Back to School Activities for the First Week

Tired of doing the same old thing the first week of school? Need something new, fun, and interactive? This pack includes everything you need to get your year started off right. With an emoji-themed pack, it's sure to get your students' attention!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

Included in this pack:

• Back to School Book (10 pages for the students to fill out)
• Find the Friend (Getting to know you game)
• Yay or Nay (Reviewing expectations with game and writing)
• Emoji Me (Craftivity)
• Summer Feelings (Writing)
• Fave Board Game (Getting to know you game)
• Bell Ringer (Coloring page)
• 1st Day Gift (Printable tag to go with crazy straws)
• Bookmarks
• Photo Booth Letters
• All the Feels Bulletin Board (writing and bulletin board)

All of this is included for you AND MORE! 

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

10 Tips for New Teachers

I've been teaching for 10 years now and I have seen a lot of new teachers come to our school over the years. Today I want to share a few tips and pointers I've learned over the years in hopes that you will have a happy and successful first year in your new classroom!


1. Make friends with your teammates.

From the second you get hired (or just as soon as you can) make friends with your grade level teammates. Don't be afraid to ask them questions and get on the same page as far as starting off the year goes. You should not have to start off the year all on your own. Try to make copies together, share ideas, and ask questions.

I realize you might have different personalities and maybe not a lot in common, but the better friends you can be, the easier your year will be!

(Another great tip is to make friends with your school secretaries and custodians as well! Get on their good side as soon as possible and always go out of your way to be friendly to them.)


2. Get a copy of a curriculum map asap. (Or make one if you have to.)

Someone should have a copy of a curriculum map you can use. Hopefully your team or district already has one for you. But if not, try to make your own. At least fill in the "big rocks" or big concepts of the year. Your math program and reading program (if you have them) probably has an outline you can use to map out your year. Remember that you do not need to have the entire year mapped out right now, fill in the first month or two if you can and worry about the rest after you make it through the first month of school!)

If you don't have a curriculum map, feel free to grab this free copy of my Curriculum Map Template to help you get started. 

3. Decide your classroom management plan.

Every teacher should go into the year with a management plan. What are your classroom rules? How will you encourage good behavior? What happens when student's break a rule? I have created an easy checklist to help you make a management plan.

This Editable PowerPoint will walk you through all the important things you need to have planned out and it will also serve as a visual when you teach your students your behavior plan. This is a life saver and could save you a lot of time and heartache later on! (You could also print these out to use as reminder posters as well!)

4. Build a classroom library.

Know that your library won't start out very elaborate, but start small to build your library of books. If you're teaching younger grades you'll want to get some easy picture books that students can read on their own. If you're doing upper grades you'll want a variety of chapter books that will interest all learners in your classroom. Check out yardsales to find the best deals on old books. Ask around and see if anyone you know is trying rid of any books to see if they will donate them to your classroom.


5. Make your room look nice and inviting.

Some teachers have a theme and some don't, and that's okay! At least a week before school starts, try to have colorful paper up on all your bulletin boards with coordinating borders. Even if your bulletin boards start out with nothing on them (you can fill them with student work as you go!), make sure you start the year with them covered and looking nice! 

I feel like this is important because you're sending a message to the other teachers in the school and to the parents of your students (when they come to open house), that you are ready for the year!

Here's an easy and cute bulletin board idea for you that teaches students how to "Be Awesome" in a positive way!

Other nice things to include would be: an alphabet or cursive chart, content related posters, a welcome sign, a birthday chart, etc. Try not to get overwhelmed and just do what you can to make your room look nice, clean, and inviting.)

Note: I always like to provide some basic school supplies on each student's desk before open house. Maybe a notebook, folder, box of crayons, and a pencil. Set them on top of the student's desk and make it look like you're nice and ready for the year to start!


6. Plan your first few days of school.

On the first day of school, get started with your routine right when the students walk in. Maybe have a self-start activity ready on their desk that they can begin quietly as they come in. (Have some instructions on the board so students know what to do.)

Plan some get to know you activities. I like to do some name games to help me try to memorize their names faster. I love the writing activities in this About Me pack because it serves as a writing assignment, a get-to-know-you activity, and you can hang them up on the bulletin board when you're done! I have two versions: younger grades (K-2) and upper grades (3-6).

  

7. Start doing real work on the 1st day of school. 

Do a math activity or assessment on the first day of school! Start the year out letting students know that you mean business (in a polite and happy way, of course). Do some math on the first day as a way to jumpstart them for the year. I like to give a little math pre-test or assessment so you can get a basic idea of where your students are at currently and maybe some key concepts you can focus on right away. Or you can do a fun math activity that helps show them how math can be fun! 

Here's also a set of student inventories that will help you get to know your students and how they feel about school. It includes an interest inventory, reading survey, handwriting sample, and a "3 Things I Want My Teacher To Know" page.

8. Encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom.

If you want to have a successful year, and avoid burnout as much as possible, enlist some parent volunteers! In my room, I always had an incredible room mom that would head up all of my class parties and I always got a list of people who would want to come in and be guest speakers in our class. (Once I had a mom with an art background come in and teach an art lesson every month! I've also gotten electrical engineers, grandparents from other countries, and military parents to come in and speak to our class.) A lot of moms (dads too!) will want to come in and volunteer to help read with kids, cut out lamination, make copies, etc. Use their help as much as possible - it will make your life easier and cut down on the time you stay after school gets out.

This Volunteer sign up pack can help you get started and organized!

9. Don't be afraid to practice! 

Once those cute kids show up on the first day and you've taught them the procedures for your classroom, spend a lot of time practicing them! 

My best example of this is to practice walking in the hall. On the first day within the first hour or two, explain how you want your students to walk in the hall. What does it look like? (Arms folded or to side, straight line, facing forward, no gaps in line, etc). What does it sound like? (No talking, quiet feet, etc). Then take them in the hall to practice. If even one kid is not doing it the way you explained, remind the whole class what it should look like. Wait until they are all standing the way you would like. Practice walking forward. Practice turning corners. Practice changing to the other side of the hall. Then, the next time you are walking in the halls, start the whole process over if necessary. I am proud of the fact that my students always look great when we walk down the hall and I love when they receive compliments from other teachers! I think the way your students walk in the hall can tell someone a lot about how the inside of your classroom works. If it's chaos in the hall, does your classroom look chaotic too?

Use this example for everything! Oh, your students forgot how to enter the classroom quiet? That's okay, let's practice! Your students aren't raising their hands to speak like you taught them? That's okay, let's practice! 

10. Be happy!

You might be scared to death (I know I was on my first day of school), but don't let that stop you from being happy. I hate to break this to you, but is going to be hard! Doing it with a smile and a positive attitude will make all the difference in how your year will go. 

Note: Please don't confuse being happy/nice with being a strict teacher who makes their students follow the rules and procedures of the classroom. You can be nice, happy, and strict all at the same time. I am a fun and happy teacher most of the time, but I can pull out my serious face when needed to let students know my expectations for behavior.

*  *  *  *  *

I feel like I could write a book about getting started with your first year of teaching, but I think this is a good, comprehensive list to help you get started! My best advice is to do the best you can, love your students, and don't stress about the little things! It will all work out!! 

Wishing you the BEST of luck this year!! 

Are you an experienced teacher? 

What would you add to my list?

Leave a comment with your 

best advice for new teachers!

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Computer Project: Thought Bubble Introduction

Well, hello! I thought I'd take a minute to show you the first computer project I'm going with my students this year. I teach K-6 computers and all the students in the school rotate to me over the course of 6 weeks. I emphasize keyboarding skills, but I love doing fun, technology based projects with my students! I always like to start the year off with a fun and easy get-to-know type project.

This year, I came up with the Thought Bubble Introduction project. It's really pretty simple! Here in my cutie son, Camden, demonstating what the finished project will look like.

Here's how we do it:

- I demonstrate how to open PowerPoint, clear the two text boxes, use the shape tool to make a thought bubble. (For this project, the bubble should only take up about 1/4 of the page.) The bubble comes up shaded in blue, so I model how to change the inside to white/clear and how to change the outside line to black. I show students how to create a new text box and how to move it to the center of their thought bubble. From there, they can change the font choice and also increase the font size. (I tell them not to go bigger than size 28.)

- Inside the thought bubble they type out their introduction. I basically want students to type 5 or more sentences. They should start with their name, give a detail about themselves, and then list 3 things they like. Of course they are free to type whatever they want here, but some students get stuck so I like to have a certain format the students can follow if needed. 

-Using photo booth, each student needs to have their picture taken. My lab does not have built in web cameras, so I use my Hue HD Doc Camera and take and print them all for them just using the school printer. You could get fancy and use a digital camera dn send them to a printshop, but I am all about quick, easy, and inexpensive. One interesting note… I have to model for my students how to smile for a camera. I noticed with my first few classes that they would just give me a little half smile. Even if I told them to smile bigger, I would get the same little closed-mouth smile. So I started modeling how not to smile (closed-mouth) and how to smile big (wide eyes, showing teeth). It made a huge difference in the quality of their smiles!

-Students take their bubbles and their pictures and cut out along the outside edge. Make sure when cutting out their pictures that they cut around their shoulders, hair, and ears! I've had kids cut of their ears or hair and it looks a little funny. Ha. Next, have them glue their cutouts to a colored piece of construction/cardstock paper. In our school we have divided into different houses (similar to how the Ron Clark Academy sorts their students into different houses) so I had my students choose their house color, but you could let them choose their favorite color, or you could assign a certain color. 

-Once all students have finished, I will hang ALL the student introduction pages in the hallway near the lunchroom. Students will love walking to lunch, seeing their own picture, and also "meeting" all the other students in the school! Our principal loves seeing student work hanging in the halls so I know she will love this project when it's all done. I also think parents will be excited to see their child's picture hanging on the walls when they come to parent teacher conferences next month.

Overall, this is super fun and really easy project for students to do! Obviously, I have to differentiate this project for different grade levels. my 1st and 2nd grade students only type their sentences and they use their scissors to cut out their words in the shape of a bubble. My 6th graders love writing about themselves so they end up with really great, detailed paragraphs instead of just 5 sentences. I always encourage creativity so sometimes my older students will play around with formatting their shapes and words. It's fun to see how this one, simple project turns out so differently.

I hope this will inspire some of you out there to do this project with your students or will spark ideas of similar projects you can do in the future. If you like this project idea, leave me comment and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your ideas and feedback!

Have a great rest of the week!

First Day of School Gift Idea

There are a ton of gift ideas out there for students on their first day of school.  I had some crazy straws left over from last year's treasure/prize box, so I thought they'd be perfect to give to my students on the first day!

I bought these last year at Target (in the party section), but I've heard they have them at Michael's and Dollar Tree.

You can download grades k-5 tag below for FREE! ;)

Hope you have a great school year!

Organizing Your Parent Volunteers

I have had some AMAZING parent volunteers in the past! A few of my room moms have been over-the-top incredible in throwing our class parties and helping out in the classroom. I have to say that for most of those years, my room moms became some of my best friends.

I've also had my fair share of room moms who weren't as excited about helping out and who struggled a little bit when it came to class parties and extra classroom activities. I don't blame anyone because everyone has different personalities and strengths, but what I have found is that if I am proactive about recruiting parents to help in the classroom, we have more participation, and parents feel valued and appreciated. 

I know you can't always predict the type of volunteers you will get in your classroom, but there are things you can do to help your parent volunteers run smoothly throughout the year.

Here are some ideas I have done over the years to help organize my parent volunteers:

•I create a sign up document to use at my Back-to-School night. I like   

      them to be big and colorful so parents can easily see where to sign 

      up.

•Print each page off on cardstock. This will help make them sturdy and durable. (After your parents have signed up, you can put them in a binder or somewhere safe so you can refer to them all year long.)

•On your back-to-school night, open house, or first day of school, hang a  poster (or write a giant message on a white board) up above the sign up table. That way parents can see that you are accepting volunteers and will be able to find the sign up pages easily.

•Nicely arrange each of the sign up pages on the sign up table with pens/pencils for parents to use. I like to spread them out so multiple parents can be signing up at once. 

•As you meet parents for the first time, direct them to the table. Encourage them to sign up to volunteer in your classroom and explain how much you love having helpers in the classroom. 

•Some parents might not be able to help out in the classroom. Let them know you have opportunities for them to help out at home. (You can send lamination or papers home for them to cut out, they can organize and staple papers together at home, and let them know that some of the volunteer positions are for a particular day. Maybe they could get off of work for a day to chaperone the field trip, or maybe they can come be a guest speaker in the classroom on a day that's convenient for them,)

•After volunteer sign-ups are over, make sure to get ahold of parents (I like email best!) as soon as possible to let them know how they can help, and to arrange times for them to come into the classroom and volunteer. Find out which days of the week and times of the day work best for them so you can set up a schedule.

Here are the volunteer positions I always ask for in my classroom:

- Head room mom: to be in charge of making decisions and organizing all class parties and activities.

- Room moms: 2-3 extra volunteers who all help the head room mom in planning and organizing the class parties. 

- Class party volunteers: A committee of helpers to help out the room moms where ever  needed. They might be in change of a Halloween game, a Thanksgiving craft, a Christmas cookie, or whatever else. They give support where needed and help ensure each party/activity is a success.

- Reading Helpers: I always loved having parents come in during my reading time to help read with students. Their responsibilities changed according to what my students needed that day. 

(Sometime they were reading one-on-one with students, sometimes they'd help with sight word flashcards, sometimes they would play a sight word game with a small group of students, other times they could lead a literature group while I did reading conferences with students. It was always nice having parents volunteer to help during my reading time!) 

- Field Trip Chaperones: I loved getting people to sign up at the beginning of the year because then I always knew who to call if I needed someone. I never felt like I scrambling to find parents who wanted to come last minute, because I could always check the list of people who had already signed up.

-Guest Speakers: It's so fun to see what kinds of talents your parents have. I always opened this up to grandparents as well. Have them sign up if they'd like to come in and teach something they have a specialized knowledge, talent, or skill and invite them into the room sometime throughout the year to share their information and experiences. 

(Examples: My class got to learn some exciting things by having guest speakers come in. One grandpa was a general in the Navy and came in and talked about what it was like to serve in a war. I also had a set of grandparents who grew up in Germany and shared what it was like to grow up in a different culture. They were also able to share how WWII changed their lives even though they were really little at the time. I also had a dad who was an electrician. He came in one day and taught some of the science standards on electricity and had some fun visuals for the students to see and touch.)


Before I go, I'll just mention that I made this pack to help with your parent volunteer sign ups. You might already have a system that works for you, but if not, this pack is "print-and-go" ready for your Back-to-School night and also comes with 2 editable pages in case you need to add any volunteer jobs. 

Inside you’ll find one poster (to hang up during Back-to-School night, open house, or the first day of school) and 7 colorful sign-up pages (7 ready-to-print pages and 2 editable pages for you to customize). 

Pages included in this pack:

-notes to the teacher instruction page
-sign up poster
-room mom sign up sheet
-class party volunteers sign up sheet
-reading helpers sign up sheet
-field trip chaperone sign up sheet
-guest speaker sign up sheet

-at-home helpers

-copy and work room helpers

-2 editable pages so you can create your own sign up sheets

I feel like I could talk about this subject all day! 

If you have any further questions 

about organizing your parent volunteers, 

please leave a comment 

and I will see what else I can do 

to help answer questions.

All About Me - 24 Beginning of the Year Writing Activities for Back to School

I'm starting feel a little sad that the month of July is winding down. I love summer and everything about it. However, there is something inside of me that is so excited to go back to school too!!

 Fresh markers, new bulletin boards, and a brand new batch of  students!! Sooooooooo exciting!!!

Here is a little something that also might help you get really excited about going back to school. A 24 page resource of writing activities perfect for the beginning of the school year.

{Recommended for grades 3-6}

This download contains 24 different writing activities that will help you get to know your students and their individual personalities and interests. Your students will love coming back to school and getting to know their classmates as they complete these fun writing activities. Each page would also make a great bulletin board in your classroom or hallway!

Here is what is all included in the download:

-Notes to the Teacher

-Table of Contents

-Student Examples

-Cover Page for Book

-A Story About Me

-All About Me

-Self Portrait

-Get to Know Me

-My Bio Poem

-My Autobiography 

-Hello, My Name Is...

-My Fact Sheet

-Fakebook

-The ABC’s of Me

-A Picture of My Family

-When I Grow Up

-3 Things I Want My Teacher to Know

-Interest Inventory

-Reading Survey

-My Handwriting Sample

-My Summer Vacation 1

-My Summer Vacation 2

-My Summer Vacation 3

-1st Day of School

-“Because I’m Happy”

-If I Were a Flavor of Ice Cream…

-I Like Learning About…

-Which Color Best Describes Me?

-Get to Know Your Neighbor

-Thank You and Credits Page 

(A small sample of some cute student examples!)

 Here are some ways to use these writing pages:

• Choose a few templates for students to work on during the 1st day of school. When completed, do some whole class, small group, or partner get-to-know-activities.

• Bind (or staple) these pages into a booklet. Students can keep them in their desk and work on them during writing time or as a self-start each morning. 

• Fast finishers – Students can use these pages for the months of Aug and Sept. It’s a fun and engaging activity for your fast finishers and higher achieving students.

• Hang their pages in the hall or on a bulletin board! Your students will love seeing their work displayed in the classroom!

• Save the completed pages and have students re-do them at the end of the year. They will make a great "time capsule" and it will be fun to see how much your students have changed throughout the year. 

This packet is available in my TeachersPayTeachers store. 

Click here to purchase

Also available for grades K-2 as well!!

What makes you excited about 

going back to school?

Leave a comment 

and tell me a few of your

favorite things.

Pin for Later:

Star Student

Lots of our fabulous readers have asked if I do "Star Student". Well, I do. 

BUT, I call it VIP. 

I just think it sounds super official and important. YA!  Very-Important-Person.

I send home a  bag with the kiddo who is the VIP that week. I got the bag from Hobby Lobby and the dog from Wal-Mart.

Inside of the bag:
*Directions for the parents about their VIP week
*Stuffed dog named Andy
*Adventures with Andy book for kids to write in
*Me Sack

VIP Directions:

Adventures with Andy book {I just stick it in a binder and put the writing pages in individual sheet protectors}. The kiddos take Andy home and play with him, then they have a parent help them write about it and draw a picture. This is their FAVORITE! {You can do any stuffed animal. In my student teaching, my cooperating teacher did this cute little frog because her classroom theme was frogs-I got the idea from her!}

The "Me Sack" is a label stuck on a brown paper bag. It's like show and tell, but the items need to be able to tell about the child and it better {p.s. I hate show and tell}. Then, the other students can ask 2 questions and have 2 comments about the items. :)  My friend and teaching buddy Ashlee gave me this fabulous idea. Click {here} to download the labels.

At the beginning of the year, I send home an "All About Me!" poster to return the first week. I like to do that so when their child is the VIP they don't get overwhelmed.    Sorry folks, I got this poster from my teammates and it's not digital!  But I did try to recreate it and you can download it at the bottom of this post {you will need to print it out and then enlarge it on your copy machine to fit on 11X17 paper}.

I'm always the VIP first. :)