Meet and Greet

Does your school do a Meet and Greet, Meet the Teacher, or Open House before school starts? We have ours the last day of our Teacher week. In years past, I have had parents sort the supplies and fill out a parent questionnaire while I read the book The Night Before First Grade. I would also have the students write their name on the smart board. We did time slots, so it was easier to get this done. Also, at the end we would take them on a tour of where to line up, where the bathrooms were, and where they will be picked up at the end of the day. This helped students and parents feel at ease before the first day.

I am at a different school where the Kindergarten and First grade are all together, so the students already know where everything is and what to do in the morning, so I am switching it up this year! I will be doing stations! They can freely rotate to when they are done.

Stations

Signature & Supplies

The kids LOVE writing on the Smartboard! This is such a great ice breaker. They will come over to me and pick a color then write their name with the pen. I have created this slideshow for them to write on.

From here I will introduce myself and explain the stations and give them a checklist (what teacher doesn’t love checklists?) Here is the FREE checklist I use.

For the supplies I have these FREE labels that I put on boxes or bins. I have already emailed our custodian to get paper boxes saved and put in my room. I put these boxes along one of my walls out of the way with the labels laminated (so I can use them next year) and taped on. Optional is to have parents/kids unwrap the supplies and put them in the bins. This will save you a TON of time. Personal supplies like pencil boxes, headphones, scissors, and folder I have them label them with a Sharpie and put them in their desk.

Student Form

Being a parent of a kid in school, I know how many forms there are to fill out and the last thing you want to do is fill out another thing with information that can easily be looked up. This FREE form is all I need! It has their goals, concerns, and wishes. I love reading these before school starts. These are also great to look at during conference time to see if their goals are being met and addressed so far.

Kids can get into a lot of fun things while their parents are busy, especially if they have siblings that came! Here is a FREE activity for them to do while their parents are filling out the QUICK form.

Class Tour

This is a chance for students and parents to take a look around the classroom. They can also take a picture in our photo area. I put fun wrapping paper up on the wall with this FREE sign that says Ready for 1^st Grade!

Jitter Glitter

Who isn’t nervous the first day of school? I know I am nervous and excited every year. Hard to sleep at night and wide awake and ready for the first day of school!! My second or third year teaching one of my teammates shared Jitter Glitter and we have used it every year since! It is a big hit and helps the little ones be more excited than nervous on the first day.

It is pretty straight forward. Download this FREE poem, buy your confetti and bags, and record you reading the poem if you want. It is just such a personal touch for you to read the poem. Here is an tutorial on how to upload a video of you reading it and how to make the link into a QR code. Once you do it, you can use if for a few years!

How to upload videos to YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-oV0mVS5E

How to turn it into a QR code- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YTqNkTpXX8

Sign Up, Papers, Donate

The last stop will be my reading table close to the door. This is a great place to put all important papers to send home. I am planning on putting their Dojo log in information, little cut outs with classroom needs like zip locks, tissue, soap, baby wipes, and anything else I might be low on. I also have an Amazon Wishlist with fun things for our classroom.  Here is a FREE sign you can use to put out. I have my QR code on it, but you can put yours on it using the same tutorial above. If you need ideas you can check out these 2 posts I have for Amazon and Temu.

Hopefully you snagged some FREEBIES and this makes your life easier if you are doing a Meet and Greet. If you have stations or fun activities dropped them in the comments to share!