Thursday, August 7, 2014

Take a Peek at My Open House {freebies!}

Hey yall!
 
Yesterday was our first day of school.
It was seriously the BEST first day of school EVER!
My kiddos are adorable, everyone came to school prepared, and the day went off without a hitch!
I have a feeling this is going to be a great year :)
 
I wanted to share with you a little about how I ran my Open House, which we had on Monday night. Our Open House is a "drop-in." Its open for 2 hours, during which students/parents
 can come in anytime. We'll have a more formal Orientation Night next week where just parents come to get a really in-depth look into the classroom.
 
The past couple of years, I only had maybe 1-2 students/parents show up for Open House so I never made a big deal about it. But I'm in a new district this year and Open House was HUGE! I had 23 out of my 24 students come in :)
 
I took a cue from Ms. Nannini and set my room up in stations. This allowed the parents to wander around the room, spread out a bit, and not be overwhelmed by a huge stack of paperwork. It also gave me time to stand by the door to greet incoming parents and answer questions as needed.
It was very much a "self-serve" Open House and I'll do it this way from now on!


Some pictures of my door (sorry about the quality!!!)
 



Got this gorgeous wreath for half-off at Michaels for $11!!!

You can snag this Welcome sign here.
 
 
Here are some of the stations I set up.
 
Station 1: Here they just grabbed a folder to keep all the papers in.
 
 
 
Station 2: This station just held my introduction letter :)
 
 
 
Station 3: These were student information and questionnaires.
 
 
 
Station 4: This station asked them to sign up for Remind (formerly Remind 101). Figured it was best to have them do it right then and there!
 
 
 
Station 5: This station held a letter that gives me permission to use my students' pictures on my blogs and class website.
 
 
 
Station 6

 
 I didn't realize I hadn't snapped a picture of this station that night, but this is what it was. I just had a stack of papers where parents could write one wish they had for their child this year. This came from Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun
 
 
Station 7 (ran out of colored ink here): Here parents picked up our student handbook.
 
 
 
Station 8 (notice the very sloppy 8 written over the 7...whoops!): This was the last station. Here they picked up a little goody for stopping by and a magnet with my contact information on it.
 
 
 
This is certainly NOT an original idea, but you can snag this printable here.
 
 
 
Before the Open House started, I got a chance to walk the hall and snag some pics of other teachers' displays. Yall....there are some seriously talented ladies here!!!
 

 
 




  
 




 
I'm really looking forward to a GREAT year! Now its time to write my first set of "real" lesson plans for the year :)

8 comments:

  1. Love the station idea for Meet the Teacher night. Cute, Cute ways to display class rosters.

    Teaching with a Twist

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  2. I wanted to do stations at open house last year, but ran out of time to set it all up. This year I'm on it! I'm glad you're off to a great start!

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  3. You do have a very crafty set of colleagues. How fun!

    Little In Betweens

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  4. Lots of creativity flying around that school. Love the minion board!

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  5. Ok - the business card idea is brilliant! Thanks for all tje pics - what an inviting way to welcome everyone. Have a great year!

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I LOVE reading your comments!!!

Natalie