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Teacher Resources

Back To School!

Starting school can be a hectic, exasperating, and exhilarating experience for students, teachers, and parents. Positive experiences with school are of paramount importance to students, who arrive at school with diverse backgrounds and experiences, different stages of development, and individual needs.

What teachers do on the first day of school will determine their success for the rest of the year. Effective teachers treat students as though they already are what they can be, and help them to be capable of becoming what they will be.

Harry K. Wong
The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher

Great Reads For The First Day

Teacher-Librarians

I Love Books: Celebrate the beginning of the school year with a storytime featuring fictional bibliophiles.

K-2

The Kissing Hand (Audrey Penn): Chester Raccoon seeks love and reassurance from his mother as he ventures out into the world to attend his very first day of school. The Virtual Vine and Little Giraffes have activities to extend this book.
If You Take A Mouse To School (Laura Numeroff): There are great risks in bringing your mouse to school.
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten (Joseph Slate): Experience the first morning of kindergarten with a diverse array of alphabetically ordered — and terribly nervous — animals.
Chrysanthemum (Kevin Henkes):.Follow Chrysanthemum’s lead as she learns to overcome other children’s teasing on the first day of kindergarten. Pair the book with video from Scholastic Video Collection
Junie B., First Grader (at Last!) by Barbara Park: Junie B. starts 1st grade, only to find that her bestest friend has left her behind, and, worse, she needs glasses!

3-5

Judy Moody (Megan McDonald): The first day of third grade puts Judy Moody in a grumpy mood until her teacher assigns an intriguing "Me" collage.
Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Louis Sachar):Visit the Wayside School, where the students have contagious smiles, switched names, toes for sale, and other strange and often surprising habits.
Amber Brown Goes Fourth (Paula Danziger): Starting 4th grade can be tough, especially when your best friend moves and your parents have divorced. Can Amber make new friends and deal with her changing family?
The Secret School (Avi): If you think being a student is hard, try being the teacher too. Ida Bidson, an American student in the 1920’s, must do just that to finish 8th grade and realize her dreams.

6-9

Nothing But the Truth (Avi): In this Newbery Honor book, 9th-grader Philip Malloy, after being suspended for humming “The Star Spangled Banner” during homeroom, becomes the centre of national media attention.
Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems (Kristine O’Connell George): Experience a year of middle school from start to finish through this collection of humourous, realistic, and touching poems.
Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli): Stargirl starts a new school — pet rat and ukulele in hand — and her classmates must choose whether to accept the changes she brings.

 

Classroom Decor and Organization

Classroom Library: Organize the classroom library's book bins with labels.

First Day of Kindergarten Award (Sandi Reyes):Full colour PDF features form fields, enabling teachers to input child's name, teacher's name, and date.
Welcome Back to School (ABC Teach): Foldable "Welcome back to school" note with apple illustration, four to a page.


Curricula

Dolch Words: Background and links to teacher resources
Literacy Backpacks (Buddy Project)
Mini-Office: A student reference of frequently-used words, phrases, and concepts

Literacy Centres: Focused on different academic areas, the offered activities allow the students to practice, reinforce, and extend their learning (Diller).

Word Wall (ABC Teach): From "backpack" to "teeter-totter". these vocabulary building word strips with pictures are great for word walls, sentence strips, spelling and vocabulary practice.

 

Record Keeping

Forms for Everything (Teacher Tools): An extensive supply of forms and letters.
Student Information Sheet (ABC Teach): Information/volunteer sheet for parents to fill out at the beginning of the school year
Student Information Sheet (Scholastic): Class information spreadsheet for teachers.
Record Keeping (Scholastic): Graphic organizer to track homework, input grades, etc.
Teacher's Weekly Lesson Plan (Microsoft): Weekly planner for educators
Point-Based Grade Book (Microsoft): Excel spreadsheet to record assessment items
Percentage-Based Grade Book (Microsoft): Excel spreadsheet to record assessment items


Home-School Communication

Classroom Newsletter (Microsoft): Modifiable two-column, two-paged newsletter
Parent-Teacher Conference Record (Microsoft): Template featuring modifiable information, art, and style
Take-Home Folder: Whether you use MOOSE, BEE, FROG, or any other theme, this- organizational tool that students take home everyday fosters home-school communication and accountability.

 

Student Activities

Student Activities: Links to eActivities, printables, and much more!

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Copyright 2006 -2008; Carlene Walter