First Day of School Plans

The first day of school is going to be here before we know it! It's so exciting, but also very busy. One of the things that I searched for on Pinterest was plans for the first day of school. I know that everyone's schedules look different from others,  but I loved how the first day of school went last year. I couldn't believe how fast it flew by. I want to share the plans that I plan on using for the first day of school!

First Day of School Plans for Kindergarten

When the student's arrive to the classroom, there is a lot of time before the school day begins. I like to have books out on the rug for them to look through. This also gives the parents a great opportunity to read to their child before they leave. 

Throughout my entire school, everyone participates in Morning Meeting. Below is what my Kindergarten team decided to do for the first day.

• Greeting: Students roll a ball to each other. When the student gets the ball, they say their name by saying, "I am...".
• Sharing: The students who would like to share share what their favorite color is. 
• Activity: "When the Wind Blows" is a lot of fun, and the students love it. The teacher calls out a characteristic, and the students with that characters come to the middle of the circle, and then go back to their spot. For example, "When the wind blows, if you have on a purple shirt."
• Message: Students share how they got to school. You can make an interactive chart for students to graph how they got to school.

After Morning Meeting, we read "Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes" by Eric Litwin. As we are reading through, we recalled the different places that Pete the Cat visits in his school.

We then went on a tour around the school to visit all of the places that Pete the Cat went. This is so much fun for the students, and helps the students learn about the different places. As we were visiting the places, like the lunch room, I was able teach the procedures for that place. You can find the tour over at Inspired by Kindergarten. This is also a great time to teach hallway procedures; the students will get lots of practice! (This activity needs to be put up before school starts.)

Once we got back, we created our classroom rules. This is based off of Responsive Classroom. It's great for the students to create the rules, because it gives them accountability. In Kindergarten, their answers may be negative: "Don't hit someone". Instead of writing exactly what they say, it would be great to turn it into a positive rule: "Keep your hands and feet to yourself."

We then took time to read "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. During this time, students are able to discuss their feelings. While students are working on name mosaic below, my assistant began to get their hand print for "The Kissing Hand" poem. You can find the poem at Wise Ways in Primary by Amy Wise. 

Another activity that we did is the name mosaic activity. The students names are already written onto a black piece of paper with white crayon. They then used small pieces of paper to glue onto their name; to make the activity quicker, go ahead and cut out the pieces for the students to use. You can either let them use a glue stick, or a Q-Tip with liquid glue. Remember to teach how you want all of this to be done. Go step by step, and do it several times. I got this idea from Rock and Roll Kindergarten. 

Picture from Rock and Roll Kindergarten 

For an end of the day activity, I had my students complete a "First Day of School Crown". It's fun for the students to create their crown, and they wear it with pride when they leave school. It's also great because they can practice procedures that they have learned throughout the day. You can find the crowns over at Crystal McGinnis TPT store. 

Throughout the day, I do throw in a few videos for the students to dance to. I normally do an ABC video and a GoNoodle. You can find my YouTube playlist here. 

Throughout the day, find time to teach some of the important procedures, like bathroom, table, clean up, how to pack up, how to clean up from snack time, etc. You can use my checklist that I have created to decide what procedures are important for the first day. You can find that here.  

By the time you have gone through all of the activities, procedures, lunch, specials, and recess, your day will be over. Good luck with your first day!! 

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Essentials for the First Day of School

When you think about getting ready for the first day of school, you probably focus on what activities you are going to do with the students and how to make it the best day possible for them. However, there are a few things that will help you have the best day possible.

Name Tags

You have 18-25 new students in your classroom, and if you are like me, it takes a while to learn all of their names. My mentor teacher suggested to make name tags out of felt fabric and puffy paint. By doing this, she said that you can use these name tags any time throughout the year, like when there is a substitute, or on field trip. She also said by doing this, the students will not play with them and they will not get dirty. I tried it for my first year, and loved it! I was able to use them throughout the entire year. I think it is very important to have name tags for the first day, and believe this is a great way to do them.

Transportation Tags

You also need to know how each child is getting home. If you are a Kindergarten teacher, the students are going to have no idea how to get home and it is up to you make sure they get to where they need to be. In our classroom, we use transportation tags to place on their book bag. This helps you, and any other staff in the school, to help the students get to where they need to be. And parents will love you when their child gets home safely. We use transportation tags made by Samantha Kelly. You can get the tags HERE.

First Day of School Frame 

It is always fun to take pictures of your students on the first day. Kelly Hallock from my school made the cutest board, that she was able to reuse the board throughout the year. If you want to take pictures of your students, go ahead and make the frame that you would like to use. I recommend doing this, because the parents love it! 

These tips are a few essential ways to make your first day of school smoother. If I had to pick one to do, it is definitely getting transportation tags. If you have any other essentials for the first day, I would love for you to share. 

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Back to School Night: How to Be Prepared

Back to School night is a very exciting time! You finally get to meet your students and show off the room that you have been working so hard on.

At my school, Back to School nights feel like a blur. The parents and students come in and want to meet you. You greet them as quickly as possible so you can meet the next student. While trying to remember your new students names, you're also having to remember to remind parents to pick up the important paper work. And then it starts all over again with a new student. It's very exciting, but VERY busy!

Since Back to School night is so busy, it's important to make it very easy for parents to understand what they need and what they can do around the class.

1.  Set up your sign-in area so you can look back over to see how many students visited. 

Sign-In Sheet Download

2. Set up a place in the room where parents can pick up important documents. Make sure that you label each page as "Take One". If you want to be on the ball, you can go ahead and make a packet for the parents.

3.  Make sure to have a parent/student inventory for your parents to take home. This helps you learn a lot about the student in a quick amount of time. I have used the same inventory for the past couple of years, and it is very helpful. Marsha McGuire did a great job creating the inventory. 

Click here for Parent Inventory. 

4. Have a few activities around you room that the students can do if they would like. I would suggest setting out books, a sight word center, and math manipulative. This lets the students become comfortable and excited to be in your class room with their parents.

5. Lastly, I love giving my students a "Night Before Kindergarten" poem. They love being able to leave the classroom with something, and I am sure the night before school, they are excited to open the poem. Class of Kinder has made a cute poem that I know they would love. You can find her poem here. 

Good luck with your Back to School Night! It will go by so quickly! Enjoy every moment. 

If you have any questions, please comment below. Don't forget to Follow Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventure blog! 

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Start Off with a Great Year with a Rules and Procedures Checklist

Oh the joys of planning out your rules and procedures in your classroom. It is SO important to begin planning how you want your classroom to run before the first day of school.

My first year, I made the mistake of not having a very good thought out plan of how I wanted the classroom to run. I definitely learned that procedures are so, so important to teach. And don't make the mistake of thinking they will learn them on one day. Keep practicing, and practicing until your students have got them down. It may seem very redundant, but it will save you come December!

When it comes to teaching the rules and procedures, you should model, have a student model, and then let everyone practice the procedure. If you need to, you can have multiple students model how the procedure should be done. And it's ok for you to do this process every day.

I love to re-evaluate at the end of each year to figure out what I could do differently to make the classroom a more positive environment for learning. I take some time in the summer to figure out what could be done. I also think about what other teachers have done to make their classroom successful.

I have created a checklist to help me remember all of the rules and procedures that we would experience throughout the day. Below is an example of the checklist, and you can download the checklist at the bottom.

You can download Checklist here!

Don't forget to continue teaching the rules and procedures even after the first week. 

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Classroom Decorating Made Simple

Classroom decorating can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you are a first year teacher. You want to make your classroom the cutest on the hall and you may feel like you have to have every wall filled. STOP. This is not true. I am into my third year of teaching, and I have learned that decorating your classroom can be simple and cheap!

Before you begin to decorate your classroom, you need to decide how you want your room to be set up. I have sat in my classroom for over an hour trying to decide the best way to place the furniture. I would move a table to one place, and the next minute, decide to move it across the room. I like to make my classroom feel open, with as much space between the furniture as there can be. You may adjust your room several times throughout the year to find what works best for your classroom.

When you are starting to think about decorating your classroom, find decorations that are cheap and can be used throughout the year. Hey, if you are great at DIY, it's the best way to go. For my classroom, I decided to make and hang pompom balls from the ceiling to make the room feel less like a classroom (made from tissue paper). I used a rug and a lamp that I had in college for the reading area. I was able to find calendar and birthday posters from  Amazon. I then found beginning of the year posters from Teacher's Pay Teachers; this included color names, ABC chart, and numbers up to 10.  Your classroom does not need to have everything that you would learn up at the beginning of the year.  I put boarder around the white board to add small decorations. I also created a bulletin board that I could post anchor charts for what we were learning. This past year, I added a desk cover and valencies in the windows to make my classroom feel more like home, but this is not necessary.

It is so much fun to decorate your classroom. Don't get overwhelmed by feeling your classroom is not as decorated as everyone else. Your classroom may look like it does not have much at the beginning of the year, but I promise that you will have student work, anchor charts and posters covering all of your walls at the end of the year. You will also find more decorations throughout the year that you can add to your classroom. Your classroom will look drastically different at the end of the year!

Enjoy decorating your classroom!!

For more ideas on how to decorate your classroom, follow Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventures.

Thank you to Lindsay Catanzaro for helping make the beautiful door!!

Praise Your Students with Brag Tags

My first year teaching, I struggled with finding a good behavior management tool that the students would like. I wanted to make sure that I praised the students for their positive behavior, but I didn't want to go broke doing it.

I decided to try out Brag Tags by A is for Apple off of Teachers Pay Teachers. From the very first day that I began to use them, I fell in love. I decided that I wanted to use the Brag Tags to praise my students, and I also wanted the students to be able to take the Brag Tag home and show their parents. I printed out the brag tags, and laminated them. If a student received a Brag Tag, it would be turned into a necklace with string. I would make sure that the class congratulated the student that received a Brag Tag. The students were also able to wear the Brag Tags throughout the day, and they could even keep them at home to show off to their parents. I wanted to make sure that I created them to be able to go home as another great way to brag on the students to their parents.

At the beginning of the year, I would give out Brag Tags randomly to students who were caught showing great behavior. If I saw a student sitting quietly, they would received a Brag Tag for that. As the year progressed, I started to focus on all of the students working towards a Special Brag Tag, or the Awesome Day Brag Tag.

Everyday, we would end our day by giving a student an "I Had an Awesome Day" Brag Tag. I felt like this was a great way to end our day. It really taught the students to be supportive, even when they didn't get the reward; this took a while for some students to grasp, but by the end of the year, they were very supportive. We would also have days where we would have a Special Brag Tag that the students were working towards. At the end of the day, the Special Brag Tag would be given out.

I highly recommend trying Brag Tags this year. I plan to continue using Brag Tags in my classroom this year. It is a great way to praise students for their positive behavior, and teaches students to support others even when they did not receive a Brag Tag.

If I did not answer a question that you may have, comment below. Don't forget to follow Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventures!

Parents Will Love You!!

During my first year teaching, I had a hard time remembering to communicate with parents, and share our successes in the classroom. I knew that I needed to find something that could help me out with communicating with parents; we all know that is a very important part of teaching!

One of my colleagues suggested that I look into Bloomz. I looked into Bloomz and fell in love. It had everything that I was looking for with communicating with parents. I used it as a commutation tool in my classroom last year, and the parents loved it! I want to share some of the features that Bloomz has to offer. 

Top 5 Reasons Why I Love Bloomz

1. You can send announcements out to parents, and they will receive them immediately on their phones. I've had several times where I forgot to send reminder stickers home, and I will get on Bloomz to send the parents the reminder. 
   
2. You can post pictures to show parents what is happening in the classroom. I know that this is a feature that parents love. They want to see their child in action throughout the day, and they want to see what activities we are doing. I also love that when parents take pictures of students in the class, like when we are on a field trip, they can post the pictures on Bloomz in a collaborative album.
   
   
3. You can ask parents to volunteer to bring certain supplies into class. I used this feature a lot during the Christmas season, since we were doing a lot of fun activities. The parents will see that I am asking for something, and they will sign up for that item.
   
4. Every student has their own profile that will go to the parent of the child. You can post work that the student is doing. I loved using this feature for writing and showing off their work. The students even loved me sharing their work with the parents. 
5. You can create a class calendar of important dates for parents to get reminders. I made sure that I put our library date, so that parents could remember that our library day was always Friday; we rarely had students forget their books. I was also able to put important events, like Kindergarten Graduation. 
   

Bloomz is very easy to navigate and do. It is so quick to type up a reminder, or share a student's success with parents. I had great feedback from the parents!! I definitely recommend trying out Bloomz for the year.

If you have any questions, comment below and I will be happy to answer. If this post was helpful, don't forget to share it with your friends! 

Teacher Wish List: Printout Included!

As I mentioned in the blog What Do I Need to Order?!, you should make a list for what you need to purchase with money that you are given from your school, and a list for what the parents can volunteer to purchase. A Teacher's Wish List is a great way to get items that are fun for the class, and get a few necessities that were not included on the supply list the students recieved. Below is a list of what you could ask parents to supply:

Teacher Wish List

- Crayola markers 

- Play-Doh

- Gallon size bags: I used a lot of these to organize the centers. 

- Sandwich size bags: Also great for putting centers into.

- Baby wipes

- Regular wipes (Clorox)

- Clothes pins: These are great for centers. 

- Paper towels

- Books 

- Kitchen toys: I needed this as a first year teacher! 

- Board games

- Essential Oils: I had a parent give our classroom a defuser, and we used On Guard and Orange oils. - Dish soap

- Stickers 

- Colored Cardstock 

- Post-it notes

*** All of the items list above are things that I asked parents to get, or I am planning on asking for this year. 

If you are going to do a wish list, make sure you print out individual cards, or write the items on a post-it note; this way, the parents can take the card home with them for shopping. Make sure that your wish list is visible during Open House night. I have posted mine on the white board, and have also seen teachers lay the wish list out on a table. I have created a wish list that you can edit to suit your class, print out the cards, and display them so the parents can take several home. I tell parents to pick however many they want to volunteer for, and they can take the cards with them.


Teacher Wish List: Free Download!

*** If you would like to edit the PowerPoint to make it your own, comment below.

Ready to Sing and Learn?

YouTube is a great resource to use in any classroom and has some awesome songs that help the students learn and retain new information. You can go ahead and get on the ball by finding songs that will fit what you are teaching, create a library with playlist on YouTube, and you will be ready to sing and learn! Follow the steps below to create your library for your classroom! Your team will be so impressed that you are prepared for fun learning!

Creating a Youtube Library 

1. Login or create an account for YouTube.
2. Search for videos that fit your grade and content. 
3. Once you have found a song that you like, press the + Add to below the video. 
4. Click Create New Playlist. 
5. Create a name for the subject of the video. My playlist are Math, ELA, Writing, Science, etc.
   
6. Continue looking for videos that fit your grade level and content, and save them to your playlist. 
7. When you are ready to use in your classroom, go to Library on YouTube, and all of your playlist will be there. 
8. To assure that no inappropriate ads pop up, copy the link of the video that you like, and paste the video link here. It cost a little money, but will be well worth it, especially when you have an observation! Or, you can use AdShield to download the videos to your computer; you will be guaranteed no adds, plus your viedos will be saved when you're offline. 

I love to sing and dance along with my students while they are learning. You can hear them throughout the day singing the new songs that they have learned. You can find link to my playlist here.

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