Things to Plan for Your Classroom Now That Summer Is Here

 

Now That Summer Is Here

Now that summer is here, you may have decided to chunk your school books in the corner and relax. To be honest, I don’t blame you. No matter how much we love school, we all get tired. Now, take a deep breath and allow yourself to think about the upcoming school year. What are some things that you can do now that won’t make you even more exhausted, but that will help you make a smooth transition from summer break back to full school mode.

Word Walls

You can go ahead and begin designing your word wall for the upcoming year. Word walls are a great way to help increase your child’s vocabulary and help him or her become a better reader. Pick out words that you know you will use for the upcoming year. You can either design your own word wall or order one from places like Teachers Pay Teachers.

Back to School Activities

Plan your activities for the first day of school or if you’re feeling especially refreshed your first few weeks of school.  You can design fun games to help you get to know your students and help your students get to know you. Some simple games that you can use are Bingo and Scoot. Now is also a great time to create interest inventory quizzes and pre-tests for your subject area. You can even plan fun, age-appropriate craftivities for your students. All students no matter what age love to create things.

Rules and Regulations

No one wants to think about discipline especially in the summer. However, now is a great time to formulate your classroom rules. You may not know who your students are at this point, but you can create generic behavior charts. You can design homework check list sheets, create posters that display your classroom rules, and create behavior contracts.

Become Familiar with Objectives

Who has time during the school year to learn state objectives or standards? If you are like me, you may find yourself crunched for time. So, if you know the grade you will be teaching in the upcoming year, now is a great time to read over those state objectives or standards. Don’t spend all day every day reading them. Simply devote five or ten minutes per day looking over the objectives and familiarizing yourself with them.

Plan Activities

Once you have familiarized yourself with the standards, you can begin to plan activities. I am not suggesting that you do full-blown lesson plans. I am recommending that you take this time to think of the thematic units you want to teach or some ways to make learning those tedious objectives fun.

Schedule Me Time

Summer is definitely “Me Time”. Make sure that this is not the only time you get to spend with your family and yourself. Decide on the days or hours that will be reserved just for you during the school year. It doesn’t matter if it is the weekends, after 5:00 P.M. or Wednesday nights. Just carve out some time for yourself that is school work free. Once you have chosen your “Me Time”, do your best to keep it sacred.

Make the most your summer. Enjoy your time off. And, take advantage of your time away from your busy classroom. Do simple things that can help make your upcoming school year run more smoothly.

Teaching Healthy Eating Posters

This is an activity the P.E. teacher had the kids doing to teach healthy living. The students were required to design posters that features three healthy meals that included the correct calorie count for both men and women. I thought it was so cute! It is also a great way to get the kids (and myself) thinking about healthy eating choices.

Fun Things to Do in Your Classroom with Fabric

 

Fabric can be used for many different ways to make fun and educational things for your class.  All you need is the material and an active imagination to get students interested in fabric and excited about learning.

*Class Quilts

Quilting isn’t just for little old ladies. You can get your students involved in quilting by make a classroom quilt using  small scrapes of fabric. Before beginning your classroom quilt, it was also be interesting to teach the students the history of quilting. Once this is done, let the quilting begin.

This quilt can be used to display each of the students’ names or it can be used feature a book, a story, or other lesson that you have just completed. You can then display the on a wall in your classroom or in the hallway.  Your students and parents will be excited to see the classroom quilt.

*Banners

Classroom banners can be designed for a specific event or just to show your class pride. They can also be used to summarize a recently read book or even a monthly theme like apples, clowns, or holidays. Banners are quick and simple to make, and they are a lot of fun for students to design.

*Tote bags

Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving or Mother’s Day-it doesn’t matter.  Students can use fabric to design totes for any season or any occasion.  This is a fun and quick activity that you and your students will both enjoy.

You and your students can make tote bags for any season or for any different activity.  Depending on the age of your students, you may have to pre-cut the fabric and do the sewing and ironing.  However, this is a fun way to make something that is not only cute but also useable.

Fabric can be used in several different ways in your classroom.  You can make classroom quilts, banners, totes, and other objects with fabric.  Making these items can be educational as well as fun. 

http://www.quilting-in-america.com/History-of-Quilts.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4869601_make-banners.html