win.

Heidi 13:46
Now, at some point in the afternoon, it’s a good idea to take 15 or 20 minutes to revisit a few classroom procedures. This is how you’re going to stay ahead of the problems that crop up this time of year.

Emily 13:57
You can make this review feel like a game instead of a chore. Start by having students brainstorm your class procedures. Write everything they come up with on the board, then give pairs or small groups a positive outcome, like, this procedure helps us be kind, or this procedure helps us learn. And ask them to find a procedure from the list that fits, then have a class discussion about what they picked and why. Keep things moving quickly so no one gets bored.

Heidi 14:23
Or you could flip this around. Ask students to brainstorm the benefits of a specific procedure, like, how does following all the steps for unpacking your backpack help our class? This approach reframes procedures as something that benefits everyone, instead of rules that the teacher has just imposed.

Emily 14:40
If you have time, you can really lean into the game element. Secretly assign each group a procedure to act out charade style. Suggest that the groups choose some students to model it correctly and some to model it incorrectly.

Heidi 14:53
They love that. The moment you give kids permission to do something wrong on purpose, you know, engagement just goes through the roof.

Emily 14:59
Yeah, just make sure you’ve got your attention signal ready to calm things down if they get a little too enthusiastic.

Heidi 15:06
Yes, you know that will happen. Before the day ends, give students something specific to look forward to tomorrow, a new book that you’ll start, a class challenge that you might be launching, or something coming up next week. You want to end the day with some forward momentum.

Emily 15:22
Then close with a quick connection circle. We talked about this back in episode 186 so if you haven’t heard that one, go back and listen. Here’s a quick version you can use right away. Gather students in a circle and give them a moment to silently reflect. Then offer a few prompts. What felt easy today? What felt tricky? What’s one thing you want to remember tomorrow?

Heidi 15:42
Trust us, as people who have been there, the kids need those guiding questions. Without some support, the reflection tends to go sideways pretty fast.

Emily 15:49
Yeah, I can hear the I don’t knows, and I can’t see the blank stares, we’re just now in my memory. Have kids give a thumbs up when they know what they want to say so you’re not waiting forever for each person, and then go around the circle and let everyone share a response.

Heidi 16:05
And obviously the format with this is going to look a little different in fourth or fifth grade than it does in first, but the idea works the same at any level. You want to close with something that marks your class as a community. If you have a class cheer or a song, you can use that now, or, you know, try a new send off ritual.

Emily 16:21
Keep the whole thing to 10 or 15 minutes at most. It doesn’t need to be a deep debrief. It’s just helping the day end with a sense of completion, rather than just running out of time.

Heidi 16:31
Okay, so let’s pull it all together. Your first day back has three phases. Phase one, the reunion. Plan a warm welcome that fosters reconnection.

Emily 16:41
Phase two, the bridge, is about waking up academic thinking without overwhelming anyone. Think low stakes review, a read aloud and shorter lesson blocks than usual.

Heidi 16:52
And in phase three, the re-anchor, it’s about restoring your normal rhythms with low cognitive demand. Stick with what’s familiar, revisit a few procedures in a fun way. Give your students something to look forward to, and then close with the moment of connection.

Emily 17:07
If you want some more spring break prep tips, make sure to go back to Episode 181 and 186 for some guidance. We promise that the first day back runs a whole lot smoother if you plan before you leave, rather than figuring it out at your desk on Monday morning.

Heidi 17:23
Yeah, ask us how we know about that.

Emily 17:25
Plus, then you can really enjoy your spring break, because you know you have a plan for when you get back.

Emily 17:30
If this kind of discussion is helpful for you, come join us in the Teacher Approved Club. Each month we focus on how to manage that month’s particular challenges with a targeted strategy and a brand new resource to help you take it to your classroom and put it to work. You can find the link to the teacher Approved Club in the show notes.

Heidi 17:49
And if you haven’t listened to episodes 181 and 186 yet, those are the perfect companion episodes to this one. Episode 181 is about finding pockets of prep before the break, and 186 covers the five things to do before you walk out the door. Together the three of these episodes give you the full picture.

Emily 18:07
And we would love to hear how you are planning your soft start. Come join the conversation in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily 18:14
Now for our teacher approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is about protecting your first afternoon back. Heidi, tell us more about this one.

Heidi 18:27
Yes, this is so important. We focus so much on students that we often forget to prioritize our own needs. You probably know exactly how this plays out. You make it through the first day, the kids leave, and suddenly you’re staring down everything that you pushed aside before the break, the emails, grading, planning for the rest of the week, and your instinct might be just to tackle it all at once.

Emily 18:48
Which is a great way to end your first day back completely depleted.

Heidi 18:53
Yeah, exactly. So instead, before the kids leave that day, make a short list of only what absolutely must be done before tomorrow. We know you’ve got a lot that needs attention, but for right now, just worry about tomorrow’s essentials.

Emily 19:08
And then do those things and stop.

Heidi 19:11
And that’s the whole tip. Do those things and stop. Leave the grading. Leave the catch up planning. You’re probably running at about 50% capacity right now, and you will make better decisions about all of it tomorrow, once your routines are re established.

Emily 19:25
The other piece of this is avoiding scheduling meetings or extra obligations on the first afternoon if you have any control over it. It’s really not the ideal time for high level decision making.

Heidi 19:35
Yeah, but you know, unfortunately, you might not get much say about when the principal decides to schedule a staff meeting, but make it your goal to end the first day with some momentum intact. Don’t try to compensate for the whole week off in one afternoon.

Emily 19:49
Because if you burn yourself out on day one, the rest of the week gets harder, not easier, and we’ve worked too hard on that first day plan to let the afternoon undo it.

Heidi 19:59
Okay to wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 20:06
I’m giving extra credit to the book I just read called Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins. So this is a unique money book about saving you from over saving and under living. So I love how he talks about ways you can use your money throughout your life to make memories and have experiences while you’re young, especially, instead of saving all your money for when you’re too old to enjoy it. So I wouldn’t necessarily say you should follow everything he says to the T here, but it’s a really different way to think about your money and your saving and retirement and all of that. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it. So it’s definitely an interesting one to read.

Heidi 20:47
I have to check that out. That sounds really interesting. It’s a different reframe to think of money as a resource to support the life you want to have, instead of supporting the kind of life you want to have 40 years from now.

Emily 21:00
Yeah, he talks about how, you know, it’s the modern mentality, maybe not even just modern, but you know, we think only about retirement. We can’t wait to retire one day, and we want to make sure we can live super comfortably when we retire, which, of course, we want to do. But most people are sacrificing experiences and quality of life before that when they don’t necessarily have to, so they’re over saving for retirement, when they don’t necessarily need to save that much.

Emily 21:26
And he shares some ways that you can kind of get a good idea of what you would need to save, because that’s the thing is, it’s like, well, if you’re scared of the unknown, it’s that feeling, well, how would I know how much I’ll need? I need to save a lot just in case, because you don’t know what’s gonna happen, but he has some ways you can kind of get an idea of how long you might live and what kind of risk you might be at, but also things you can do to mitigate some of that risk, things I like did not even know were a thing. So yeah, so very interesting read.

Heidi 21:56
I’ll have to check that out.

Emily 21:58
And what are you giving us credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 22:00
Well, my extra credit goes to flying wish paper. This is something that we have done on New Year’s Eve for the past few years. But you don’t have to limit yourself to New Year’s Eve. I think this could be a fun end of the school year or a birthday tradition. So how this works is you have everyone write a little wish on this special paper, and you kind of have to curve the paper into a cylinder, and then you light it on fire.

Emily 22:24
So do this outside, if you’re gonna do this.

Heidi 22:27
Although we’ve done it in the kitchen plenty of times.

Emily 22:30
But maybe we should clarify, don’t do this in your classroom. We’re not saying to light things on fire in your classroom.

Heidi 22:36
But it could be a fun family tradition, or maybe you want to get together with some co workers for the last day of school hurrah, and just let everyone make a wish for their break. It’s an easy way to add a little bit of magic to a gathering and kind of elevate the connection and give it some meaning, which I think is something that we’re all chasing these days. We want to feel more connected, and this is a fun, easy way to do that. And I did put a link to the paper in the show notes.

Emily 23:00
Yeah, it’s a really memorable thing to do. And if you have any little pyros, like at my house, my 10 year old was just desperate, begging to light everybody’s wish paper on fire because she was enjoying it so much.

Heidi 23:12
And catching the ash as it came.

Emily 23:14
Yes, which then crumbles it everywhere and makes a big mess. So I do not recommend that in your house, but it is super fun.

Heidi 23:23
That is it for today’s episode. Go ahead and map out your three phases before you leave for spring break. Think about your reunion, your bridge and your re-anchor. And protect that first afternoon. Make your short list, do those things and then go home.

Heidi 23:39
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 23:42
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 23:49
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 23:56
Bye.