Back to School

Starting back to school is always fun and exciting for teachers and students both. New ideas abound! Here are a few of my favorites for getting the year off to a super start.

Send a welcoming letter or postcard to your students a week in advance of the first day. Introduce yourself and tell some of the fun activities the class will be participating in during the first few days.

Create a bulletin board that resembles a huge jigsaw puzzle with interconnecting pieces. Title the board "We Go Together."As each student arrives, give him/her a piece from the puzzle. Have them draw pictures or symbols and write words that describe them and their families. When all the students have finished, allow them to assemble the puzzle, attaching the pieces to the board. For easy assembly, I write numbers on the back of each piece. This allows me to aid the students in their assembly of the puzzle.

Prepare a wordsearch puzzle of twenty to twenty-five terms relating to school. I like to include all the teachers' names in the list also. These terms will become the spelling word list for the first week. On the puzzle, I include directions for assignments such as:

On a separate sheet of paper

• Write the words in alphabetical order.
• Write the words in syllables.
• Write the words and give their part of speech.
• Write the words in well-constructed sentences.
• Design, draw, and color a symbolic border around the puzzle.

One important item to definitely take care of within the first day or two is your class roster. Double check the names, addresses, phone numbers, and parent names with your students. Invariably, the list I receive from the office contains mistakes and needs corrections.

I like to take snapshots of my students on the first day of school. With today's disposable cameras, it's even easier; plus you can have them developed directly after school at one of the one-hour photoshops. The next morning I arrive at school a few minutes earlier than usual to post the photos on my door. What a nice surprise for the students when they arrive! I later use these same photos to place on the covers of their Language Arts portfolios.