I recently posted this on the collaborative blog
Conversations From the Classroom.
I now want to share it with my followers.
Check out the free item at the end!
Mickey
Beginning A School Year!
Exciting, Terrifying, Time Consuming, Delightful, Fun, Full of Organizing,
are just a few terms I always relate to the start of a school year!
I am probably in the minority of teachers, in that I always hated the first week of school.
It seems I never had enough time to get everything done, decorated, organized, while attending professional development meetings
all week long.
From my angst of the start of the year, I found several methods/ ways of doing things that really helped me to have a great year.
I hope you can use these thoughts to revisit some of your routines, or
you might try them out too.
👉Print up labels of your students names. These can be used for putting names on notebooks, plastic bags for storage, and other supplies, while keeping order in the classroom. It made life so much simpler.
📃 School supply lists are usually given to parents early before school starts. If you are lucky you can include asking the parents to write their child's name on all supplies.
If not, you need to do this.
How!
😊 I would collect each child's supplies and keep them organized. While collecting them,
✏ I would try to write their name on the back of notebooks and on folders, or use the labels I made with their names on them.
👍 Pencils, glue sticks, crayons, and other supplies, I would put in a gallon plastic bag for any time I had that I could write their name on each one.
👏This idea save so many fights about whose pencils belonged to which student. I usually let them get two new pencils at the start of a week, so that the supply would last for the year.
Pencil Sharpener:
🙋 I invested in a heavy duty electric pencil sharpener, which sharpened all widths of pencils. It would last for many years.
Each morning, I would spend a few minutes
sharpening up to four of their pencils.
😊 This gave me time to interact with them,
👌plus they didn't have to keep getting out of their seat to sharpen their pencils.
Tissue Boxes
I always asked for two boxes for each child. I would write their name on the boxes.
The student would receive one box to have in their cubby, locker, or desk for their own use.
I had a class one for use for students who didn't have their own.
✌ This totally, stopped the students from getting up throughout the day to get a tissue, let everyone watch them walk to the box, wipe their nose and throw it away.
It certainly cut down on the expense of tissues I had to buy.
Trash Cans
I had purchased small plastic cans to be put near groups of four or five desks.
This was a receptacle for paper, tissues, etc.
👉It also stopped students from wandering around the room while during projects.
One of the class jobs was emptying the cans.
Clay
💖I loved providing each child with a plastic bag of the four basic colors of clay.
👌Remember this is a good use for practicing hand coordination.
The students were given their bag of clay when they arrived on the first day.
😎I was able to see what they could create, while I collected supplies, etc.
Throughout the year, I would give out their bags for craft time, especially on rainy days and we couldn't get outside.
I observed students who loved the clay, some who didn't like the feel of it, others who had no idea how to use it, and many other scenarios.
🎓At the end of the school year, they were able to take their clay home with them.
Students would come back to visit with me, and tell me they remember clay time as one of their favorite activities.
🙌I used clay in all grade levels.
No one is too old to play with clay.
Choosing Partners
👥Throughout the year we would do activities in which they would need a partner.
I often would put two
🐶🐶of the same stickers on cards for them to find their partner.
👩To help you out I have included a free set of matching cards to be used any time of the year.
I hope you enjoy using them.
👉Included is a black and white set, so that you can print and use immediately.
👉I also included a colored set that I would laminate for continual use.
👇
🎇Enjoy Your New Year!
Mickey
*** BACK TO SCHOOL MEGA GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY PART 2 *** Fancy winning some extra spending money to help you purchase everything you...
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