Beginning of year

The days before my first day ever teaching, I remember other teachers telling me not to smile till December so that the kids new the drill and that I didn't mean business. I remember them saying that the first day is filled with nothing but drills and procedures because we are training our students. I have a bone to pick with that. We don't train our kids, we teach them and remind them. Far to often I see on Facebook that Sammy's daughter came back home on the color red, on her first day of…

The beginning of the year is always a whirlwind with the first few days of school and Open House/Visitation. Whether you have your Open House/Visitation before school starts, or once the year is already in full swing, it’s still a huge undertaking! Today I’m sharing with you my 5 favorite tips for your Open House ... Read More about Kindergarten Visitation!

My favorite first grade Back to School Activities in my classroom! These are my go-to activities for the first week of school!

Fun and engaging ideas to get to know your students at the beginning of the school year. Build a strong classroom community with these free resources.

Hang these Amazing Work Coming Soon Posters at the beginning of the school year and then replace them with student work. It's perfect for back to school season when you want to brighten those empty boards. The posters can be used year after year! Choose from color and B&W posters. Print & cursive options are also included.

Today I'm sharing one of my favourite tasks for building community in the classroom. Students are able to share an important aspect of themselves (the story of their name) with the class and with me, their teacher. Through this task we are also working on important skills, like reading comprehension, writing, and reflection. Day 1 To begin, I asked my students to write any name they wish they had on a sticky note. They then placed it in a mason jar. I read my class the story "The Name Jar"…

We read Chrysanthemum at the beginning of each school year. Not only is the topic a good one for talking about healthy and respectful classroom communities, but because her name is sooo long, the story lends itself well to fun name activities on the first day of school. In this post, I share an activity that's perfect for 2nd grade children who have experience collecting and graphing data (math skills they likely learned the year before) and a differentiated version for new firsties. Come…

These 20 books are perfect to read aloud at the beginning of the school year to build community and teach rules and procedures.

These things that should be at the top of Teachers' To-Do List for the Beginning of Year has great back to school ideas for all teachers.