Preparing for the First Day of School

I love to-do lists. They make me sane even though I will probably do only half of the to-do's. I will take the summer to map out my classroom and how I want those first few days to go so that I'm prepared when the whirlwind of in-service meetings begin and then you are left with a day and a half to get your classroom ready. Maybe some of these ideas will inspire.

Pocket Chart Ideas:

Calendar
Helpers
Daily Graph
Story/Poem of the Week
Mountain Language/Math
Attendance
Centers
Weekly Spelling/Sight Words list

Sticker Chart Uses:

Weekly Behavior
Homework
Accelerated Math/Reading
Book Club

Displays/Posters:

Math Vocabulary (with pictures/examples)
Science/Social Studies Theme with Literature
Quality Work Examples
Themes/Units (per grading period)
Writing Examples/Themes
Student of the Month
Birthdays
Holidays
Important/Current Events

Preparing for the 1st Week of School:

Script
Getting to Know You Activities
Transitions
Procedures
Ice Breakers
Team Building Games
Practice, Practice, Practice!

To Create Before School Starts:

Center Labels
Name Tags for Centers, Word Wall, Jobs, Graphs, Attendance
Pet Record for Feeding, Cleaning, Take-Home
School Supply Reminder Letter, Record, and Labels
Sight Word Check List, Flash Cards, Activities
Student Folders, Portfolio Check List, Observation Records
Parent Communication Binder, Print-Outs, Contact Info
Data Binder, Scores, Small Groups, Check Lists

The hardest part for me is coming up with a theme for my classroom each year. I've done jungle (Where the Wild Things Are) and Space (Doig's Discoverers) most recently. I made a little brainstorming list of possible classroom themes for next school year:

Dinos

Dolphins

Dragons

Deep Sea

Divers

Daring -

Dancing -

Dreamers

Darting -

Or I can use a familiar book series/character as a theme:

How Do Dinosaurs...?

Amelia Bedelia

Curious George

Where the Wild Things Are

Clifford

As the year progresses, don't forget to take pictures! Take a picture of each student for BOY, MOY, EOY, photos for a monthly newsletter activities, name tags, etc.

Your ideas, input, comments are welcome and much needed! Please let me know what your first day of school must-haves/traditions/preparations are.

As the summer progresses, I will add to this list and hopefully include documents, pictures, and links that may be helpful.

Comments

KA-BOOM! (A basic facts game).

This game is a great alternative to Around the World with flash cards. I picked this up at a training my first year of teaching and I've been using it ever since. The kids love it and it allows every child a chance at answering the math facts. Rules: All students stand at their desk. The teacher walks around the room with the Kaboom can to each student one at a time. The student will: 1. draw a card out of the Kaboom can, 2. answer the basic fact problem, 3. answer correctly and the student stays standing, 4. answer incorrectly and the student sits down, 5. draw a Kaboom! card and the student sits down. The last student standing is the winner. Here's how I made my new Kaboom cans... One can for each operation 1. Clean the empty cans. 2. Measure and cut colorful scrapbook paper. 3. Glue paper on cans. 4. Add stickers and done! You can print out the addition , subtraction , multiplicatio...

Planning A Morning Routine

It's important to start each preschool day the same. Children thrive with routine and you will notice that behavior problems are significantly minimized when children know what's going to happen. A timid child will have less difficulty saying goodby to Mom and an energetic child will get right to work. Needless to say, each morning for us starts the same. Which means planning is pretty repetitive as well. My first task is to find a theme. I use The Peaceful Preschool curriculum from The Peaceful Press to find a theme. The next step is to go online and reserve five to six books on the same theme from our local county library system. This planning stage must take place several days in advance in order for the books to be available in time. Otherwise, I have to make an extra trip to the library to pull books myself. Now I need to come up with several hands-on, student-led, independent activities to set out for stations....

It's OK to make mistakes!

My daughter has been getting her 9s and 6s mixed up. She gets them right about half the time. The great thing about the Peaceful Preschool numeral cards is that she can self-correct by counting the dots. For a quick math lesson, I gave her three cards and instructed her to order them a certain way (first three digits of my phone number). She mixed up the 6 and the 9 but I didn't stop her and most importantly I did NOT tell her she was WRONG! I let her finish her thought process and then asked her a series of questions that led her to finding and correcting her own mistake. Why is this important? Because as children grow, they become more afraid of messing up. They don't want to take chances or even TRY for fear of getting it wrong. Take every opportunity to build your child's confidence. Confidence is one of the 6 Cs that help your child become "well-adjusted critical thinkers," ( Becoming Brilliant, What Science Tells Us ...

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