And So It Begins...: Gearing Up for The New School Year

7.10.2010

Gearing Up for The New School Year

Last year I put together a "binder" for my first graders and called them a HORSE: Happy Organized, Ready, Students, Everyday (thanks to a teacher I found at www.bainbridgeclass.com). This year I fell in love with an owl fabric and bulletin board border that naturally caused me tospend a week revamping this HORSE and morphing it into an OWL (because I can't do anything the easy way)! It took a lot of time, and a few pieces I made and threw out, but I LOVE end result! Take a look!!

Organized Willing Learners

Here is the cover:

This is where students will put all their work and school information that needs to be sent home to parents. I refer to it as a "Hoot Pocket".

This is a plastic pencil pouch. I will refer to this pouch as a "nest". On the top I have placed a label instructing students to keep their lunch money and other items in this pouch so that their OWL can help them get the items safely to school. (Ignore the page you can see through underneath)

These here are the rules for the care and keeping of the OWL. I copied them directly from Mrs. Bainbridge's site.

Next, I copied spelling activities on the back of the rules page to explain the process of spelling homework each week. It is called "Spellers Choice" because students are allowed to select from these activities to complete their homework each night.

This is a section that I found to be tremendously helpful last year. I included lined paper to serve as a communication corner for parents and myself. Each morning the students know they have to check their OWL to see if there are any important notes that their parents have written to me. If their are they are place their OWL in the "for my teacher" box in the back of the room! It is called "Hoot -n- Holler".

Here is a calendar I use to grade students homework. There is one box for each week of school. If a student completes his or her homework I will place a sticker in the box for that week.