Head Back to School with some Freebies!

Hey y’all! It’s Kristen from Chalk & Apples, here with my very first post on Fifth Grade Freebies. I’m so excited to be joining this group of 5th grade teachers to share some great free resources with you!

Today, I wanted to share a couple of freebies that get me through the Back to School season.


You’d think on my 8th year of teaching, with 7 in 5th grade, it would be easy to get ready for the beginning of another school year. You’d think I would have the routine down, and would just be able to hop right into Back to School mode the week before school starts. But I can’t. Every year, when it’s time to get back to it, I’m so far in summer mode that I need some reminders of what it is that I’m supposed to be doing in preparation for a new year.

That’s why I created this set of free Back to School Checklists! It took way longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what I actually needed to include in my checklists, but now that they’re done, I can just reprint them every year, and be sure I’m doing everything I need to get ready. You can click the image to download it free from my TPT store!


On the first day of school, or at open house the day before school starts, there are always lots of forms to be filled out. Personally, I want parents to take these forms home and do a thorough job of completing them… but there is some information I really need on that VERY FIRST day. I really just want to have one good contact number in case of emergency, to know if there are any major allergies or medical concerns, and I want to know how each child is getting home that day.

I created this free First Day Form, which I print 2 to a page on bright colored paper. This is the one and only thing I ask parents to complete at “Meet the Teacher” night or on the morning of the first day of school. I find that this is quick and easy for parents to fill out, and it gives me just enough info to get through until they return the entire back to school packet. Click the image to grab it as a freebie in my TPT store!

End of Year Tip

Although I think that many of you are already done for the year, I still have a few more days. I'm going to share one of my ideas that will help you get your classroom organized as the end of the year draws near.

Often I have ideas on how I want to do things the next year. Either something was awesome and I don't want to forget, or I have ideas on tweaking what I've done. Since I'm a visual person, I like to take pictures to remind me. So I had plans to change this board:

At the time I took this picture, I knew that I needed to have more No Name and Absent clothespins since I was going to be teaching half of the fifth grade students (this was before I got my new job and changed districts). I wanted to move the Missing Work to the other board in my room, and I wanted to remove the NLWC because I ended up doing that on a bulletin board.

So I took a picture, put it in Word or PPT and noted the changes I wanted to make, and saved it on my computer in a folder labeled Next Year. Or, I could have also created a pin of the picture and noted the changes in the description and pinned it to a secret board in Pinterest. Gotta use those secret boards for something ;)

Hope you're having a great end of the year!

Need a little bit of customized organizing for back to school?

This little freebie is a great way to get organized when you go back to school... plus it's customized!

I keep a stack of these printed out and on a clipboard. They go to meetings with me, sit on my desk in the open for quick reference and access, and come home with me. It contains any and all important areas of our 'teacher brains' to help you organize. Click the image to download your own!

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Parent Communication Cover Letter

As every teacher knows, communicating with parents is essential for a productive and supportive school year.  At my school, we have what we call a Tuesday Packet.  This packet consists of the following items:

Sample Packet Cover Letter

• Any papers, forms or notes from the office
• All the student's work from the previous week
• A Packet Cover letter (which is slightly different from teacher to teacher but contains the same general information)

Each student takes all of these items home in a weekly envelope that parents sign off on saying they received the items within it.  

By doing this on the same day each week, it eliminates the overwhelming number of papers that we know can go home throughout the week.  Also, parents know that they can expect to receive their child's graded work from the week before.  One of my favorite things about this system is that it requires me to stay on top of my grading!  Of course, sometimes I don't get EVERYTHING done but that is seldom.  This system also helps alleviate the possibility that a specific poor test or other assignment might go missing.  Why you ask?  Simply because the Packet Cover letter gives a brief list of what items the students completed that week.  See my example Cover Letter below to see just how brief my list is.  I don't go into great detail - just give a bulleted list.  This is nice for the parents so they can see what their child covered in class and what assignments they should see in the packet. If I have a test listed, they know that test should be in that packet.  Additionally, the packet letter let's me communicate with parents with any general announcements and comments or I can write specific ones to a particular family.  I also list any points in behavior or work habits that their child received from the week before (this is part of our school-wide behavior plan).  

This system really works for our school and parent feedback on it has been very positive. If you'd like a copy of my Packet Cover Letter, head on over to my TpT store and download it for free.  I provided it in doc format so you can tweak it to suit your needs.  I hope you find it useful!

Enjoy! 

Katie

Organizing Hanging File Folders

Before - nasty crooked writing ;-)

Hi Everyone!  It's Katie from Teaching: The Art of Possibility.  I'm excited to be apart of Fifth Grade Freebies and here is my first of many freebies I will be sharing with all of you.  

Neat - typed - beautiful

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm all about having a neat and organized classroom.  From the labels on my students' desks to the labels in my filing cabinet.  There was a time, when I would handwrite my hanging file folder labels but I HATED the way they looked.  Either my handwriting wasn't consistent or they weren't properly centered.  My reasons to not like it could go on and on.  (Have  I mentioned I'm a bit OCD? ;-) ) And because of this craziness need, I have created a SIMPLE little template to help make life easier. So Bam!  Here you go - a template for you to type in and have perfectly neat hanging file folder labels like me.  Go here to download it. 

Hope it helps you like it did me.  

Katie Lyon