Starting the School Year Without a Tear!
The beginning of the school year is coming and everyone is starting to feel the anticipation, anxiety, and excitement. Teachers are raiding Target, parents are school shopping, and all the new kindergartners are wondering what this school thing is all about. Here are some tips to make the first days of school go a little bit easier for everyone involved.
Don't Kick the Parents Out
Now this advice goes counter to what you may have heard! But honestly, it is very sound advice! Don't feel like you have to rush the parents out of your classroom when they drop off their kids. Let the parents come into your room with their child if they would like. Let them stay and leave when they are comfortable. (You will be surprised. They will leave sooner than you think, and everyone will have a smile on their face).
Set up fun and exciting stations in your room, activities the children will probably already know how to interact with. Activities they can play with as soon as they enter the room. You can have out things like puzzles, play dough, watercolors, or Mr. Potato Heads at the tables for the children to immediately use. The students will naturally be drawn to these activities, they will get the message that school is a safe and fun environment that is not to dissimilar to things they have done before. As their parents watch them settle in, they will feel comfortable too, and will feel safe leaving their child in your care.
If you would like to try this, you can use these tasks cards to display at each activity: It will be $3 well spent! These cards changed my beginning days of school for the better!
Also Available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
You will love these 17 Grab-and-Go Task Cards to get your students right to work as you take care of those morning teacher chores.
This set of cards is great to introduce students to independent work led by task cards at the beginning of the school year.
The tasks depend on common classroom manipulatitives that you will probably have readily available. But in case you don’t or you would just rather have your manipulatives made of laminated cardstock, everything is included to get you going!
Task Cards:
Mr. Potato Head
Make a Face
Play Dough
Make a Sculpture
Painting With Water Colors
Sorting Buttons
Pattern Shapes
Counting Objects
Build With Blocks
Dominos
Dueling Dice
Links-a-Plenty
White Boards
Cube Trains
Teddy Bears Geo Boards
Playing Cards
Tangrams
Other Back To School Products
Back to School Themed Writing Activities
Back to School Sight Word Readers
TEACH PROCEEDURES SNEAKILY
We've all heard that you should spend the first weeks of school teaching procedures so that the rest of the year will go smoothly, and, let's face it, if you're teaching kindergarten it's really more like you're spending the first months of school teaching procedures. These important procedures can be taught in ways that are fun and engaging for students. For example, if you want to teach your students how to use glue and scissors properly in your classroom, let them practice gluing dot pictures or cutting a path to help an airplane fly on a pathway. There are activities like this in our cutting and gluing packet.
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Build your child’s (students') fine motor skills as well as develop confidence by using these fine motor activities. Each category begins with novice activities and then moves forward in complexity; aiding development.
Let the kids "read"
All of your kindergarteners have been told they are going to school to learn how to read because they are now five. And yes, they are going to expect to be reading on that very first day of school. So let them! I have a simple abc book in our alphabet unit that I always use on the first day. We sing the alphabet song together and then for my very first guided reading lesson (yes I begin center rotations on day one) we read the alphabet book. Now all of my students can go home and proudly tell their parents that they are now readers!
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Description
Alphabet Activities Themed Unit Newly Updated.
Back to School with an introduction of the alphabet surrounded with a fair-time theme, is fun and engaging. This Introduction to the alphabet thematic unit is packed with fun and engaging activities that are strategically linked to Core Standards. Please checkout the preview to see the great value this packet awards!
Students show interest in the alphabet and have the innate desire to read! Start your school year off with the theme Alphabet Fair. Just like the traditional county fair where locals show off unique talents and personalities, this thematic event will give the alphabet letters a chance to show off!
Or have a full-fledged Alphabet Fair with your own child or homeschool students!
"Absolutely love the song and chant charts! One of my favorite parts of *all* of the Kindergarten Kiosk resources is the page at the beginning which beautifully outlines the unit, while providing space for individual teacher's additions."
Here is What is Included *All Lessons are Strategically Linked to Standards
Literacy Activities
A Ticket To Ride: Identifying uppercase letters
Monster Madness: Matching uppercase letters
Ferris Wheel Whirl: Identifying uppercase and lowercase letters
Cotton Candy Letters: Matching uppercase letters
Waterpaint the letters from A-Z
Alphabet Train: Trace the Letters A-Z
Find The Duck: Cut, match and glue alphabet letters
Draw a path and name letters while visiting the Animal Barn
Math Activities:
Sorting Letters: Sorting alphabet letters by attributes
Letter Graphing: Graphing alphabet letters
Writing
Writing Prompts (Two Choices)
What I Know About the ABC's
Guided Reading Books
The ABC Song
Art Projects
Letter Collage
Letter Painting
Name Necklace
Song Charts
The Alphabet Fair
The Alphabet Song
Boom Chicka Boom
The Alphabet Chant
© Kindergarten Kiosk
Related Back to School Products
Back to School Themed Writing Activities
Back to School Sight Word Readers
Back to School Student Information Forms FREE
Chrysanthemum Names Thematic Unit
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Take Small steps
Don't feel like you can't let kids do anything in your classroom before you have taught them every procedure. Give yourself a break and only focus on a few small procedures a day. It's okay if the only procedure your students learn on the first day is how to get safely into and out of the classroom (remember that comment earlier about kindergarten procedures taking months). Know that children need to free play with materials too, so take advantage of that and make room in your schedule for free-play block or toy time, or a time for free exploration of easy-to-use classroom materials. Remember your goal is for the children to feel like school is an enjoyable place right from the "get go" and to not even know they are slowly learning the ins-and-outs of your classroom.
Remember to Simplify
Honestly I feel like this teacher in the comic each school year; the beginning of the year in kindergarten is not for the faint of heart! Hopefully if you use the tips above, things will go smother for you. I know that it does for me.
Make it a goal this year to simplify your teaching and focus on what really matters. Remember the classroom is for children, not a Pinterest ad. Lean on your colleagues; you are in this together. Go home early enough to cook a healthy dinner, get some exercise, and enjoy your evening.