Work SMART, 3 tips for starting your school year off on the right foot.

The year is starting off soon, and I don’t know about you, but I’m always a bit nervous at the beginning of the year.  I’m also totally excited as the year cycle begins again.  I love a fresh start.  Here are 3 tips to save your sanity at the start of the school year.

Spend the first week working on routine.  Train those kiddos what you expect from them at clean up time.  Show them exactly what you need from them when they line up.  Trust me, it will pay off later.  When I was a beginning teacher, I used to worry that I was too strict.  I worried that I might have too many rules.  But one thing I have come to realize over the years, is that kids LOVE structure.  They need to know the limits.  They will bounce around at first to figure out what those limits are, but once they know what they are, then their comfort zone is established, and they can work well within the boundaries.  As self-regulation becomes a bigger problem in society, I have found that setting even clearer boundaries makes for a happy class.  I use tape everywhere.  I have masking tape on the floor, to show the kids exactly where they need to stand when they line-up to leave the room.  This eliminates pushing and shoving and budging.  I used duct tape to make a grid pattern on my carpet.  Because my class size is sooooooo big these days, the only way all the kids fit on the carpet, is if I assign them a spot.  So every week I give them a new spot and they have the same spot for the week.  I can make sure that kids that need preferential seating, are near the front, and kids who shouldn’t sit together are separated.  If this seems a bit too regimented to you, remember that I teach in the K to 2 area and kids of this age love structure.  So my advice is that you spend the first week of school focusing on routine and you can start on the academics the next week.  Trust me, it will make for calmer kids.  As the year goes on, I loosen the reigns and the kids know the boundaries.

For me, I have a crafting room where I spend most of my time.

CLICK HERE for a tour.

I am an avid papercrafter and spend a lot of time making cards and scrapbook pages.  This is how I de-stress.  Here are a few of my favourite pieces.

My kids on rides at the local fairgrounds.

My daughter and I at the Mining Museum.

and a few of my favourite cards…

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to check out my papercrafting blog.

These classroom decor packs have everything you need to start your year off fresh.   Most of these bundles include the items below and more.

Alphabet posters. This is a PDF file with twenty-six, 8.5” by 11” A to Z posters. Print full page or adjust printer setting to print 4 per page for a set of flash cards.

Banners. This is a PDF file with three different styles of banner to spell-out WELCOME. You can print them full page for 8.5 x 11 size banner pieces, or adjust your printer setting to print 4 per page for a smaller banner. There are also 3 styles of letters for bulletin board headers. (upper case, lower case, and also numbers)

Book Bin Labels – over 130 different labels, plus a blank set.

Calendar Posters –days of week, number of days in school, calendar headers and 4 sets of different numbers, behavior chart, weather chart, birthday posters

Here’s what’s included:

-12 month headers 9” W by 3” H

– 35 number squares 3” by 3” in 4 different styles

– 7 days of the week calendar headers

– Today is, Yesterday was, Tomorrow will be posters

– 7 days of the week words to be placed on the posters

– 12 birthday posters – one for each month

– Behavior Chart: This behavior clip chart will look fantastic in your classroom! Encourage your students to have great behavior and climb to the top of the chart!

Classroom Organization – Everything to make your classroom organized

-There’s labels for tables in 4 styles

-Binder covers and spine labels

-blank name tags – these would make great bin or basket labels, locker labels, job cards, flash cards and name tags

-stationery and writing posters

-over 99 labels with images for your supplies.

Math posters like 2D and 3D shapes, 100 charts, 120 charts, and number posters with 10 frames, numerals, and written names for each number to 20. . This is a PDF file. You can print them full page for 8.5 x 11 size posters, or adjust your printer setting to print 4 per page for flash cards.

Classroom Schedule – over 70 different schedule labels with pictures There are cards for almost every activity in a daily schedule. There are multiple cards with Canadian and American spellings for things like “Centers” or “Centres”, and multiple labels for things like “gym” or “PE”.

Word Wall – This kit is designed to simplify the process of setting up your classroom word wall and sight words based on the Dolch word list. The Dolch words are divided into grade level from pre-primer to Grade 2 for easy set up. There is also a header for the Word Wall based on this theme.

Edited.  I now have an extensive classroom decor line with multiple themes. 

CLICK HERE

to see what’s in my store.