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. 

If this post has been helpful, follow my blog, and share with other teachers! Thanks in advance.

Facebook: Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventures
Instagram: @mrspeaysclass

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! 

Facebook: Mrs. Peay's Kindergarten Adventures

Instagram: @mrspeaysclass

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!