Yes, I am aware that my open house was four whole weeks ago.
This whole back-to-school thing has been completely out of control. I CANNOT catch up, and I come home every day aching and exhausted. I would totally be asleep right now, but it’s storming, and I don’t do well with storms.
SO, what a perfect time to (finally) share my open house night!
[ If you missed my classroom reveal, you can see it here. ]
First I whipped up these ridiculously cute station signs.
Then, due to some demanding Instagram followers – love y’all – I turned them into a TPT product. Grab 10 blank and editable station cards HERE.
UPDATE: I have created a few different versions of the signs, including polka dots & pirates!
Before chaos ensued, my front table looked like this:
Station 3 instructed parents and students to grab a blue checklist. The checklist included sorting supplies, finding things in the classroom, picking out a book for Monday morning, etc.
My table and countertops looked like this:
I posted my wish list stickies and volunteer forms on the whiteboard. Most of the post-its were gone by the end of the night. Yippee!
The desktops were arranged so that as soon as parents walked into the classroom, they thought, “This teacher is OCD, overzealous, and probably out of her mind.”
The manilla folder contained back-to-school forms to be taken home and returned later.
The editable flipbook is from Miss Johnston.
The red folder is the FISH folder.
I gave each student a composition book since I got a class set at a workshop. The labels are for the kids to stick to their folders, notebooks, etc.
The glow stick tag is free from Teach With Laughter.
This was next to my door on the way out:
How cute is that?
Then I sent a quick Snapchat selfie (LOL) and the three hours of chaos began!
Whew. Reliving that was exhausting.
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Unknown says
Love how organized you are! This all looks so well planned, fun, and professional! Hope your year has been off to a great start!
Hilary
Journey of a Future Teacher
Kristin says
Thank you! You too!
Unknown says
Hey I LOVE how your classroom looks! How do you make those print outs with those types of fonts? They are SO cute!! I would LOVE to know!
Rashele Veach says
Do you have an editable version of the team homework page in your fish folder?
Kristin says
I actually got that idea from Amanda Madden at Teaching Maddeness. It is a part of her Dealing With Math Homework pack that I bought (from Teacher's Clubhouse), but she may also offer it separately. I made a similar one to match my FISH folder theme, but I don't want to sell it since the concept wasn't my own idea. 🙂
Aimee says
I love your post! You have lots of great ideas that are easy to use (which is always a hit). I love the mint tub. It's genius! I am definitely going to pin it for next year. Thank you so much for linking up with the Weekend Warriors!
Aimee
Primarily Speaking
Jeannine says
Wow! So many fantastic ideas in one post Kristin! I will have to keep them in mind for our meet the teacher night! I'm off to get Pinning away! Thanks so much for linking up with us for this post!
Jeannine
Creative Lesson Cafe
Bright Concepts 4 Teachers says
Thank you so much for joining the WW link up and sharing your amazing ideas. I love the parent information flip book and the adorable mint idea! I am pinning that for next year!
Learning in Wonderland says
I've got to get these information flip books for next year! That would be an awesome way to introduce everything and it would keep those early parents busy while you wait for everyone to arrive! Thank you for linking up and sharing all these wonderful ideas!
Maribel
Sarah says
Would you mind sharing or giving more info on what is on your checklist? I love that idea – I always have parents who end up chatting the whole time and miss things I wanted them to do.
School and the City says
Sarah,
Here is a link to my checklist that I used last year as a public document on DropBox so you can view it: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51007420/Open%20House%20Checklist.pdf
It wasn't perfect, and I'll definitely tweak it this year.
Thanks for coming by! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Sunara says
this blog just made my day! thank you for everything you shared. you inspired me to hook my printer up 3 weeks before school even starts. i love your creativity and sharing.
School and the City says
What a compliment!! Thank you!! I need to get to work for the upcoming year, too. 🙂
Unknown says
Would you help an old lady out, please. I see that you use blogger for your blog and I love your layout but I can't figure out how to get mine similar to yours. Can you help me figure it out?
School and the City says
I currently have my layout as a dynamic view. Here's a link that I used to set it up on Blogger: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1227173?hl=en
Thank goodness for Google!
Unknown says
Wonderful ideas and I just love the way everything is laid out and pretty much self explanatory. Our school is changing up a lot this year in the way we get our classes. Although we are Elementary each teacher will teach either one or two subjects to two different grade levels. This should be interesting I know……but looking at your pics and ideas helps me to see how to organize more and to get ready for the three classes of kids I will be teaching. Thanks
School and the City says
Wow, that will be interesting. Good luck this year!
Unknown says
Thanks for all the great ideas! I was wondering if your writing process pencil was available anywhere? I love it! Good luck with the coming school year!
School and the City says
Hey Lauren! It's not my product, but you can get it for free here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Process-Clip-Chart-Pencil-841066
Best of luck to you too!
Robin @ toxicbeautyblog.com says
You. Are. Fabulous. Love your ideas and energy!!!!!!
Unknown says
Wow, this was amazing! I'm a first year teacher getting prepared for the fall. I loved all of what you did. 🙂 Great ideas
Unknown says
What is in the FISH Folder??
School and the City says
Hi Camille! You can check out the FISH folder here. Thanks for reading!
Lisa Parham says
Can you describe more about organizing school supplies? Like I see you have pencils, erasers, etc. Do you collect everything or have the kids keep some and put the others in the tubs or what? Just curious!
School and the City says
Hi Lisa! It really depends on the year. I typically only have keeps keep their own scissors, notebooks, and folders. I collect pretty much everything else for community supplies. But like I said, it depends on the year and what is on the supply list that year. Hope that helps!
Unknown says
Hi! I was wondering it you have a template for the writing process pencil. I thought I remembered seeing a template before, but now I can't seem to find it. Thank you for all of the great ideas!
School and the City says
Hey Kaitlin! I downloaded it for free on TPT here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Process-Clip-Chart-Pencil-841066
Unknown says
Thank you!!!
JamieGoehring says
I know you posted this several years ago but I stumbled upon it tonight and really enjoyed reading it and it gave me a few ideas as well. I've never thought of having students select books that first night and absolutely love it. My school is encouraging us to call each parent over the weekend before the first day of school and meet the teacher night to invite parents to school. I think along with that I'll encourage them to bring in their school supplies. With any luck I can get half my students setup in the room before school even starts! I'll have any that weren't at meet the teacher night pair up with a student who came on the first day to get help putting stuff away. Should speed things up and leave more time for community building on that first day as well as provide parents something to do while I'm chatting with other families :).
Unknown says
Hi there! I loved all of your ideas and am adapting and changing a lot of what I do for BTS night! I was wondering if you have a copy of what is on your checklist! I love that idea! Thanks!
School and the City says
Hi Crystal! The checklist changes every year. It always includes sorting materials and picking out a few books in addition to finding some things around the room. Every year I try to reuse the previous checklist, but I end up remaking it because there are always different things to do!