Last Friday was our Meet the Teacher night and I got to meet 15 of my 18 new students. And can I say that they seem so sweet and am so excited for this school year!!! I am linking up with 2 Super Teachers to show you some great ideas for Meet the Teacher Night!
Our school holds Kindergarten Orientation an hour before open house. This is great because I have the parents attention all at once to tell them about our classroom without them popping in and out randomly throughout the eventing. This is bad because I HAVE to keep them in my room for the entire hour and cannot let them leave because the other teachers are not ready for them. There is no way that I can talk for an entire hour so I had to come up with a plan. Thanks to the amazing Kim Adsit, she saved my night with her amazing Open House Packet!
I started off by having the parents sign in when they came into the room. They signed in on a few sheets just so I could get information about how their child was going home on the first day and the rest of the year, and if they wanted to volunteer in our classroom. While the parents were signing in, I took each student over to find their folder. I label each folder with the child’s name so that I can easily see who did not come to orientation.
Inside the folders is our flipbook from the awesome Kristen! This has all of the important information needed for the school year at each parent’s fingertips. They can keep this on the fridge and refer to it throughout the school year. These are the best thing that I have done this year for open house.
Also inside each folder was a packet of information from the school and forms for each parent to fill out about their child. These forms are filled out during orientation and are given back to me before they leave. This way I have all contact information before the start of the first day. The final thing inside each folder was a fun gift welcoming each student to Kindergarten.
Once everyone had a folder and found a seat, I went over a quick 15 minute Power Point presentation to go over everything that is in the flipbook and a few other important things to help make the year go smooth. Then it was on to the fun part of Orientation Night, the Scavenger hunt from Kim! Inside each folder was a map with a list of stations that they had to visit in the classroom. There was no particular order that they had to be completed in so it allowed for students and parents to freely move around the room at their own pace. Each station had direction signs in these cute little pink frames that I found at Michael’s. Here is a peek at each station:
Book Boxes – In our classroom, we do Daily 5. We start off by learning about Read to Self. To make this go as smoothly as possible, I had the parents help their child find 5 books that interested them and that they wanted to read the first week of school. They helped the child place those books in their book box so they would be ready for the first day of school!
Graphing – Students graph the activity they are most excited to do in Kindergarten, learn to read, learn to write, or play on the playground. Surprisingly, playing on the playground wins every year š
Writing – This station was for the parents. Parents wrote a letter to their child stating how proud they are and what they hope their child will learn this year in Kindergarten. I will hold on to these letters until the last day of school then send them home for the families to read together. Such a special moment for them!
Photo Booth – What family doesn’t want a fun photo to remember Open House? I have fun props set up for the parents to use to take fun and silly pictures with their child. This is always a favorite station to go to!
Craft – In Kindergarten we do a lot of things that are worthy of being hung on the refrigerator. So of course we had to make a refrigerator magnet to hang all of this amazing work!
Our back to school night was a success! The parents loved all of the activities and they had a great time doing them with their child. Now this tired teacher is off to bed! Head on over to 2 Super Teachers for more great ideas for Meet the Teacher Night!
