Preparing for Back to School at the End of the Year
As the school year wraps up, it’s easy to get so excited about summer break and put off thinking of the upcoming school year for later. However, taking the time to prep for back to school now can save you a lot of stress and headaches later on. Here are a few helpful tips for things you can do now to prepare your classroom for the next school year.
Back to school plans
Back to school time can be exhausting! Spend some time at the end of the year to make your plans for lessons, activities, and projects for the first week of school. Some things you might want to put into your back to school plans include:
- Morning meeting activities, messages, and greetings
- All about me activities like a Math About Me pennant or Bio Poem project. These projects make great displays!
- Classroom procedures
- Getting to know you activities
- Student surveys for MATH and READING
- A read-aloud book to start the year with
- Quick brain break activities
Having a general outline of what you plan to do the first week back to school will give you a head start on the year!
Make Copies
Take some time now to make copies of any materials that you know you will need for the first week of school. Teachers have so little time to prepare their classrooms and plans during back to school time. There is always a long line to make copies in the fall, and when teachers are rushed and frantic to get everything copied you know that is when the copier will decide to jam or break!
Save yourself the stress by making back to school copies at the end of the year!
Store the copies in a cabinet, file system, or box where you can easily find them when you return in the fall.
Organize the classroom
Take a look around your classroom and think about what needs to be done to get it ready for the new school year. This might include organizing bookshelves, tidying up community supplies, or rearranging furniture.
Helpful Tip: many students LOVE to help organize the classroom! Take one hour during the last week and have students sign up for different classroom jobs. You can tackle a huge amount of things on your to-do list in a short amount of time.
Here are some ideas of things students can help you organize:
- Organize bookshelves by author, genre, or other sorting system.
- Test community supplies and throw away dried-out markers, dried-up glue sticks, broken supplies, or otherwise unusable materials.
- Sort and stack construction paper by color and size
- Clean out pencil sharpeners
- Sharpen community pencils and colored pencils
- Tidy up a game shelf- repair any boxes and make sure all the game pieces are in the box
- Take down displays or student work
- Organize math manipulative bins- make sure all manipulatives are in the correct bin
Taking the time to get everything neat and organized at the end of the year will be so appreciated when you walk into your classroom at the end of summer break!
Clean Your Desk
It’s amazing how quickly a teacher’s desk can become cluttered with papers, pens, and loose paperclips throughout the year! Take some time to clear out any unnecessary items and organize the things you really need. This will help you start the new school year fresh, with a desk that gives you a calm (not chaotic) feeling.
Photo or Map of the room
If your custodial staff moves out all of your furniture over the summer to clean the floors you might find it helpful to have a photo showing exactly how your classroom is laid out so you can easily put things back the way you want them in the fall.
Take a photo or draw a rough sketch of how your furniture is currently arranged. If you want a new layout for your room in the fall, sketch out some ideas now when you have thoughts about what worked/what didn’t work fresh in your mind.
Your custodial staff might find it super helpful to have a diagram or photo of the room set up so they can easily and quickly put things back in the correct location after the summer deep clean!
Bulletin Boards and Displays
Think about what you want to have on your boards and walls for the beginning of the school year.
Set up your back to school bulletin boards or student work displays at the end of the year if you are able to leave things up over the summer. Cover finished bulletin boards with paper if you are worried about them fading or being disturbed over the summer.
If you are not able to leave things up over the summer, prep everything you need for each board or display, and store all the pieces (along with a photo or sketch of the layout) in a basket or large plastic baggie. You will have everything you need ready to go and get set up right away when you return!
Back to School Box
As you pack up your room for summer, make two VIP boxes to keep the most important things you will need for back to school.
Teacher Box – this box should have all the most important things you will need when you return to your classroom after the summer break. I recommend:
- Passwords – your passwords are so easy to forget over the summer when you are not using them daily! Especially if your school/district requires you to create new passwords on a regular basis. Having your most important passwords on hand will save you the stress of hunting down tech help to access your computer!
- Basic supplies like pencils, markers, scissors, and tape
- Most needed items for the top of your desk
- Planbook or a copy of your first week’s plans
- Photo map or diagram of your classroom setup
- Back to school to-do list
First Week Box – this box will hold all the things you will need for the plans you made for your first week. Things to pack into this box include:
- First week plans
- Copies for first week activities
- Read alouds for the first week
- Name tags
- Non perishable supplies for activities (ex: pipe cleaners, playdough, sequins)
By taking the time to prep for back to school now, you’ll be setting yourself up for a smoother, less stressful start to the new school year. Even though summer break is right around the corner, you can still make the most of these last few weeks of school by being productive so you can truly use your well deserved summer break to relax and recharge!
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