Welcome Back Educators!

Ready or not….here we go!
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Can you believe that it is already August and we are back in school!?  Now, don’t get us wrong, we are excited for our new group of students and what we’re going to be doing this year, it just felt as though summer flew by! 
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As we are in the throes of the back to school season, we thought we would jot some of our thoughts, ideas, and activities that surround the topic of “Back to School”!
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We also have a vlog (video blog) that corresponds with this post as well, so be sure to go check that out!

Ideas to Build Classroom a Strong Classroom Community

1. Class Promise: Create an anchor chart togethers of the promise you will make each other every day. Some ideas might be: be respectful, listen to each other's ideas, help each other etc… Then every student signs the promise to show that they understand the class promise and that they will do their best to fulfill those promises!

2. 'Me' Bag: Students bring 4-5 small items from home to share with the class.
Great options on TPT if your looking for something pre-made.

Me Bag Link

​3. Investigate the Teacher: Place 5-8 items around the room. Have students find the items and predict what those items mean (favorite food, hobby, etc.) You could also put all of your items in a bag and pull out one item at a time to investigate. This will also have students start to use their background knowledge and inferring skills!

4.Writing People: Students create a poster size head/t-shirt of themselves. They are asked to take them home and put pictures on their person to help give them ideas of what to write about in the classroom.  When the writing people come back to the classroom students share about the photos they put on their person.  These “people” are also a great way to encourage family involvement, class discussion, and student connections.  These are posted in the classroom year round and help make the classroom feel a little more like home for the students.   
This lesson was adapted from Of Primary Importance: What's Essential in Teaching Young Writers Book by Ann Marie Corgill

Parent Letter PDF

​5. Classmate Scavenger Hunt: Create a 3x3 grid (or more for older students/bigger classes).  In each box place a different sentence. For example in the grids could be, “Went to the pool this summer” or “Traveled to a different state”.  Students go around finding classmates that meet those categories.  A great activity to get students moving and for students to get to know one another!

6. All About Me: Students create a book, hard copy or digital, or collage about themselves. Then do an author’s share circle.
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7. Movement Circles: In this activity, toss a ball or something of the sort to help get discussions/sharing moving. Discussion could include favorite summer activity, favorite things, goals for the new school year etc...

8. This or That?:  Create a slide deck with two options on each slide.  Students will jump to the side of their choice. This is a fun way to get to know students while getting movement in as well!

This or That

​9. The Magical Yet: Read this story to your students. Discuss how throughout the year things may be becoming challenging and they may not understand ….yet!  We want students to know and understand that it is ok if they don’t understand right away!  We also use this read aloud to then go into discussion of goal setting for the year. It is fun to hear about what students want to accomplish for themselves during the school year and it’s even more exciting that you (the teacher) get to be there to help them achieve those goals!  If you’d like to listen to the story, check out this link!

The Magical Yet

​10. Interest Surveys:  Now, at the beginning of the year we actually do quite a few interest surveys with our students, they just don’t necessarily look like the normal “survey”.
​We survey our students on how they work best (individually/partner/group), what kind of seating they prefer, their “perfect” reading spot, and book choice.  All these surveys and information about our students help us, as educators, create the best and most effective learning environment for our current class.   ​

Ideas for Setting Up Your Classroom

1. Accessibility to Supplies: Have a place for students to get extra supplies like extra crayons, markers, post-its, glue, pencils, etc.. This way if a student doesn’t have something they can easily get it independently. Students should never feel like they can not be successful because they do not have the materials you are requiring. 
2. Flexible choice seating: This can be as expensive or cheap as you would like, the goal is to give students different options for places to work and be successful. Some examples are: exercise balls, rocking chairs, stools, lap desks, whiteboards.clipboards to use on the floor, bands on the chair legs, etc. There are so many choices. Just remember for it to work and be successful for your and your students you need to set guidelines and expectations. 
3. Math Tool Kits: Purchase shoe boxes with lids for each one of your students. Depending on the grade, fill it with different manipulatives the students might need for math. For example, 100 charts, base-10 blocks, ruler, counting cubes, etc.. This will provide students with tools they need to play math games, math worksheets, participate in math lessons and have access to them when they need it. 
4. Pillow, Pillows, Pillows! I LOVE having pillows in my room. I usually buy them at Wal-Mart for expense reasons and they last for a couple of years. Students love to grab a pillow and find a spot in the room to read. This is a great way to make your classroom feel more welcoming and another great flexible seating choice. 
5. Library book boxes: Students each have their own book box to fill with books from your classroom library, the school library and reading groups. This is a great way to make sure all of their reading materials are in one place. Pro tip: Each student has a canvas pencil pouch that holds a couple of pencils, post-it notes, or other things they might need to have access to during reading times. 
6. BLANK Bulletin Boards/Wall Space:  PLEASE keep your bulletin boards and wall space open!!! We understand that it can be tempting to want to decorate the bulletin boards and wall space with the cute posters and fun decor, but we are asking you to NOT!  Let the students decorate the space with their work and the poster/anchor charts you develop together!  There is so much research out there supporting this and the idea that this will help students feel that the space is theirs, not just the teacher’s.  
7. Groups or Lines?: This might not be a choice due to our current situations but if possible think about putting your students into pods or groups if you have desks. This provides a great way for students to collaborate. Putting your desks into lines makes it difficult for students to work with each other when needed and gives a sense of disconnect with their peers.
8. Lighting: In our classrooms we have put up soft white lights around our rooms.  It creates a warm, welcoming atmosphere and it allows you to not have all the bright fluorescent lights on all the time.  We have also put lamps in our classrooms for those same reasons. We have found these different types of lightning really help our classroom atmosphere and our students prefer it. 

As always we are here to answer any of your questions. Feel free to send us a message! 
                                                          Meg and Kara