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First Day of School Episode

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"First day of school! First day of school! Wake up, wake up, come on! First day of school!"
— Nemo, Finding Nemo

Logically, everyone who has been to school has had a first day, and this is when that happens.

Sometimes, it's their first day at a particular school and they're a New Transfer Student, while other times, it's a young child and it's their absolute first day of school.

If it's a child, they may be nervous, or reluctant to go to school, but will generally learn An Aesop about how school is important and/or fun. They may not even want to leave afterwards. It's complete opposite is the "Last Day of School" Plot, which revolves around a character's last day of school. Also contrast Freshman Fears, which focuses about the struggles of students at their first year, and Senior Year Struggles, where the focus is the end of the last year.

Naturally, in works that focus around kids going to school, this makes for a good Welcome Episode.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: The 1st episode of season 2 has BoBoiBoy's first day at Rintis Middle School, since he just moved to Rintis Island to live with his grandfather. He already has a good reputation as a superhero and well-mannered boy (much to Fang's jealousy), even though his first day isn't very flattering with his hand-me-down uniform from his grandfather, and the old man insisting on spending the first day with him.
  • Masha and the Bear: Episode 11 is called "First Day of School".

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Partially into Allergic. The school boundaries have recently changed, so Maggie now has to go to Golden River Elementary instead of her old school—and none of her other friends were transferred, making her the New Transfer Student.
  • Robin (1993): Tim Drake's first day at Brentwood and then Louis E. Grieve Memorial high schools are shown where he's being shown around the campus by other students. The third time this looks like it's going to happen at John Wayne High in Bludhaven, but Tim leaves before his first day is up because he doesn't have the patience for his new classmate's ridiculous questions about the gang war his girlfriend died in, especially since his father was just murdered as well.
  • Steven Universe: Too Cool for School focuses on a story where Steven attends school with Connie. Note that, in the main series, Steven has always been homeschooled.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • Finding Nemo begins with a clownfish named Nemo having his first day of school and getting kidnapped by a scuba diver after he takes a dare to touch a boat.
  • Inside Out has Riley, an 11-year-old girl, switch schools after her move as a minor part of the plot.
  • Spider Man Into The Spiderverse opens on Miles Morales's first day at Brooklyn Visions Academy, a Boarding School where he doesn't feel like he fits in.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Adventure Annie Goes To Kindergarten, has a Badass Cape wearer's first day of school.
  • Ally-saurus & the First Day of School has a dinosaur-obsessed Cloudcuckoolander girl's first day of kindergarten.
  • Amanda Panda Quits Kindergarten, in which Amanda thinks she knows how her first day of kindergarten should go, but her expectations are thwarted at every turn.
  • Amelia Bedelia's First Day Of School; and yes, she's still as Literal-Minded as ever.
  • A Place Called Kindergarten has a farmboy describing the first day of school to his barnyard animals.
  • A Bad Case of Stripes starts off with Camilla's first day at school.
  • Barbie:
    • My First Day At School has a little girl describing how she overcame her worries about starting preschool when she discovered that Barbie was her teacher and made a new friend.
    • The First Day Of School, in which Barbie and her sisters help Chelsea deal with this.
  • The Bear With Sticky Paws Goes to School has a human girl attend a school for bears.
  • The Berenstain Bears Go To School, for Sister Bear. It was also adapted into an episode of the 2003 animated series for PBS.
  • A Big Day for Migs stars a Shrinking Violet mouse's first day of school.
  • Bob and Flo has two penguins' first day of preschool.
  • The Buttons Family: First Day at Playschool is this for a girl named Cherry.
  • Captain Freddy Counts Down to School involves a first day of school in space.
  • Chu's First Day Of School, starring the titular sneezing panda.
  • Clifford the Big Red Dog has "Clifford's First School Day", starring puppy Clifford.
  • Chrysanthemum has the titular character reaching school-age and becoming a target of Alpha Bitch Victoria's teasing because of her long name.
  • Dad's First Day, in which it's the father's first day of school.
  • The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten has the mother's first day of school.
  • In one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, Manny has his first day at preschool and gets afraid because his classmates are in Halloween costumes.
  • Dilly The Dinosaur has two stories like this: In "Dilly Goes to School", Dilly starts school, and in "Dilly Goes to Big School", he moves to primary school.
  • The Dinosaur Vs book "Dinosaur vs. School" is about Dinosaur having his first day of preschool.
  • Don't Eat the Teacher! has Sammy the shark's first day at school. As you can go by the title, you can guess what he almost does.
  • Fancy Nancy: "JoJo's First Day Jitters".
  • Fiona the Pig's Big Day has Fiona starting to go to school.
  • First Day Jitters has Sarah Jane Hartwell being scared and being reluctant to start over at a new school.
  • The children's book First Week at Cow School focuses on a chicken named Daisy having trouble at her first day of school because, due to being the adopted daughter of a cow, she attended a school made just for cows.
  • First Graders From Mars Episode 1: Horus's Horrible Day has Horus adjusting to how First Grade no longer has the luxuries from Martiangarten.
  • Frankie Stein Starts School has the son of Frankenstein attend his first night of school, and unlike all the other kids, he isn’t scary at all.
  • Franklin Goes To School has Franklin having all sorts of emotions about starting school.
  • The first Franny K. Stein book Lunch Walks Among Us focuses on Franny attending a new school and trying to fit in with the normal children who aren't mad scientists like she is.
  • Froggy Goes To School, starring the titular dorky frog boy.
  • Go to School, Little Monster (illustrated by Bonnie Leick), which has Little Monster going to school for the very first time.
  • The Grandmother: In Chapter XIII, Barunka and the two boys are starting school; the youngest, Adelka, still stays at home. The Grandmother accompanies them part of the way, giving them advice and instructions and seeing them off on this stage in their lives; she picks them up at the end of the day and discusses with the children how their first day went.
  • Grover Goes to School, a book based on Sesame Street, focuses on Grover's first day of school.
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone focuses on Harry Potter and several other children with magical abilities, including Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, being enrolled at a Wizarding School called Hogwarts.
  • In Heather Has Two Mommies, Heather goes to her first day of school. She learns that other kids don't have two mommies like her, but that all types of families are equally good.
  • How To Get Your Teacher Ready focuses on the teacher getting ready for her first day of teaching.
  • If You Take a Mouse to School is this for the mouse.
  • Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? has a buffalo's first day at a human school.
  • Jumping Into Kindergarten stars a kangaroo's first day.
  • Junie B. Jones:
    • "Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus" has Junie B.'s first day of kindergarten.
    • "Junie B., First Grader: At Last!" has Junie B.'s first day of Grade 1.
  • Kindergarten, Here I Come!, which starts from the first day and follows through a whole school year.
  • Kindergarten Rocks! has a boy named Dexter claiming his Companion Cube, Rufus, is the one scared instead.
  • The Kissing Hand has Chester Raccoon's first day.
  • Leo/Lola's Words Disappeared, which is about selective mutism.
  • Little Critter: First Day Of School is this for Little Critter.
  • The Little Princess book "I Don't Want to Go to School" focuses on the four-year-old princess's first day at school.
  • Llama Llama Misses Mama has the titular character's first day at preschool.
  • Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come! stars Henry's first day. There is a sequel book called First Grade, Here I Come!.
  • Maya/Milo, The Brave!: I Am Ready For School focusing on anxiety management.
  • Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten, for the teacher and her 26 students.
  • Miss Mingo and the First Day of School has the titular flamingo teacher's and her students' first day of Kindergarten.
  • Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten! has a boy's mother undergoing the separation anxiety instead.
  • Mondays at Monster School has Fred and Ted's first day.
  • Monkey: Not Ready for Kindergarten, from the author behind Arthur, has Monkey preparing for the first day the week before.
  • Mouse Math - Albert Starts School is about Albert attending school for the first time, though it shows his adventures throughout the whole first week. He learns that each day has its own special activity and although he's a bit upset at first about not being able to paw paint on the first day of school, by Saturday he's upset that it isn't a school day.
  • The Muppet Babies (1984) book I Can Go to Preschool focuses on Kermit's first day of preschool. Baby Piggy Goes to Nursery School focuses on Miss Piggy's.
  • Mr. Men Go To School involves Little Miss Tiny starting school.
  • My First Day, by Leilani Sparrow, follows a bear cub's perspective on the first day of kindergarten.
  • My Kindergarten, which starts from the first day and follows through a whole school year.
  • The Night Before series has ...Preschool, ...Kindergarten, and ...First Grade.
  • Noni Is Nervous stars a little girl overcoming her first day of school jitters.
  • Not This Bear has Bear's first day of school.
  • Off To School with Periwinkle and Blue, the book based off the below Blue's Clues episode.
  • Oliver and Amanda:
    • "Amanda Pig, Schoolgirl" has Amanda's first day of kindergarten.
    • "Amanda Pig, First Grader" has the titular character's first day of Grade 1.
  • On The Way To Kindergarten combines this with a variation of a Coming of Age Story.
  • Pete the Cat, Rocking in My School Shoes combines this trope with Musical Episode.
  • The first Planet Kindergarten book, which explores a school in space.
  • Pondovadia's second chapter is dedicated to the first day of middle school for the various characters after the long summer, which the first chapter is set at the tail end of.
  • Pooh's First Day of School
  • The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School has the aforementioned Pout-Pout Fish's first day of Kinderguppy.
  • Princess Cupcake Jones Won't Go to School, in which the titular character as she does everything she can think of to get out of her first day of school.
  • Ready For Kindergarten, Stinky Face? features a Cloudcuckoolander getting ready for his first day.
  • School's First Day of School, in which the first day takes place from the actual building's POV.
  • Sea Monster's First Day has sea monster Ernest starting his first day of school.
  • Timothy Goes to School: For the titular raccoon.
  • Topsy and Tim Start School, starring the titular twins.
  • Wemberly Worried has the titular character's first day of kindergarten.
  • We Don't Eat Our Classmates stars a dinosaur, Penelope Rex, going to a human school.
  • We Share Everything! by Robert Munsch, starring Amanda and Jeremiah's first day of kindergarten.
  • Wiggles' First Day at School has a dog attend a human kindergarten class.
  • X: A Fabulous Child’s Story: The moment when X is personally confronted with society's gender norms.
  • The Yoko series by Rosemary Wells:
    • Yoko: stars the titular Japanese kitten going on her first day of school. The story involves the students (except Timothy) at Hilltop School making fun of Yoko's sushi and red bean ice cream.
    • Yoko Writes Her Name: Similar to the 1998 book, where it's also the titular kitten's first day of school. In this story, she finally learns how to write but isn't able to write English words causing her to fear of not graduating kindergarten.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Bear in the Big Blue House: The episode "First Day at Mouse School" focuses on Tutter's first day of school.
  • The Brady Bunch: An early Season 4 episode, "Today I Am A Freshman," focuses on Marcia's anxiety as she begins her freshman year of high school at Westdale High. Because it is implied that most of her friends from elementary and junior high live in other high school districts (and thus will be attending school there), the stories focus on her attempts to make new friends, including getting accepted into a new social club called The Boosters (which has a strict moral code).
  • The first episode of the docu-series Kindergarten begins with the kids starting kindergarten.
  • Full House had several:
    • Season 1's "The First Day Of School," Stephanie starts kindergarten.
    • Season 3's "Back to School Blues," DJ starts junior high.
    • Season 5's "Double Trouble," Michelle starts kindergarten.
    • Season 7's "Fast Friends," Stephanie starts junior high.
  • The first episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide introduces most of the characters with this trope; Moze attempts to take an elective away from Ned and Cookie to make more girl friends, Ned tries to thwart her attempts, and Cookie nearly overheats himself due to wearing a large winter coat in the summer.
  • Schitt's Creek features 28-year-old Alexis Rose going back to high school after it's revealed she never graduated from her posh boarding school. In the episode, she sticks out not only for her age but her fancy clothes and breezy attitude. She alienates her teacher, but she does make some friends with a couple of teenage girls.
  • Sesame Street:
    • One episode had Cookie Monster's first day of school, with Kermit interviewing him about how he feels.
    • The 1980-1981 season opener depicted Big Bird visiting a school for the first time (as a guest of one of The Kids), and learning about what happens at school. The episode includes a film where kindergarten-aged children ride a school bus on what is implied to be their first day of school, and the children wondering what the day will bring before actual scenes from school play out.
    • One episode focused on Abby Cadabby the three-year-old fairy attending a school with a bunch of fairy-tale characters. In a later episode, Baby Bear started attending the same school.
    • In one episode, Elmo had his first day at preschool.
  • Yo Gabba Gabba!: The Season 3 premiere "School" focused on the gang's first day of school.
  • The Wonder Years opens with Kevin, Winnie and Paul starting middle school; a later season opener has the two boys starting Grade 8.

     Music 

    Video Games 
  • The prologues of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and III are set on the first day of school for both old Class VII and new Class VII respectively. Both also start off with all of them falling on a Trap Door.
  • In the Moshi Monsters mission "Super Moshiversity Challenge", Elder Furi sends the Super Moshis to university to learn various trivia. However, due to the absence of a headmaster, they only last three days.
  • My Child Lebensborn: The game's two first major events are the child' birthday and the child's first day of school, which happens to be a few days later. The latter is the first time the child interacts with the teachers and classmates (who go on to ostracize them for the rest of the game), and the first time they get any indication there's something unusual about them.
  • Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon has the player character attending the town's school as part of the plot.

    Visual Novels 
  • Chapter 2 of Double Homework is about the beginning of the the summer school class. The protagonist and Johanna reunite with Rachel and meet Lauren, Morgan, Amy, and Dennis, and find that their teacher, Ms. Walsh, is reluctant to teach them anything. Lauren asks the protagonist out, Morgan warns him against accepting, and Dennis has a downright creepy deal he offers the protagonist. Oh yeah, and Tamara is working in the registrar’s office.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Fowl Language: First Day Of School.
  • The Most Popular Girls in School: Episode 60 has Brittnay's first day after transferring to Meadow Lane Elementary (she was actually expelled from her previous school) in the third grade.
  • The official website for Sesame Street had a game featuring Elmo's first day of preschool. He also gets read a book about a young fish called Henry having his first day of school.
  • Smosh Babies:
    • The first episode of the series, "The Rise of the Bread Head" focuses on Ian's first day at Mrs. Buttz's daycare, wherein Anthony forces him to get his Froggy doll from the playground, which is guarded by Lenny, Bruce, and Melvin, a trio of three-year-old bullies.
    • In the season 4 premiere, "The Honey Dew Balls", the cast start attending Uncle Joe's Kindergarten. During Ian's first day of kindergarten, his diaper gets ripped off by his mom's car door and he has to deal with being naked from the waist down.
  • SuperMarioLogan:
    • The first part of "Bowser Junior's First Grade!".
    • "First Day Of School", starring Junior and Jeffy.

    Western Animation 
  • Arthur:
    • "Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn" (a.k.a. "Arthur's Teacher Trouble" on VHS) is about the gang's first day of third grade, all of them nervous about having Mr. Ratburn as their teacher.
    • Over two decades later, the special “Arthur’s First Day” depicts Arthur and his friends' first day of fourth grade, primarily Arthur dealing with Buster no longer being in the same class as him and worrying about losing touch with him. Meanwhile, D.W.’s side plot revolves around her embarking on her first day of kindergarten. The special is the first new episode to air following the announcement that the series would come to an end in 2022, so the special can be seen as a sort of “beginning of the end” of the show.
  • Blue's Clues: "Blue Takes You to School", in which Blue and Joe take Periwinkle to his first day of preschool.
  • The Bluey episode "Army" is a Day in the Limelight episode for Jack, a young boy who transferred out of his previous school because it couldn't accommodate his ADHD. Fortunately, he quickly befriends Rusty and the two play soldiers together.
  • The Busy World of Richard Scarry has "Sally's First Day at School".
  • On Chip and Potato, Chip starts kindergarten in "Chip Starts Kindergarten."
  • The Chocolix: Its premiere episode, "First Day of School", is about Chocolyne and Chocomark going to the school in Chocoland for the first time after moving.
  • Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood:
    • "Daniel Visits School", which is before the actual day happens.
    • "Daniel Goes to School", where the day actually happens.
    • "Jodi's First Day at School", which introduces the new titular character. Daniel takes on the duties of "First Day Friend" to help Jodi feel comfortable at her new school.
  • Dora the Explorer: "First Day of School".
  • Doc McStuffins: "First Day Of Med School".
  • Franklin has "Franklin Goes to School", based off the book with the same name.
  • Jojos Circus has "Easy as Pie". Coincidentally, it's the series' first episode all together.
  • The first episode of Milly, Molly, entitled "Monday", is set about two years before the events of the rest of the series and focuses on the children's first day of school and the beginning of Milly and Molly's friendship.
  • Milo Murphy's Law: "First Impressions" has Milo's and Melissa's first day of kindergarten.
  • The first episode of My Dad the Rock Star is about Willy going to an actual school for the first time after years of being homeschooled.
  • A flashback in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" tells about Twilight's first day at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
  • The Nina Needs to Go! episode "To Preschool", Nina has her first day at preschool.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: A planned episode was about Fink getting enrolled in KO's class at Lakewood Public School.
  • The Owl House: "The First Day" is about Luz's first day at Hexside School of Magic and Demonics (as a student; she had already been there in three previous episodes).
  • Phineas and Ferb has "Doof 101". Notable for also being the only episode of the show's run to take place in school.
  • Rugrats had a few First Day of Daycare Episodes.
    • In "The Big House", Tommy gets dropped off at a daycare which nobody likes due to it being very strict. He meets a few toddlers who have been there before, all of whom have nicknames.
    • In "Dayscare", Chuckie and Kimi get dropped off at a daycare and Chuckie is nervous, due to mishearing "daycare" as "day-scare".
    • In "Educating Angelica", Angelica starts preschool and has to learn how to share.
    • In "Preschool Daze", Angelica goes to a new preschool and gets into competition with Susie.
  • The Screwy Squirrel cartoon "The Screwy Truant" appears to take place on the first day of school, which Screwy skips to play hooky and go fishing. When the truant officer finally catches him and asks why he's not in school, Screwy's reason is quite evident: he's got measles.
  • The Simpsons:
    • In "Lisa's Sax", a Flashback shows Bart's first days of kindergarten at Springfield Elementary.
    • In "Bart the Genius", Bart is mistaken for a genius and transferred to a new school, his first day there taking up one scene.
  • Spot the Dog has "Spot Goes To School''.
  • Steven Universe: Future: "Little Homeschool" has an uncorrupted Gem named Cherry Quartz attending her first day of "school" with the guidance of Steven.
    • The tie in comic "Too Cool For School" is about Steven attending school with Connie.
  • Timothy Goes to School:
    • "Timothy Goes To School", based on the book with same name.
    • "Mama, Don't Go!" is this for newcomer Juanita.
  • Vampirina has the episode "Portrait Of A Vampire", with Vee's first day in human school.
  • Wonder Pets!: "Off to School": The team gets a call from a puffer fish who is about to attend his first day of preschool. Ming-Ming is quick to hang a lampshade on the fact that this is the least serious distress call they've ever received, but Linny says they should help him anyway.
  • Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: "Who Needs School?".

 
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Mashiro

Mashiro prepares for her first day back in school.

The First Day

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Mashiro

Mashiro prepares for her first day back in school.

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The First Day