Are you ready for back to school? Sorry, were you trying not to think about it? Or are you caught up in the lists of all the things you need to do to get ready and trying to cram prep around some last vacation fun? Why not make it a little easier on yourself this year?
7 tools to make back to school easier
Start with a good plan and add in the right resources to help set you up for success. Here are 7 things that can help make back to school easier and help you be ready throughout the year.
1. Back to school activity pack
Kick off your year right with activities and practical ideas to help set classroom values and develop social skills—while giving your class a chance to get to know each other. Get activity ideas to encourage students to reflect on their summer, share things about themselves, and promote friendship.
2. Classroom games
Back to school can be tough for teachers — and students. When you’re faced with yawns and blank faces, you need something to get students re-energized and ready to learn again. Time-tested classroom games to the rescue. These games can get kids moving and give you a chance to work on social skills too!
Here’s one to have up your sleeve: Islands. To play, create several “islands” using hoops scattered on the ground. Students must jog around the islands without touching them. When you say, “Islands,” students must get onto an island before you count to 5. Students need to share their island with others, but students who do not fit into one of the hoops are out of the game. Remove one hoop after each count of 5 until 1 island of survivors remains.
3. Classroom job charts
Classroom jobs promote responsibility and community, and classroom job charts make managing classroom jobs easier. Start with classroom jobs and job charts right at the beginning of the year. As a job comes up, show students how to do it correctly, and use the job chart to show students who will perform the job for now. Make job chart review part of your morning routine so that students always know who is doing what.
I’ve created a pack of classroom job charts that includes 16 different classroom jobs that you can assign to your students. If you have more students than jobs, you can have 2 (or more) students do a job. There are 4 themes in this pack including a bear theme, circus theme, space theme, and summertime theme. As you move through the year, you can mix up your classroom job charts with these Halloween Job Charts or these Spring Job Charts.
4. Punctuation posters
Part of back to school is setting up your room, and room decor is a piece of that. There are so many things you can hang on your walls, and I love these punctuation posters to help students learn. Each punctuation poster includes an explanation of the punctuation type as well as examples of how the punctuation could be used in a sentence.
5. Physical education resource kit
Is physical education one of your responsibilities? Having a set of go-to activities laid out with materials needed, objectives and skills covered, and rules/how to play makes teaching P.E. easier. Even if physical education isn’t part of your responsibility, you may find these activities a great way to teach skills and get kids moving as a reward for hard work or as a needed break. I created a physical education resource kit with 35 lesson ideas that will last the whole year—and each P.E. lesson is on a separate card so you can use it anywhere with ease.
6. Phonics games
I love games as a way to keep things fun for back to school and throughout the year. Well thought out games provide students with necessary practice of key skills. Make back to school easier with phonics games to engage and help your students revise and practice words during phonics time. One of my favorite games is Spin, Read, Write. Students spin a spinner and then read and write the word on their game sheet.
Phonics Games: Spin, Read, Write, Set A covers multiple spellings of these sounds: /ae/, /ee/, /oe/, /er/, and /e/. Phonics Games: Spin, Read, Write Set B covers multiple spellings of these sounds: /ow/, /oo/, /ie/, /oo/, and /u/. Phonics Games, Spin, Read, Write, Set C covers multiple spellings of these sounds: /s/, /l/, /or/, /air/, and /ue/. Each pack includes 40 different board games. Instructions are included explaining how to prepare the games, as well as how to play them. Download, print, laminate, and set up the spinner and you’re ready for small group work or literacy/phonics station choice time.
7. Math games & activities
Get ready for back to school with a variety of math games and activities. Meet your curriculum demand and keep kids engaged and excited. From place values to shapes, mental math to measurement, times tables to chance, a mix of games and activities makes class time and homework easier. Add card games, dice games, puzzles, and more to your repertoire, and you’ll be ready for back to school and a whole year of math fun.
To make back to school even easier on you, I’ve put all of these products together in a Back to School bundle, at a savings of 46% over buying them separately. You get 455 pages of ready to use (no prep!) activities to get you back to school with ease — and keep things flowing throughout the school year.
Get yours Back to School bundle here >> https://topnotchteaching.com/back-to-school-bundle/
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