We’ve been in school for 3 days now, things are going well, & now I can sit back & take a breath. Every year, I always, always forget just how much work it is getting ready for school. I have my “Back to School To Do List” & everything, but I still underestimate how much time & work is involved.
Here are some of my back to school pics…
Our cubbies, labeled & ready… I print out name tags from Environments Label Maker (free) & each child has their own picture (for those who can’t yet identify their name).
Our classroom door decorated with a welcome sign & the teachers’ and children’s names.
Our Daily Folders ready to go for Orientation Day. These have a welcome letter, Pre-K handbook, & any other information that needs to go home. Parents take the folder home at orientation & return it each day. The orange sheets are sign up sheets for parent volunteers on special occasions. The white slips beside that are for each parent to fill out & give to me right away– it tells me if their child is half or full day, how they dismiss from school (car, extended day, etc), and emergency phone number.
Here’s the rest of my Beginning of the Year Checklist:
- Furniture dusted
- Crayons, markers, colored pencils ready
- Calendar ready
- Centers ready: I take each center one by one & set it up
- Center signs up
- Bulletin board ready (Just border & burlap… I leave it blank for artwork)
- Curriculum goals (for parents) ready
- “Pick an Apple” Supply Wish List ready
- Portfolios ready
- Computer hooked up & ready
- Student name tags (to wear 1st day)
- New glue bottles & new glue sticks in baskets (I put Vaseline in the tips of the glue bottles to keep them from stopping up)
- Teaching easel set up
- Pocket chart for small groups set up
- Seating chart for circle time
- Nap pad chart
- Rules posted (pictorial for the kids)
- Pictorial schedule posted
- Postcards or letters to children mailed
- Lesson plans written
- Lesson materials prepared
- Hanging file folders labeled with children’s names; these are for saving parents’ notes; I label them with those removable Post-It tabs (those things sure are handy).
About Karen Cox
oh, i love these lists.
yes, the labels from environments! i’ve used those too.
this motivates me to get the finishing touches on everything.
hee hee hee!
I love those labels! Thanks for the tip. I will definitely be using them this year.
I was trying to figure out how my students would share cubbies this year. i like the way you’ve done it and will do the same.
Thanks for all the useful links.
Thanks! …And just to clarify in case anyone doesn’t understand how the cubbies are shared (the photo doesn’t show everything), one child gets a cubby square at the top & one child gets a cubby square at the bottom. The middle (long) section has a hook on each side, & each child gets a hook to the left or the right.
How does the vaseline in the glue bottles exactly work? We usually get older glue bottles that have been already sitting around for sometime from the office. We usually poor them out on a plate as needed and use cheap dollar store brushes. But, I would love to try your idea out and see what happens. Tired of having to clean everything up afterwards