Throwback Thursday: The Survival Guide to Second Grade

Super excited to link up with the amazing Cara at The First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday!

That old guy is cracking me up!

I love this linky because I don't have any classroom-related pictures to show you since it's summer time. And while my children are ADORABLE, you're not following this blog to see them :) I posted this almost a year ago... when I had about 4 followers... two of them being the hubs and me :/ This post explains how I share curriculum and procedures with parents at the beginning of the year. Are you ready? Set? GO!

Originally posted July 18, 2012

A few days before school starts we have Open House.  I've heard of lots of ways of doing an Open House, but at my school, this is when the kids find out who their teacher will be for the upcoming year. Doors open at 5:00, and it's so fun to peek out the windows at 4:50 to see the crowd waiting to come in. I'm sure they are just as anxious to meet us as we are to meet them! They make their way down the red wing like a wave and split off to either the first grade or second grade side. And since my room is the last one on the second grade side, I get to see it all unfold. It's definitely an exciting time! The kids come with their school supplies to organize their desks, pick up their folder of information, meet me, say hi to their friends, and explore their new classroom.

Since we don't have a Back to School Night a few weeks into the school year (which makes me sad... I really wish we did!), I include a packet of information of what grown ups can expect during their student's second grade year. At first, it was a lovely boring 5-6 page Word document. Yes, I can only imagine that the parents were DYING to read it...  MAYBE they read a paragraph or two.... if I was lucky! I knew it needed to change. So I came up with this: The Survival Guide to Second Grade.

It's a flip book. I used the colors blue and white since those are my school's colors (Go Wildcats!). I hope this new format is more user-friendly and easier to read.

Each page is its own saved document. The bottom margin is 1/2 inch and size of the top margin increases 1/2 inch for each page. There really isn't a specific order that I give the information.  If I didn't have much to say about a topic, I put it on one of the smaller, first pages;  if I had a lot to say about the topic, then I put it on one of the larger, last pages.  There is info about all subject areas, plus how work is graded, classroom rules/behavior expectations, birthdays, snacks, etc.

One thing I forgot to mention in the post above is that I always make several extra copies in the event that I get a new student during the school year. The parents always look so relieved and grateful when I give it to them, like they're not missing out on anything. You all know how chaotic it can be when you get a new student :)

What do you think? I am super proud of this flip book! And the exciting thing is that these bad boys are already done for this upcoming year! I usually have a parent helper assemble them for me at the end of the school year (for the next year), that way I can spend my time in August decorating and making my classroom pretty, instead of scrambling to assemble the flip books. YESSS!!

Update 7-12: If you'd like me to send you my templates, leave a comment with your email. I'll send it out next week when I'm at school :)

One last thing... The winner of my Making Words for the Whole Year giveaway is...