Meet the Teacher Night = SUCCESS!

This week has been fast & furious! Like most teachers, this week has been filled with 8am-4pm trainings & meetings and then late nights at school trying to get my room ready. Tonight was our Meet the Teacher Night and I have to say, all the hard work paid off! I have so many sweet kids and families. I know it is going to be an awesome year!

So, before I head off to bed for some much needed sleep (I mean when you reach your FitBit step goal before 3pm, you know it's been a busy day) I thought I would show you my Meet the Teacher Night set up. 

 My sign in table consisted of just that....a sign in sheet, a party volunteer sheet and a checklist of things for parents & students to complete before leaving.

 Here's a close up ;)

This year, I chose to make (and laminate) folders to hold all the information at Meet the Teacher Night. It made things so much easier for me! Parents had direct instructions on what to fill out and leave with me and what to take with them.  I also left a little sweet treat on each desk for the students to enjoy. 

 On one side of my folder I gave parents things to take home and read/things they need to do:

• TIPS Conference sign up instructions (these are our parent-teacher conferences) - I use Volunteer Spot (www.volunteerspot.com) to organize these conferences. It is so easy for parents to do and it is so much easier for me to keep up with! 
• My "All About Me" page with some information about my life, my education and a list of my favorite things. 
• Class Dojo Parent & Student log in instructions- I use Class Dojo in my behavior tracking system. I LOVE it! If you haven't checked out Class Dojo yet, you are missing out! (www.classdojo.com) 
• A letter explaining what things we will be focusing on in each subject this year, pick up and drop off information, whole brain teaching information, etc. This is basically the "how to" manual for my classroom. I try to lay everything out at the very beginning so parents are information from the get-go. 
• I had to include a note about headphones...they were left off of our school supply list. DOH!

 On the other side of the folder, I give parents 2 forms to fill out. The first is a student information sheet and on the back is a parent questionnaire. I would not suggest copying these front to back...I only had about half of my parents flip it over and see the back side. I guess I'll be sending this home in Tuesday folders next week. The other form I have is just a volunteer questionnaire. This gives me an idea from the very beginning who I am going to be able to rely on for help in the classroom and how they want to help!

Once parents had filled out all of their paperwork, I let them do some of my hard work for me....they sorted their student's supplies! Wow, what a big help that was! My teammates and I decided to use community supplies this year. I think it will make my life MUCH easier.

I didn't get a picture at the best angle, but I had all of the pink and blue buckets on the counter labeled and students and parents worked together to place their supplies in the correct bins. Tomorrow I will get supplies put out in my table bins (not pictured) and have them ready for the 1st day!

Have you had your Meet the Teacher Night/Open House yet? If not, check out my Meet the Teacher Night essentials bundle! I've updated my original file. The new one contains every paper and label featured on this blog! All you need is a printer and some colored paper and you are all set!

Tomorrow...or the next day...or the next day....(or whenever I get some sleep) I will show you my room! I am so excited to show it off. My walls have a slick new coat of paint on them (thank you FISD) and it looks better than ever! 

Goodnight for now my friends!

Meet the Teacher Night Gift

This Thursday is Meet the Teacher Night at my school. I am always nervous and so excited all at the same time! One thing I like to do is leave my students a little something on their desks to get them excited about our year together. Candy tends to do the trick! I found this cute little poem online and made these tags.

Click on the picture to download them for {FREE} in my TPT store. Also, check out my Meet the Teacher Night Essentials bundle! It has everything you need to be prepared for the night. It will be on sale on Wednesday, August 19th during the "More Love for Back to School Sale"!

Have a great Monday!

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Where did summer go?!? Today we reported back to school for professional development. You know what that means...sitting through lots of meetings. I am so thankful for my principal, assistant principal and all the amazing people that I work with. Today was a great 1st day back because they make it fun!

So before we get into the whole back to school & classroom set up thing....let's talk about how I spent my last full week of summer freedom....

If you ever have the chance to go to Grand Cayman...GO! I floated around in the most beautiful water I have every seen in my entire life. I swam with sting rays, held star fish, ate some great food and enjoyed sweet time with my family. It was a little hard to come back to reality last Wednesday.

Once I got home I hit the ground running and got my classroom put together. I wish that I had remembered to take a picture of the "before". Our district decided to replace all of the whiteboards in our rooms this year and in turn ended up re-texturing and painting the walls. So, we had to put everything back on the walls...but it was so worth it! I love how beautiful and clean my room looks now. I am not quite ready to show it off but I will be soon :)

Have you gone back to school yet? If so, how are you feeling about it? I'm excited!