It was the first week of school and I was in the middle of an elementary math lesson on the carpet. I had carefully planned the academic routine—modeling a problem, guiding students through the steps, and setting them up for independent practice. But mid-lesson, one of my third graders popped up, headed to their backpack, and pulled out a snack. Within seconds, the inevitable chorus began: “I’m hungry, too!” Instantly, the math lesson was derailed. I realized that while I had a clear academic routine for teaching math, I hadn’t yet established the classroom routines that made learning possible.

Moments like this reminded me that, even though the pressures of pacing guides and keeping up with content requirements are real, they aren’t the indicator of a strong start on their own. A strong start begins with predictable routines and structures that create the conditions for meaningful learning. It looks like students knowing how to move through their day, where to put their lunchboxes, and how to join a circle on the carpet without a reminder. And while pacing guides and standards are always pressing, the real work of the first weeks is slowing down to teach the little things. Routines and transitions don’t just happen—they have to be named, modeled, and practiced again and again (and yes, it’s exhausting!). But that investment is what makes deep learning possible.

It was my second year of teaching third grade when I realized I would need a plan for teaching routines in order to start the year strong. I sat down and created a list of every routine, both in the classroom and schoolwide.  After 20 years in the classroom, the list of routines is long—and the steps to teach each are very detailed. Every August, I used the list to plan for the first month of school. Some routines could be woven into content and others needed their own dedicated lesson.  Some were obvious, like how to line up. Others didn’t seem important until they interrupted the flow of learning, like what to do when your pencil breaks. Once you start naming them, you realize there are dozens of “little things” that, when left untaught, can stop learning in its tracks. 

Listing out your classroom routines is the first step. Just like with academics, students benefit from scaffolds and supports that make routines clear. Each routine should be explicitly taught. Sentence frames and starters, for example, work beautifully for routines.  Before heading to the carpet, I have students turn to a partner and say, “When I go to the carpet, I…” using ideas from a class chart on how to transition from a desk to the carpet area. Introducing A/B partners during the teaching of classroom routines means that later, when you use them for content, the structure is already familiar. Embedding language into routines not only reinforces expectations but also builds oral language skills along the way.

Of course, even the most detailed planning doesn’t cover every single routine. One year, during the first week of school, I felt great about how smoothly our day was running. At dismissal, I put up the End of the Day routine visual on the board and watched students move through each step with confidence—until we got to step four that said: lunchbox in backpack. That’s when the class shouted:  “Our lunchboxes!” In that instant, I realized I had never taught the helper-of-the-day what to do with our rolling lunch cart, which was still sitting in the cafeteria. Moments like this are inevitable— and they’re opportunities. When you realize you missed teaching a routine, write it down immediately, add it to a lesson for the next day, and dedicate time to teaching it and practicing it. 

After about a month of explicitly teaching routines, I’d see it: students moving around the classroom with smooth transitions, the stop-and-start of the early weeks finally fading, which can feel impossible at first.  Instead of spending precious minutes redirecting or reteaching routines, I had gained back time for real instruction. That time wasn’t about pushing faster through lessons. It was about creating conditions for learning. When a substitute teacher can step in and the day runs smoothly, or when you can work with small groups while the rest of the class carries on independently, you see it clearly: the first weeks of teaching the little things make the rest of the year transformative.