What To Do If You Can’t Get Into Your Classroom Yet ~ Ep. 91

Episode Summary

If you’re itching to start getting ready for back-to-school but still can’t get into your classroom…this is for you! There is so much you can still do from home to feel more prepared and a whole lot less stressed when the school doors finally open!

In this episode, I’m sharing practical things you can start on this summer. I’ll also walk you through five must-have routines to plan before day one, and share how to make the most of your summer with intentional PD (including my private podcast, PD by the Pool, for new kindergarten teachers!).

In this episode I share:

• Essential Tasks at Home
• Planning First Week Lessons
• Crafting Routines and Procedures
• Professional Development Opportunities

Learn More:

• Summer Learning for First Year Kinder Teachers
• Kindergarten Back to School Activities | First 2 Weeks Kindergarten Lesson Plans
• First Month of Kindergarten Success Kit | Back to School Activities Mega Bundle

Get the freebie!

Connect with Zeba:

• Instagram – @kindergartencafe
• Facebook – @kindergartencafe
• Website – www.kindergartencafe.org
• Tik Tok – @kindergartencafe

Read the Transcript

[0:00] Hey teacher friends, it’s Zeba from Kindergarten Cafe, and today I want to talk about what to do if you can’t get into your classroom yet.

[0:08] This may not be the case for all of you, but I know for me, in our school, and actually every school I’ve been to, they’ve kind of been closed down for the summer, either for different activities going on in the summer, programming, clubs, camps, summer school, or cleaning. Cleaning the floors, taking all the furniture out, which is really appreciated. Or maybe they’re doing work on it, like redoing the roof. So either way, there’s been many times where I can’t get into the classroom until close to the end of summer. And you are chomping at the bit to get things done, especially if it’s a new classroom. You just want to get in there and get started. But sometimes you can’t. So this episode is all the things that you can do if you can’t get into your classroom yet. And even if you can get into your classroom, it’s worth listening to because not all the things have to be done inside the classroom. Sometimes there are things you can do in the comfort of your own home while watching a good TV show or sitting outside. And so this will go over those things so you don’t have to be stuck in the classroom the whole summer.

[1:21] You’re listening to the Kindergarten Cafe Podcast, where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom-tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away. I’m Zeba, creator and founder of Kindergarten Cafe, and I help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone. Ready to start saving time and reducing your stress all while using effective and purposeful lessons that students love? Let’s get started. Let’s get started.

[2:12] Okay, before I start, all of these ideas and more are included in a free checklist, a free back-to-school checklist that I have. You can get the checklist in the show notes below. And I have a checklist. Part of it is for what to do at school and what to do at home. And there’s one section that’s for returning teachers and one section that’s for new teachers. So very helpful checklist. Definitely check that out while listening to the episode or after listening to the episode.

[2:40] All right, so let’s start with the essentials of things that you can do at home before you even get to the classroom. First, preparing materials like name tags. You can make your name tags for desks, lockers, or cubbies. It’d be great to get this done early. Usually for name tags, I print them out and then I laminate them. And so depending on what supplies you have at home or if you have stuff at school you can use you could at least get the name tags typed up on the computer. Name tags on the lockers I have printed on cardstock and laminated some cute little locker tags that I reuse every year. I just use wet erase markers on them so that they don’t like dry out during the school year or get erased during the school year. Occasionally they get smudged a little bit and then you just rewrite it, but usually they last all year writing in wet erase, and then you can reuse it from year to year.

[3:35] Mine are, of course, Pete the Cat themed. I don’t feel like ever changing it. I just kind of like them. I like Pete the Cat. The other thing that you can do is you can type up on the computer, possibly even print out, depending on what you have at home, labels for folders. I like to print on Avery labels or the Avery equivalent of Office Depot, whatever’s cheaper, that kind of thing. I usually get them in my supply ordering from school. I assemble back-to-school folders with different labels for, like, home-to-school folder. And one side says return to school, and one side says keep it home. So I put those stickers in there.

[4:11] And the other thing I do to get ready for folders and things is I get a first day letter ready to go. I write a letter to families that has, I use the same thing every year, but it has schedule information, expectations, a warm welcome, that kind of information. And I have it ready to go so that I can copy it and put it in their folders on the first day of school. Or you can copy it ahead of time if you want and have, you know, the means to do that and put it in their folders over the summer. That works too. Speaking of folders, other folders that I get ready and I put labels on and stickers on are science folders, poetry folders, writing folders, things like that. I have all of these different labels included in my first two weeks of kindergarten pack. So if you’re interested in checking those out, the link is in the show notes. But it is very helpful to have all of the labels like ready to go and I just switch out the names. Now something I do do is I use numbers to save time to save resources so each kid gets a special number this helps with their unfinished box and the mailbox I don’t have to write those every year with different labels I just have the numbers and they last forever same with like how they order lunch they do lunch numbers and.

[5:31] And so because of that, on the folders with their names on it that I am printing out, I add their numbers to them. So for me, I actually like to wait as long as possible to do any of this stuff because I just this is like type A personality. I just like to have the student list and the numbers correlated with the student list as accurate as possible. And so I wait till as close to the first day as possible because kids can keep registering. And then it messes up the order of my list and I want it to be alphabetical so that it goes along with attendance and report cards and all that stuff and when kids move in I just put them at number 18 whatever empty number I have the next number and it’s not alphabetical and that’s okay but I know that for my school we get a lot of kids registering the last week before school so I literally wait until like the day before to do all this stuff. I’ll get it all prepared and like I said, I just, it’s a template that I use every year. So I just switch out the names. So that’s easy. They’re ready to go. I just wait to put the names and actually print them out. Like I can put the names in, but I wait to print it out until very close to the actual day.

[6:45] But other things like name tags don’t have their numbers on it. So I can get those ready. The locker tags don’t have their numbers on it. So I can get those ready. And then other stickers for folders, like saying, this is your back to school folder this side is keep it home this side is return to school I can do all of that whenever the other thing that you can start collecting while you’re waiting is important parent and dismissal information getting contact information for the parents I like to have a contact sheet ready to go so I can hang it by the phone makes it much easier to make a quick phone call about say child needs extra clothes or they’re not sure about a dismissal plan and you want me to check like just a quick it’s just much easier than having to look it up in our system so I like to type that up before school starts.

[7:31] And making sure that parents have been inputting dismissal information so that you know how kids are getting home. All that is something you can figure out. Again, that’s something more closer to the beginning of school because parents need to have a chance to fill that out. One other thing to consider when you are making folders, name tags,

[7:49] all of that stuff, is save yourself a ton of time and stress and trouble and make new student bags. These are like my secret secret it’s not so secret because I share it every year but this is my biggest time saver my biggest strategy that I can tell all teachers to do biggest trick up the sleeve new student bags so whatever you are making for students whether you’re making folders name tags make an extra set or two or three I actually do four because we get move-ins all the time in my school. And I get blank sets ready to go. So I get whatever name tag I’ve printed out for everyone, I get one that’s blank and I put it in the bag. I make the folders ready to go for signs. I might even put the student number on it, that’s the next empty number, but then I leave it blank. And so I can write the name in. This is so helpful so that when I get the email saying, hey, you’re getting a new student, and they’re starting in two days or they’re starting tomorrow, I just grab the new student bag and boom, everything I need is right there. I don’t have to go searching for everything.

[8:59] And so it just helps to put it all together when you’re doing it anyway. You’re making popsicle sticks for student names. You’re making lunch car ordering cards or whatever it is that you’re making for your students with their names on it or their numbers or whatever. Make an extra one that’s blank and put it in the bag. And like I said, I do four because I used to do three and then I’ve used them all and I had to make new ones. So I now do four and that seems to be good. Hopefully, knock on wood.

[9:30] But definitely, definitely recommend new student bags when you are setting up things for your classroom, for your students for next year.

[9:39] Something else that you can do at home before school starts is making sure your lessons for your first couple of weeks are ready to go. Definitely plan your first week of lessons and write your lesson plans, but plan for more activities than you think you’ll need. That way, if things go faster or slower than expected, you have activities ready to go. We’ll talk more about the first week and the first month of kindergarten in later episodes, and I have some other resources available for you for that, but you’ll want to focus on introducing routines and procedures, classroom expectations in those first couple of weeks.

[10:14] If you are new to teaching the kindergarten or a different grade, you’ll maybe want to read through the first units that you’ll be teaching just to make sure that you’re familiar with the routines that they’ll be asking the kids to set up and like some of the how the unit will flow together. Like what’s where’s it starting? What’s the end goal of the unit? That kind of thing. You could check out those materials and resources maybe if you’re able to access them. If not, you’ll have plenty of time during the school year. It’s not a big deal.

[10:44] Speaking of routines and procedures, that’s another good thing to do while you’re at home. Even if you’re not in the classroom, write out the procedures that you’ll want to teach. Figure out maybe like what the routines will be for students to hand in assignments, finding supplies, how to move through the classroom. And start thinking about how you want to introduce those routines because you’ll want to have that all figured out before school starts. Because when school starts, that’s when you’ll be introducing those routines. You’ll want to model and practice them with the students. And so you’ll want to know what is it that you want to see them doing so that you can teach them how to do it. Five routines you definitely want to have planned out before the first day of school is, are your kids going to be doing morning jobs? What will they be? How will they handle finished work or unfinished work?

[11:34] What do you want them to do if they finish early for something? How will you be communicating with families? And what to do if a pencil breaks? If you do want help with those, I do have a blog post that can help walk you through thinking through those routines. But those are definitely the ones I would plan out before school starts.

[11:52] And finally, if you are at home and you cannot access your classroom, maybe look into some professional development. If you are a returning teacher, you could think about what worked well and what you want to improve on, and then look for PD opportunities for that. If you are new, you can definitely check out the resources that I have. Also, if you’re returning, I have tons of resources as well. But if you are new, I do want to highlight Petey by the Pool, which is my podcast, my private podcast for new kindergarten teachers with 10 quick and easy podcast episodes, short and simple, that really get to the heart of what new kindergarten teachers need to know. So you can listen to that anywhere while doing anything, which is why I love podcasts. But definitely when you’re at home and you kick into the classroom, this is a great opportunity to do some learning and be really prepared for the following school year.

[12:45] So don’t stress if you are unable to get into the classroom. There is still a ton of things that you can do at home to prepare so that you are not so overwhelmed when you are able to get into the classroom. And as we go along in the following weeks, I’m going to have a ton of tips on setting up classrooms so that when you are able to get into the classroom, you are ready and prepared for that. I can’t wait to support you this summer in getting ready for the next school year. Reach out anytime with questions. I always love hearing from you.

[13:19] Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources, or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies. If you liked this episode, the best ways to show your support are to subscribe, leave a review, or send it to a friend. I’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips. See you then.