Getting Ready for Back to School - Freebies Included

So....it's back to school for me.  It's been one awesome summer, filled with road trips, vacations, beach days, and my birthday!

But it's time to go back to school.

I'm not going lie - I'm looking forward to it. I really like going back to school. A new year, filled with new ideas, new students, and this year - a new GRADE!! I'm super excited about going back to 2nd grade this year!!

And can I tell you?? We had an AMAZING first day back!! Our administration took the entire staff on a Paddle-Boat ride on the river!! It was amazing. We had a boxed lunch and these awesome cups made for us.

Then we headed back to school and had the after noon to start working in our rooms...

So, what am I getting prepped for BTS??

Let me show you a few things here and there...

Well, as soon as I learned I was moving to second again, oddly enough, the FIRST thing I thought about was remaking my sign! ha!

You can see what I did last year...the end of the year was SO AWESOME. I will have to do it every year from now on! Check out the post HERE. 

Then I did a lot of traveling and didn't give much thought to it in the middle of the summer.... but now it's the week before teachers go back, so now I'm getting it all ready!

First up... BTS letters!? Do you guys do this?? Our school mails out teacher placement letters, so this is just a little letter that says welcome and a little bit about me...along with when to come for Meet and Greet.  Every year my letter theme changes. I don't know why I can't just keep things easy. lol 

Also, getting ready for Meet and Greet, I just slapped some letters on my big back bulletin board. I initially did this because I could NOT think of what to do on this bulletin board, so I did this for the time being, but I kind of like it for Meet and Greet! Yes!? I'm still waiting on the border to be delivered, but I think this will be my go-to board each year for Meet and Greet now. I love when "accidents" turn out to be good things!

(I just printed a letter on regular Astrobright paper - this font was KG Shake It Off Chunky)

I'm also getting the names for the door ready... last year I did a cute Chick Chicka Boom palm tree, but I think that's a little too young for 2nd grade, so I'm changing it to just sunshine and sunglasses.

(Clip art was DJ Inkers and Ashley Hughes)

I've also started getting the paperwork ready for Meet and Greet that I want to send home... that way I can get all the paperwork the first day of school instead of waiting until school starts.

I have a few other papers I send home, you can download them for free HERE. 

I'm also getting ready the whole set up for Meet and Greet, but that'll be a different post. You can see what I've done in the past HERE. It changes each year though, just because different circumstances. 

After everyone leaves, I get to work sorting supplies and labeling all the things!! haha!

I also start putting together their Spelling Folders. 

This is where I keep their individualized lists. 

You can read more about that HERE. 

And some other things I'm getting ready for the first few days...(we go back on a Thursday this year... while I do love having a short week for our first week back, I think 2 days is way too short of a time!)

I always have them do their Jerseys on the first day back...

I write their name and number on it and tell them to decorate it any way they want. 

I use their numbers for SO MUCH!

You can see some of the ways I use numbers in THIS post. 

I'm also getting their memory books copied off and ready to go for the year!

Check out the finished products HERE.

I've also printed out the year of Journal Covers. 

I have the ones for composition notebooks HERE or the ones I made for our 1st Grade Journals HERE.

A few weeks ago, I had our bookkeeper send my Spelling Journals to our district Print Shop so they could copy and bind them for the kids. 

These things are great, we use them for everything we do!

Check them out HERE.

I also had her send out the vocabulary journals.  

We use these all the time - in all kinds of different subjects. You can see more about them in my post HERE. 

Another things I have read for our first week back to school is our First (and Last) day of 2nd grade signs. I love these things.  I don't really do anything with these pictures, except send them to the parents (and let them download them to keep), because our memory books don't need the sign. But I've had a few parents send me their side by sides of the first/last day pictures and they are so stinkin' cute. I love them.... and since I'm taking their pictures anyway the first day (for a few different reasons), then I just add in this one picture. 

I know there are a TON of things I'm getting ready... as I'm sure you are too!

I'll be back soon with some pictures of Meet the Teacher and a tour of my classroom this year in a few days!