Open House

I was thrilled to hear my school would be hosting it's first Open House this year! In the past, we have had an Ice Cream Social meet and greet for teachers to meet their students and their families. However, this year our school opened it's doors to our students for tours of the school, visiting their classroom, meeting their teacher and handing in a any last minute forms. I wasn't sure how many families to be expecting as this was our first time hosting but I planned for more visits just in case. :)

 I sent out a group email to our class with an invitation to let my families know I would be at the school and that they could bring their supplies with them to drop off. I thought I would take the opportunity to organize as many supplies as possible before the first day. Hopefully this makes for a less hectic first day. :) A.k.a. more organized piles all over the classroom. I ask parents to R.S.V.P so that I could anticipate our turn out.

I created this checklist in case families were coming all at once I wouldn't be able to walk through each open, however I didn't end up using it. Their arrivals were spread out so I was able to spend more time getting to know each of my kiddos and their families. :)

At back to school night, I ask parents to leave a note for their child or to sign their name on our welcome board. Kiddos always get a kick out of seeing their parent's signatures in the room the day after so I thought they would enjoy seeing each other's names on the first day or school! It quickly turned into a coloring page for our younger siblings who are still using the "scribble signature" which I totally loved!!! My previous students also came to visit and signed as well. I think it made them feel like they had to leave their "mark." Ha! 

After signing in, finding their seat and cubby, students unpacked their supplies! I created supplies tags to place next to bins as a supply drop off line. There are some supplies that I collect to use as community supplies and some that I have students keep at their seat. I explained in my welcome letter how to organize the supplies when you pack them if they were going to be sent in the first day of school. I ask parents to place the community supplies (markers, glue, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, ect. ) in a large ziplock bag with their names on it. This is easier to collect the community supplies from each student at once and then sort it at a later time. However, this also came in handy for the open house because the students were then able to sort them more easily on their own. I always love watching the parents support independence with their children. :) Plus... it gave me some quick informal data on which students were able to read the tags. If you're interested in using the supplies tags, I have created a sharable google doc file. You may click here to get it. 

While students are working on a coloring sheet, I ask parents to complete a Google form with information that is most beneficial at the start of the year. What I love most about Google forms is that it automatically organizes the information into an excel spreadsheet that can be printed for your records. They are also SUPER easy to create. I got this idea from the fabulous Meredith Nardone from Creativity to the Core. 

In addition to the parent survey, I ask students to work with their parents to complete a survey about them. My goal is to take the results and turn it into various graphs to show the first week of school (during morning meeting/calendar). I had the forms already bookmarked on our classroom computers! Now, instead of tracking down which families didn't come to Open House, I can send the google forms as a sharable link for the remaining families to complete!

Happy "New Year"!!! ;)