Back to School Tidbits

First week…complete! I have such a wonderful group this year that I actually don't feel that "end of the first week" tired. Instead, I'm feeling excited and rejuvenated. I truly believe that it will be a fabulous year! In this post, I wanted to share a few tidbits that started the year off on the right foot! 

Each year, I create a welcome poem for my students. In the past, I've stuffed the bag with sugary treats and left the bag on student desks for open house. This year, I decided to change things up and write a poem that would include supplies that I wanted each student to start with. Instead of giving it to students at open house, it was waiting on their desks on the first day. That way I knew students would all start with what they needed. It was much cheaper to put together than the candy bags, too! If you'd like to grab this poem, you can find it here: Welcome Back to School Poem for Supplies

Since I still wanted to welcome my students with a little treat, I opted for gourmet lollipops. It turns out that CVS had them on sale, two for $1…score! I also bought welcome bracelets from Really Good stuff, added green tags and some twine and voila, a perfect welcome gift was created! 

Of course, I never leave the parents out! I like to give them a little treat too, so for the second year in a row, I gave them "parent vitamins" with a really cute saying for each color in a pack of M&M's. Parents got a big kick out of them! You can pull up a copy here: Parent Vitamins You'll notice that there are two pages of the same thing. That is because I print two pages to one page to make them small enough to fit on the bags. 

Our lovely fifth grade bulletin board. Student names are on the flowers and peace signs. I drew that mystery bus freehand, so please be kind, I am normally a stick figure kinda gal! How fun is that font? It's called Shagadelic! Love it! 

Inspired by an idea I found from Jessica at The Teaching Oasis, I put together a welcome gift for a new teacher that I get to mentor. She's a baseball fan like me, so I made it a baseball themed-basket! Read more about this idea from Jessica at The Teaching Oasis here: Welcome Basket

I'm hoping that you are all off to a wonderful start of the 2015-2016 year too! May each week be an opportunity for growth for you and your students!