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Home : 2002 : March : 5

Welcome!
By Cathy-Dee

Congratulations, your first position will always be a special one for you.

Here are a few tips....

- obtain copies of your curriculum guides from your school and if possible 1 or 2 sample year plans. You usually have
to have these done within the first month or two of school so starting early makes sense.
- I have sample year plans of my own for grade 1 in Alberta, if you are interested and can open a word document just send me an email.
- plan your first two months of themes - not detailed plans, but what themes you would like to do so that you can begin to look for materials, books, pictures,

etc., to use. I like to do rhymes and nursery rhymes myself, so I like to find a few new rhymes to write out on chart paper (see if you can get some chart paper from your school), and I keep my eyes open for sales all summer on books I might be able to use as well (or I find books in the library that I can take out come September)

- A welcome letter to send home on the first day - perhaps telling a little about yourself, what your first units will be, etc., I send home a second note about a week later with more details as to the gym schedule, library, how I will be handling book orders, etc., Often schools do not plan these special days until the beginning of school.

- A supply list (although your school may already have one). Also find out if your school keeps extra supplies on hand. If not you may want to pick up 4 or 5 scribblers, pencils, crayons, glue (I watch for sales). I live in an area where some families just do not get supplies until the end of the first month so in order for my kids to get work done I need to have the supplies. I can get reimbursed but usually I just wait until they get their supplies and replace what I bought at that time.

- Great things to watch for on sale, calendars (once laminated you have a ton of pictures for bulletin boards, displays, etc,), puzzles, games like checkers, stuffed animals, books, sing along cassettes, etc., I love watching for sales all summer long. I also usually hit the dollar store to pick up a basket of inexpensive prizes (toy cars, rings, pencils, erasers) that I use for incentives.

- Think of ways you might want to set up a positive behaviour plan, home reading program, etc.,

- I also like to play with ideas over the summer on how I might do my seating in the fall, change around my room, what bulletin boards I might decide to do, and so on.

Look for some excellent websites and bookmark them. I have some if you are interested just send me an email.

Write out some poems, make sentence strips, words for a word wall. If you have a great clip art program on a computer you can use, print out a number of common items and then paste them onto a bristol board and write the names underneath. Laminate and you have a picture-wall dictionary. My kids love this as they can find words to use in their beginning writing right from the start of the year.

Have fun with your planning!