If you’ve ever gone looking for first week of school lesson plans for your dual language classroom and found everything in English only, or found something in Spanish that didn’t quite fit your classroom, you know the search.
This is the plan I built instead: five days of read-aloud-anchored lessons on feelings, names, classroom community, growth mindset, and what it means to be bilingual, all ready to teach from day one.
Why the First Week Needs Its Own Plan in a Dual Language Classroom
Between meet the teacher night, setting up your room, and a dozen back-to-school meetings, the first week of school is already the hardest week to plan for. In a dual language classroom, it’s harder still, because the read-alouds and SEL lessons that work in a general education classroom weren’t written with your students in mind.
The first week isn’t about diving into academics. It’s about helping students feel safe, understand your routines, and start building a classroom community, in both languages, from day one. That takes authentic Spanish read-alouds and lessons that speak to what your students are actually navigating: a new classroom, a new routine, and for many of them, moving between two languages every day.
I couldn’t find a full week of lessons that did that. So I built my own, anchored in Spanish read-alouds and written specifically for a K-2 dual language classroom.
What’s Inside the First Week of School Lesson Plans
This is a full five-day scope and sequence, one lesson per day, each built around a Spanish read-aloud and a clear “yo puedo” objective. Here’s the week:
- Day 1: Our 1st Day of School Feelings, using ¡Qué nervios! El primer día de escuela by Julie Dannenberg. Students name and write how they feel on the first day, and you can turn their work into a class book.
- Day 2: Name Poems, using Soy René, el niño by René Colato Laínez. Students write an acrostic poem with their name, or create a self-portrait with a math connection sentence frame.
- Day 3: Classroom Community, using Nuestra clase es una familia by Shannon Olsen. As a class, students build an anchor chart about caring for their classmates.
- Day 4: Growth Mindset, using La niña que nunca cometía errores by Gary Rubenstein and Mark Pett. Students describe something challenging they want to learn this year, knowing there will be mistakes along the way.
- Day 5: Bilingual Pride, using La vaca que decía oink by Bernard Most. Students create a craft about their family members and the languages they use with each one.
Each lesson includes the read-aloud, standards, the objective in Spanish, and before, during, and after reading steps, so you can open the plan and teach; no extra prep required.
How to Use This Plan Your First Week
Morning read-aloud: Use each day’s book as your whole-group read-aloud to open the day, so the lesson’s theme carries through everything else you do.
SEL and community building: Let Days 1, 3, and 5 do double duty as your classroom community and SEL routine for the week, not just a reading lesson.
Writing samples: Save the Day 1 feelings pages and Day 2 name poems. They make an easy keepsake or a first data point on where your students are with writing in Spanish.
Family connection: Day 5’s language craft is a natural one to send home or share at your next family event, since it has students reflecting on the languages they use with the people closest to them.
Sub-ready backup: Because each lesson is fully written out, this plan also works as an easy left-behind if you’re out during the first week.
However you use it, the goal is the same: your first week builds routines and relationships in both languages, without you having to build the lessons from scratch.
Download Your Free First Week of School Lesson Plans
- 1st Week of School Lessons – Scope and Sequence
- Lesson 1 – Our 1st Day of School Feelings (lesson plan)
- Lesson 1 – Lesson Slides
- Lesson 1 – Student Worksheets
- Lesson 2 – Nuestros Nombres Son Importantes (lesson plan)
- Lesson 2 – Lesson Slides
- Lesson 2 – Student Worksheets
- Lesson 3 – Nuestra Clase es Una Familia (lesson plan) [members only]
- Lesson 3 – Student Worksheets [members only]
- Lesson 4 – Todos Cometemos Errores (lesson plan) [members only]
- Lesson 4 – Student Worksheets [members only]
- Lesson 5 – Somos Bilingües (lesson plan) [members only]
- Lesson 5 – Student Worksheets [members only]
Want the full first 2 weeks of school planned?
And if you want to keep the momentum going, the second week of school is already planned for you too, inside the Biliteracy Builders Membership. Along with hundreds of other ready-to-teach resources for your dual language classroom all year long. Try it for $19/month or $170/year for full access at biliteracybuilders.com/join.
Biliteracy Builders is built by a dual language teacher, for dual language teachers. Every resource comes from someone who has lived experience in the classroom.
Looking 👀 for More Dual Language Materials? Check these out!😍
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