Making parents feel welcome is easy with this idea by Joanna, a 2nd Grade Teacher in Indianapolis, IN. In my classroom, I always reserve a special chair dedicated to parents. Only parents may sit in our special Parents’ Chair. When parents visit, children are thrilled to invite their parents to sit in our special chair.
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Get parents involved by using this idea by Andrea, a Kindergarten Teacher in Cypress, CA. At the end of each school year, most of my colleagues discard the word lists and reading benchmark test results they culled from that year’s class. But I don’t remove mine; instead, I find these charts generate discussion at the
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Each month we invite teachers to submit questions that they would like to have answered.  This month’s question is from Denise, who writes: “My question has to do with student absences. Currently, when a student is absent, I try to remember to put any homework papers with the absent child’s name on it on the
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Play dough has many uses, including this idea by Jill, a 1st Grade Teacher in Fort Worth, TX. The first day of school is always so hectic for everyone. Instead of expecting children to settle down with a worksheet, I place a plastic lunch bag filled with play dough on each desk. Without one word
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Learning letters and sounds is fun with this idea by Marilynne, a 1st Grade Teacher in Bemidji, MN. At the beginning of the school year, we review all the names and sounds of the alphabet letters. To help emphasize this letter exploration, I have my class eat their way through the alphabet. For the first
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Ease into the school year with this insightful idea by John, a 4nd Grade Teacher in Bloomington, MN. In an attempt to help my children ease into the school year, I used to plan a lot of fun “getting to know you” games and activities for those first couple of weeks back. But over time,
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This idea for helping with first day jitters comes to from Jane, a Kindergarten Teacher in Springfield, MI. On the first day of Kindergarten, I expect my young students will arrive excited, nervous, and even a bit apprehensive. So, when a mother-daughter duo came to my door that first morning and Mom reported her daughter,
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This clever idea by Natausha, a 2nd Grade Teacher in Warsaw, NC, helps students lose their first day jitters quickly! On the first day of school, I use a scavenger hunt to help my students acclimate to their new classroom environment.  I make up several different lists of things for pairs of students to locate
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Writing becomes fun with this creative idea by Judy Lynn, a 3rd Grade Teacher in Cache, OK. For our first writing assignment, I encourage my kids to write about their summer – which usually brings groans and complaints of, “But I didn’t do anything good,” and “I just stayed home.”  However, I tell them that
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Organizing from the start is the key to a great year with this idea by Norma, a Kindergarten Teacher in El Paso, TX. Here’s a low-tech but highly effective organizational system I have used in my many years of teaching. This idea is so fabulous; I wish I had it in place from my very
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