Back to School Scavenger Hunt

Wow, can you believe how fast the summer is going? I've been updating my back-to-school stuff since we start school in a little less than a month. That time is going to go QUICK!

The day before school starts we have an open house where the kiddos come and meet their teacher. I like to have a little scavenger hunt for them to do when they come to help them get a little familiar with the room. And of course there are times when you have 3 kids coming in while you are currently talking with another parent...so this way they have something to do while you finish up your conversation. 

Click the picture below to download!

Free Editable Labels!

Hey friends! I watched THIS tutorial so I could learn how to make editable powerpoint documents but still use my clip art that I've purchased.

I tried it out and made some labels. They are FREE right now in my TPT store so make sure you go HERE grab them! I hope they are useful! Here's a little peek at what you'll find.

Hope you enjoy! 

Procedure Olympics!

School has been in session for a week now and I am T-I-R-E-D! Those firsties are dang cute, but man do they know how to suck the energy right out of me! 

The first few weeks of school are filled with practicing routines/procedures over and over and over again. I try to stay upbeat and excited, but really....I get bored! Which is probably why I never have my class practice as much as I should in the first month of school. Oops!  Well, I am SUPER excited about this fun, new idea! 

One of the awesome 2nd grade teachers at our school had the idea of doing an olympic theme with the classroom procedures since a lot of the kids watched them over the summer. *LOVE!* So I made this poster for my classroom...

I'm NOT the best artist....please don't judge! :)

We started off briefly talking about the olympics and how the olympians were nearly perfect at the sport they were competing in. I asked them how long they thought those olympians had to practice to get so good. One replied, "Probably 2 whole years!" Haha, precious :)

We then talked about how there are things we do in our classroom that we practice LOTS at the beginning of the year because we want to be able to do those things perfectly...just like the olympians! Because....if we do, then we will get to spend more time doing fun things!

Well, they totally bought it. Hook, link, and sinker. Right now we are in the Olympic 'prelims.' This gives me an excuse to make them practice over and over and over again :) I'm watching to see who will qualify to compete in the Classroom Procedures Olympic Games (all of them will, but shh! Don't tell!) When we have our olympic games, I will watch and see who performs the best at each event and they will get THIS.....

I will be printing these babies off and hanging them onto a string or a ribbon. I found this from my favorite clipart site Melonheadz Illustrating. You can click the picture to take you to her site! This one happens to be a freebie :)

I'll be choosing a few gold medalists for each event so that all of my students receive one. Hopefully after all of this they will be well trained and the rest of the year will be a breeze! :) Depending on how the year goes, I may need to give out some gold medals randomly throughout the year to keep the kiddos motivated. We'll see :)

xoxo,
Jackie

Back-to-School Book Linky Party!

I LOVE picture books. I could read them all day long.

First Grade Found Me is starting a series of linky parties to share our favorite holiday books. This party is for Back-to-School books!

Here are some of my favorite picture books I read during the first week of school. 

This book is AWESOME to help teach your kids about the importance of  waiting your turn to speak and not blurting out. 

We read this then talk about not taking things that aren't ours and about what we should do when we find something that doesn't belong to us. 

My students always love this book. We read this then talk about appropriate playground behavior. 

This is a darling book! I read this on the first day then the kids get to cut out and color a bunny. On it's tummy they write something they were worried about for the 1st day of school.

Okay this is my FAVORITE FAVORITE book! I get a kick out of this book! It's great for teaching your kids about friendship. 

There you have it! Make sure you check out the party to see all of the other Back-to-School book suggestions!

xoxo,

Jackie