Let's Get Meet the Parents Ready

Hey friends. Before I get my classroom & everything ready for the 1st day of school I have to get ready for Meet the Teacher night. This year we have 3 days of professional development at the school with staff before school starts, and on that 1st night the kindergarten teachers (that's me) have Meet the Teacher night. Only the kinders have Meet the Teacher night at my school. The parents will come in & listen to the principal say all that he needs to share. My parents will then come to my classroom where I will share with them everything I need to. This is the most important time for me to share with them everything that I want them to know and allows me to answer any questions they may have. 

I am a super super super prepare freak and like to be very organized.

What do I use to make sure I am ready for my parents you might ask. Well let me tell ya. ;)

 While eating some yummy waffles for snack this afternoon I put everything that I use to prepare myself for Meet the Teacher night in this resource pack.

 This is just a very tiny glimpse of some of the resources that can be found in Let's Get Meet the Parents Ready. 

In this resource you can find: 

an editable Welcome flip book, sign in sheet, editable student info. sheet, class wish list posters, school supply posters, school supply labels, editable sign in poster, editable welcome note for students.

 In the past I have always used a brochure type of thing with all of the class info. that I want parents to know but this year I had more to add and a flip book let me do just that.

 The text is editable on each page so you can include what 

information you would like for your parents.

 I printed my welcome flip book on bright copy paper.

 I included so much info. in this welcome flip book that I doubt my parents will actually need to take notes but just in case they do I included a notes section.

 I love how quick and easy this is to create. All I had to do was print, line it up, fold & staple.

 Please excuse my super chipped nails.

 Just pretend I stapled my book. lol. My stapler is in my classroom.

You can find this Let's Get Meet the Parents Ready here.

Make Your Masterpiece

It's week 3 of the #tptsellerchallenge & I recreated our first day of school activities that I do each year with my class.

Okay. Let me start off by asking... Does anyone else still keep or organize their weekly activities in large tan envelopes? I didn't think so. Here it goes. I will admit it. I do! I'm totally saying this with my hands covering my face now. lol. Whew. That kind of feels good to get of my chest but it's all changing this year. Where am I getting at with this? Well most of the activities I do with my class are from when I created them in handwriting (oh yes I did- face hiding in my hands again) or from the computer in arial font and very plain. How did lessons or activities exist before learning how to create resources with cute font, great graphics and TPT or TN? My goal this year is to recreate all my activities and resources in my large tan envelopes. My goal is to turn them into masterpieces.

 

First Day Activities with the Gingerbread Man is my first masterpiece that I am pulling out of that large tan envelope. I haven't decide if I am going to start filing my lessons & activities for each week in sheet protectors in a binder or in these plastic file storage containers. I would love to hear how you organize your originals prints, lessons & activities so please share. :)

 

You can get the First Day Activities with the Gingerbead Man HALF OFF for the next 24 hours.

Looking for some first day of school activities that will allow your students to explore, build friendships and make memories? The First Day of School Activities with the Gingerbread Man will allow your students to explore the school during their hunt for the Gingerbread Man, build friendships as students search together, and get to know some of the staff while on their search. Students will go home after their first day of school eager to tell their parents all about the fun they had and excited to come back to school the next day without being scared. Students also enjoy baking gingerbread man cookies, decorating a gingerbread man craft, reading their gingerbread man reader, creating a gingerbread man classroom and creating a gingerbread man hat.

 

My students absolutely love (like puffy heart-love) searching for their missing gingerbread men. It's so much fun to see their faces light up when they help solve the riddle as to where the clue takes us next on the search for their cookies. This is one of my favorite activities to do with my students.

 

Have a masterpiece to share? Go check out these lovely ladies and link up.

 

 

 

Teacher Week 14': Why & When (Freebie included)

 

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday so I'm playing catch up today. My Why Wednesday & When Thursday are in the same post... That's okay right.

 

 

I must admit I am way more organized in the classroom than I am at home. In fact it's killing me that everything in my classroom is not labeled right now but with me having another teacher take my place in the classroom until January while I am on maternity leave I didn't want to step on his toes & take over absolutely everything. I will wait until January to go in & label everything.

 

 

I wouldn't make it through the school year without my teacher planner. Last year I had my Erin Condren planner & loved it. Since I am not at the school all year I couldn't bring myself to send $100 on a teacher planner that I would only use for 5 months. Yes, $100!!! Unfortunately they charge $40 to ship to Canada (tear). So.... I typed up my own teacher planner which is what I am using this year. I sent it to the print centre this week. And guess what.... You can grab this Teacher Planner for FREE HERE!

This item will only be available FREE today.

 

Most teachers tell me that one of their least favourite things to do is decorate their bulletin board. I am totally opposite. I love changing my bulletin board & coming up with fun ideas. I also love having different bulletin borders to choose from. Those suckers can be a pain if not kept organized. I keep my border in a border storage. I've had it since my 1st year & don't know what I would do without it.

I also keep any bulletin board décor in my bulletin board storage box. This keeps it all in one place.

 

Colour coded binders are just the best! Most teachers keep their student files in a large filing cabinet. I actually keep all of my student info. & assessments in a large binder. This allows me to easily bring the assessments home to mark or use for report cards. I keep student info. sheets in one binder & their assessments in another.

 

 

This bin with coloured folders keep my guided reading organized. I have the folders coloured coded based on each reading group. I keep any readers, printables and/or assessments that I need to use for my guided reading in this bin. This is also a BIG help when I have a sub & allows the sub to run my guided reading exactly like I want.

 

So that's just a few of my favourite tools to help stay organized & sane.

Head over to Blog Hoppin' HERE for more ways to stay organized.

 

 

Okay so now it's time for When Thursday....

Here's a rough draft of our class daily schedule & when we will do things.

Since school hasn't started yet we don't have the times scheduled for our music, library or gym time. Plus I know after the 1st week of school I tweak my daily schedule to best fit my kiddos.

 

 

And I included a glimpse of my 1st day of school schedule because it's always different than the rest of the year.

I didn't include the grade 4 year plan since we haven't met as a team & decided on that yet.

 

Want to look more into daily schedules & year plans? Head over to Blog Hoppin' HERE to get more ideas!



Rrrr... Umm...1st Day of School Part 2

So I am waaaay behind on my blogging. Sorry guys.... It's been a rough, busy and confusing last 2 weeks in my life. This past week was our first full week of school and by full week I mean the 2 days I had my kindergarten class since the kids only come Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday. Since I am used to teaching kinders 5 days a week I knew I would have to cut back a lot of what I do & I did or at least I thought I did! Boy oh boy, I feel like what I had planned for this past week can carry on into this upcoming week which it looks like it is. I guess I didn't cut back enough. Two days just isn't enough time to teach and do activities that I want to do! Talk about messing up my planning... I was planned for the next 3 weeks but now that I evidently planned to much for each day I need to go back and adjust. I am so happy to say that I have one fabulous class this year. Of course there is always one or two free spirits in every bunch but I know that given a few weeks in school those will wind down.

 

We had staggered entry so on our first day with 12 of my students I had completely forgotten to take photos. Good thing we had a first day part 2 with the other 11 kiddos because I remembered to take some photos. I still didn't take as much as I should have but you know that first day is crazy, especially with little ones. I think next year I'll have a parent stay all day the first day just to take pictures for me. :)

DAY 1

We made a gingerbread man craft after going on our search around the school looking for our gingerbread man cookies.

We colored our gingerbread man for our gingerbread man hat.

 

FIRST WEEK

This week we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Our theme was an All About Me theme and focused on our names. We also learned about the letter Pp. Talk about a BUSY 1st week. Eekkk!

We spelled our names with foam letters and counted the number of letters in our name.

We made a pig to reinforce the sound of Pp. These pigs will go up in the hallway in about 3 weeks when we begin our Farm Unit.

We played with our new friends.

We completed a letter Pp sort.

 

You can grab yourself a FREE Pp Sort here that my kiddos also did.

 

I know many of you are at least a month or weeks into school. I hope y'all had a smooth transition.

 

 

 

First Day of School part 1



The calm before the storm. Well actually there wasn't much of a storm but I felt like I was running non stop. I am very lucky I must say. All of the kindergarten classes have staggered entry so I only had 12 kiddos today. The first day part 2 will take place Friday.

 

I had to cover up the name tags since we obviously don't want to share students' last names online. They just love seeing play dough out on the first day.

 

 

 

 

I was SUPER excited about my first day of school dress. Talk about a deal... It was only $30 and originally $115. I love finding great deals at J. Crew.

 

I totally forgot to take photos of the kiddos and their 1st day activities. Oops! I'll try to do better next time.