As teachers, I think we all want to make our new parents and students feel at ease at the beginning of the year. I am constantly racking my brain during the summer to think of different ways I can help my new families feel welcome in my classroom. I mean, dropping your baby off at kindergarten {and being dropped off at kindergarten} is a HUGE deal! It may sound sappy, but it really is like leaving a chunk of your heart with someone else for almost 8 hours a day! {I may or may not have cried leaving my 2 year old at Mother's Morning Out, so I'll be a mess when she starts kindergarten!}

The very first thing I do after getting my class list {and I realize some don't get it until the day of Open House, but I'm blessed to get mine in advance} is write a postcard to each of my kids. Who doesn't love getting mail?!? {You can grab these here for grades prek-5th} These postcards are an easy way to get students and families excited about school!

I also plan on sending more postcards throughout the year. Click the picture below for a copy of the generic postcard :). 

At my school, we first meet parents at Parent Orientation. We have orientation on a Thursday night {before school starts on Monday}, and only parents attend. When parents walk in, I make sure my room looks clean {even it means shoving tons of stuff into the closet 30 minutes before} and inviting. Parents sit at their child's seat, and I have this sitting on their desk.

The folder has the 1,000 forms {not really, but close - ha!} that parents need to fill out and return. The orange card on top is the one thing I have them fill out that night and return before they leave. I also have them fill out this transportation form before they leave.

I am a fanatic when it comes to knowing how kids go home, so by getting this paper before school starts, I can be ahead! You can grab the info card, transportation sheet, and a questionnaire here. The transportation sheet is specific to my school, but you may be able to use it :).
I also have a little gift for the parents. It's nothing fancy, and an idea I got from the teacher I mentored with in high school, but it's thoughtful, and parents appreciate it. They love that a little extra time was taken to make them feel welcomed. I buy a big bag of apples, use some tulle I already have, and a cute tag {you can grab it here}.

The next day, we have Open House for students to meet their teachers. It is always such a crazy day, and I often feel like I don't get to spend enough time with each family. To help me feel better about making parents and students feel positive about the new year, I have this little set-up at their seat.

This is where I did spend a little more money than I probably should have, but after hearing all the sweet comments from families, it was more than worth it! I gave my kiddos two Mr. Sketch markers {they love them}, and usually I attach a balloon to the smelly markers. However, this year, I wanted something a little more personal, and I decided to give each family a book. I was able to get The Night Before Kindergarten on Amazon for fairly cheap {if you couldn't spend that much at one time, you could order a few each month during the year and save them for next year}, and I wrote a little note inside each book. I'm telling y'all - parents appreciated this more than I ever expected! They read it, and sprinkled their ready confetti {I got this idea from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade - the confetti is inside the card with a sweet poem} the night before school started and many told me it was a sweet way to celebrate school starting together with their child.

The last way I try to make the transition into kindergarten special and meaningful, is to have one last thing for parents on the first day of school. In my school, parents can bring their child to class the first day. When families walk in, there is a nametag, coloring page {from my Let's Get it Started pack}, and a pack of tissues for parents. The tissues have a little poem attached {grab it here and here - there are separate boy and girl versions}, and it gets them every year!

I know it may seem like a lot, but I truly think putting in the extra effort at the beginning {even when you're tired behind tired} really does set the tone for the year, and parents and students will appreciate it!

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Vickie

Whew! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind! We survived parent orientation, open house, and 2 full weeks of school! I've got so many things to share with you that we've done, but I thought I would start by sharing how I implemented Kagan these first weeks. Many of you asked lots of questions after I wrote this post about how I incoporated Kagan last year, so hopefully, I can give you some more ideas!

In a nutshell, this is why I love Kagan...

Before I introduced an actual structure, I taught my kids about "Think Time." Think time is huge in Kagan {and research shows its benefits}, and to help my students understand that think time is not talking time, I taught them that before we discuss with partners or teams, we put our fingers on our head for think time. They rocked it!

The very first structure I introduced was Inside-Outside Line. This is most definitely NOT an easy structure to master. However, I really wanted to use it to sing our good morning song each day, so I figured I would dive right in! Basically, half the class lines up and faces the other half of the class {also in a line}. Then, we sing one round of our song {Dr. Jean's Hello Neighbor}. After that round, one line stays "planted,' and the other moves one person down. The last person goes to the other end. This goes on for 3 more rounds until the song is over. Later, I'll use this structure in conjunction with Quiz, Quiz, Trade and others to review skills. The kids love singing the song with each other, and I love that each child interacts with random friends, not just kids they knew prior to start kindergarten. Look how happy they are!

The second structure I introduced {because we use it multiple times a day} is Rally Robin. Basically, this is where partners go back and forth discussing a question/prompt. These can be just for fun {we did types of candy}, or academic {character traits, words that start with a letter, etc.}. This structure is great, because no one can hide. Every student has to talk, and every student has to listen {thus meeting a ton of our speaking/listening standards}. When I went to Kagan for Little Learners this summer, the presenter suggested giving young students talking balls when teaching Rally Robin to give them a visual of when it was their turn to talk. I ordered these little smiley balls on Amazon, and they worked perfectly! I love how engaged my kiddos are in just the first week of school!

Another structure similar to Rally Robin that I used these past 2 weeks is called Primary Interview. Usually, this structure is done in a team, but we used it in whole group when we introduced it. The kids are working with their shoulder partners and they interview each other based on a question/questions I give. Since most of my students are not accustomed to having to really listen in a conversation, I started small. I gave my students one question to ask their partner, and they had to be a very good listener, because they later shared with the class what their partner's answer was. Later, partners will share with their teams, which cuts down on how much time sharing takes. Some of the things my partners interviewed each other about what their favorite food, their favorite thing to do, and their favorite color {we were doing this for fun, but you can absolutely use this as an academic structure as well}. To make the structure a little more fun, I bought these inflatable microphones on Amazon, and my kids loved them!

Next week, I'll introduce more structures, and review the ones we already know. I am already seeing the positive benefits in my classroom, and I would love to hear from you if you try them!

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Vickie

Oh my word, friends! Can y'all believe back to school comes Monday for me?!? I may be freaking out just a little bit since I haven't really done much in my room this summer! However, I have had school on my mind lately, and I've been thinking a lot about the new babies I will get in just over a week. I always have a wide range of levels, especially with letter and sound knowledge. I get students that have never heard of a letter, students that are sounding and blending, and those in between. When I get home from my vacation this weekend, I will start working on all the resources I love to have handy for the beginning of the year and beyond to help my students work on letters and sounds.

Since I have students with such a range of phonics knowledge, I don't do a great deal of phonics instruction whole group. However, at the beginning of the year, I do more than usual. First, I always review this little chart every morning with my students. {You can grab it free here}

Another thing I do whole group is sorts. I love sorts so much! They are quick, low-prep, and such great formative assessment! Here is how we do letter sorts - as a group and individually. We also do beginning sound sorts, but sadly, I don't have a picture. {You can see more about there here}

Another easy activity for the beginning of the year that gives students exposure to words that begin with a letter, but also gives them cutting and gluing practice are these alphabet printables. I usually put them out for morning work the first month because after the first few, they require no directions!

As soon as I can after we start school, I like to get my kids into literacy centers {we call them workshops}, and there, they can work on skills specific to their needs. Some will need basic visual discrimination activities {you can read my post on that here}, some will need letter matching activities, some will need sound matching activities, and a few will need something a little more advanced. Here's a few of the beginning of the year centers I will use:

Visual Discrimination Alphabet Sensory Tub

Letter Matching Clips - this is so easy! Get paint stirrers, write uppercase letters on them, then write lowercase letters on clothespins, and the kids match! Letter practice and fine motor!

Letter Match - another super easy and cheap center is to buy notepads and write uppercase and lowercase letters on them, cut them down the middle, and have kids match them.

Beginning Sound Mats Sensory Tub

Now, the beginning of the year is not the only time we need letter and sound practice. For many of my students, it continues throughout the year. Here are more examples of various ways we practice letters and sounds throughout the year:

Matching letter cards to pictures that start with that letter

 Rolling a die and covering a picture that begins with that letter

 Pulling an uppercase letter card and coloring the corresponding lowercase letter

 Clipping a letter for the beginning sound of a word

 Matching letters to beginning sound pictures with puzzles

 For some of my students, letters and sounds practice in literacy centers continues long after Christmas. However, for the most part, my students have a pretty solid foundation by Christmas, which means lots of reading the second semester!
I hope to blog lots more about our alphabet activities once school starts and I have a new group of sweeties to teach! If you're looking for lots more alphabet activities, be sure to check out Abby's Alpha-Boom post from today!

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Vickie

I had high hopes of getting this post done Sunday and making visual plans, but our internet didn't agree with me. Lightning hit and since we live in the sticks basically, we had to wait to get up and running {and by up and running, I mean I'm connected with a phone cord to the modem because we don't have wireless again yet :/ }. So, it's a little late and the pictures are not edited, but here's just a little of what we did last week {it's so hard to remember to snap pics when you're teaching little ones how to sit, stand, line up, etc. for the better portion of the day!}
We did a lot of fine motor activities from my back to school printable pack. I'm shocked at how well my kids already cut and glue just from practicing for a week!

For morning work, we've been doing a little alphabet page to practice cutting and gluing also. When the kids finish, I have them tell me the letter and its sound.

Of course, we read all about Pete the Cat. First, we read Rocking in My School Shoes and the kids loved it! We took a tour of our school, stopping to take pictures of each place with our rockin' school shoes. Here we are with our principal and assistant principal. I seriously work for the best ladies ever!!

We also practiced our names by making these rockin' guitars my awesome friend Kelley created. The kids loved these! Her craft has different letters, but I had these stickers hanging around, so we used them for this.

Then, we read Pete the Cat Too Cool For School. This might be my new favorite Pete book! We retold the story, dressing Pete the way his friends wanted him to dress, then dressed him the way he liked. We learned that if you want to be cool, just be you!

 

And what beginning of school would be complete without jitter juice?? {thanks Abby!} My kids loved it and it was the perfect end to the first day!

 We also started numbers and shapes, but I'm going to save that for another post {my bed is calling my name and my sweet baby girl has allergy testing in the morning - boo!}. If you're already in school, I hope it's going great and if not, rest up!

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Vickie

Whew! The past three weeks have been CA-RAZY!! Going back to school, inservices, getting my room ready, meeting my new sweeties, and having a full first week back {who really thinks it's a good idea for the first day to be on a Monday??} have had me out of commission, but somehow everything magically came together and my room was ready for parent orientation. That was over a week ago, but I'm just getting time to finally show it off!
I don't really have a 'theme.' More of a primary color scheme, stemming from the chair pouches my grandmother made me. I call my tables by colors, so everything else is primary colored for the most part. 
Ready for a lot of pictures? ;) Excuse the lighting on many of them...I have great natural light in my classroom, but for some reason, it doesn't show in pictures!
Here's the outside area of my room...I LOVE my new rug from IKEA!

 Here are a few shots from around the room. The first is a picture from the door I snapped right before Open House.

View from the front of the room

 View from the back of the room

Now for the close ups...when you walk in the door, the writing table is in front of you

{Posters on the sides are from Lyndsey at A Year of Many Firsts and the posters and cards on the board are from Lori at Teaching with Love and Laughter}

This year, I decided to put three caddies at the center, so that each child had their own utensils. Hopefully, now I won't constantly be telling them to share ;)

Just past the writing table is my reading area. I also got this rug from IKEA and it is so soft! The bookshelf is one my granddad gave me my first year of teaching.

{Posters are from Lyndsey at A Year of Many Firsts}

Above my reading center, is my word wall. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may remember my ugly wall picture. I fixed it by buying a big piece of insulation at Lowe's, using heavy duty double sided tape to attach it to the wall, then treating it like a bulletin board. I'll use clothespins to attach our words. I love how it turned out!

In the closet beside this, is our house center. I love having an extra closet for this! It's nothing fancy, but it serves its purpose!

Beside that, I'm blessed to have a big sink area. Above it, is where I hang our "Wow Work."

On this wall, I have all windows, which is a blessing, but it looks out on one of our playgrounds. To solve the problem of my kids looking out all day, my sweet grandmother made me some curtains. It's hard to see, but they're black and white polka dots. Under the windows, is my art table. I love having a variety of tools for the kids to use and I'm so excited about the crayon jars I made! No more "I need a red!" The kids can just get up and get whatever color they've lost!

Next is my guided reading space and my desk area...I love my two canvas pieces in the windowsill {one was a Christmas gift and the other was a project done by the same sweetie's mom last year}. I'm working really hard this year to not let clutter take over!

{The banner is a freebie and my alphabet cards are in my TpT store.}

This little part of my desk area cracks me up! A mom gave this picture to me this summer that was taken during our field day...I guess you could say I get a little intense! That intensity and some motivated kids won that little trophy though ;)

A few more pictures of my desk area. I'm well aware that I have too many pictures of my child, but I can't help it ;). I love these stickers I got at Hobby Lobby...great for sprucing up a boring desk!

Past that is my whole group area...calendar, board, etc. My tubs underneath my board hold our workshops. When the kids aren't facing the board, they turn to the left and face my rocking chair/easel/teacher shelf.

I love having all my Pete the Cat books out to begin the year and I really love the little pails I attached to my easel with S hooks. They make it where I have everything I need when doing an example or making anchor charts.

Behind that is a big wall with 2 huge bulletin boards. One I use for work and the other I change throughout the year. In the middle is my birthday bulletin board. Our cubbies are underneath where the kids keep their backpacks and stuff. On the counter, I have my folder and snack baskets, and our files where we put finished work.

{Bulletin Board inspiration from Doodle Bugs Teaching}

And, last is this little area beside my door. It holds all my little trinkets I've collected over the years along with our emergency bucket. Beside the shelf is our how we go home chart.

All of my color, number, shape, and alphabet posters can be found here in my TpT store.
Sorry for the overload of pictures, but I finally feel like after 11 years, I've almost created my perfect teacher space. Now let's hope I keep it organized!
I *hope* to be back tomorrow to link up visual plans with Deedee..cross your fingers that it happens!

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Vickie