School started with me feeling partially prepared, as usual. But regardless of the lack of feeling prepared, I think the classroom looked mostly ready. Here is how school began this year...
Cover ugly cabinets
At the end of last year I had my kids "marble paint" paper to cover my cabinet doors. After laminating them, they add a lot of color and cover up the plain wood. I can also stick anything on them with ease. Always need more places to hang things!
A view of the room
I especially like the streamers. My previous students colored flags of various nations on each triangle and I backed them with colored paper. Strung them all together and they look really great, represent the many nations my students come from, and I don't have to decorate extra for International Day in September.
Chair pockets!
This was one of my summer projects - sew chair covers with pockets on them. I made covers out of four different colors to differentiate my table groups. It's working SO well thus far. And they're super easy to make for anyone with a sewing machine.
A good extension activity
I like to have some kind of mystery research project on the wall. To start out the year I decided to go with a "Math Mystery". Can you figure out the number based on these daily clues? I used
Super Teacher Worksheets for this one. Just press print and cut them out. Easy!
Family Photos
The Tree
By now everyone has seen this sort of paper tree on the internet multiple times. I added the kids faces and think I'll add student work (on circles) soon. It's still warm and summery here in Budapest, but Fall will come. When it does, the tree will have fall colors only. And fallen leaves along the base of the wall. Then in winter... snowflakes and snow colors. Fun way to show the seasons.
Olympics Advice
I asked my previous years students to write words of advice for my incoming third graders. "How to be a 3rd grade Olympian" turned into quite a cute board. My old third graders, now fourth graders, enjoyed walking by and seeing their words and photos. Easy first weeks of school board.
That's a good start I think!
Learning Names: To help the kids meet their classmates, I'm playing a very simple name game even my beginning English speakers can do. I've taped a child's name under each chair in the classroom at random. I'll take roll on Day 1 and practice pronouncing each name (some of my students' names have sounds my tongue is just not used to saying, so it takes some repetition). After I've said each name and identified each child, I'll tell the kids to look under their chairs for a piece of paper. They then look for the person whose name was under their chair and give them their name tag. Simple. Easy. Gets the kids moving around. And not too "in the spotlight" for my shy new ones.
School Tour: As I give my kids a tour of the school and introduce them to other teachers throughout the day, I'll take pictures of the places and people we see. I'll later print all the pictures and during an afternoon lesson, the kids will label each picture with a word, sentence, or paragraph of what the picture is. Then I'll bind it in a book for the kids' reference. Our first published book of the year!
Welcome Back Sack: All the kids' notebooks and supplies for the year are packed in a paper bag (free in any U.S. grocery store and a few cents each in Europe). Then I put this cute little note I got online on the front of the bag. I pass out each bag and the kids open their "present". Each bag has supplies with a child's name on it, so this becomes a Name Game again, as the children have to pass their sack to the person whose name is on the supplies inside. We organize all the supplies they've received and the kids then know where everything goes.
