School Year Prep You Can Do At Home

Starting a new school year takes a lot of time and energy to prepare for your new incoming students. Supplies, lesson plans, classroom decor are just a few of the many preparations a teacher must make before school starts. What can you do at home to eliminate the extreme hustle and bustle of the few days before your new kindergarteners arrive?

Professional Development

There are many different programs, both online and in-person, available for continuing education for teachers. Summer is the perfect time to explore options and further your knowledge and expertise in educating your students. Taking a class or course to expand your understanding and teaching techniques will give you encouragement and confidence to try new ways to teach kindergarten basics as well as introduce you to current trends and ideas on what works well in the classroom. This will give you a head start on advancing your mindset for the upcoming school year.

Click above image to learn about writing for little learners.

A book study is another avenue to gain more knowledge and expertise for educating your kindergarteners in the upcoming year. Check out this years Book Study “Know Better, Do Better” starting June 1, 2022. Click here to go to post.

Lesson Plans

Part of prepping for the new year is reviewing, editing, or creating new lesson plans. Don’t forget long range as well as daily lesson plans. If you prepare your long range plans ahead of time, your grade level meetings will go much faster and smoother. If you have your plans mapped out before the new year starts, you will know what you need to purchase, what parents need to bring, and what your school will need to have available for your classroom. Click here for link to my blog post “First Week Of School Lesson Plans For Kindergarten & Freebies!!”

And don’t forget to prepare for substitute teachers. Here is a link to my blog post for Substitute Teacher Activities. This will prepare you for the inevitable surprise day off.

Organize and Inventory Your Supplies

If you looked at my blog post “Efficient Classroom Organization Of Materials & Activities” you may have already begun to organize your supplies. If you have not, check out the post before you start your inventory process.

Inventory what you have so you will know what you need. Brilliant, right? But how do you start? Take it slow!!! Begin by cataloging what supplies you already have. Do you have enough for next year? Are they organized in a fashion that is easy to find? This is the step that may seem daunting but will save you loads of time when looking for that…..!!!

After you have a list of what you have, review what worked and what did not this past year. Store or throw out the items that were not beneficial. You may find another use for those things that didn’t work for you at the time.

Make a list of supplies you want and need. Here is an inventory list printable **freebie** that may be helpful.

Being and staying organized before you enter the classroom, will make the new year go so much smoother!!! I can guarantee that!!!!

After your list is complete for what you have and what you need–Now you can go shopping!!

Projects

Since school let out, working on your yearly projects is last thing you want to do, right?!? However, if you copy, cut, laminate, edit or create your “big” or “out of date” projects over the summer while you do not have time limits, you will be much more relaxed and prepared. Engage your children, other adults you know, family and friends to help with this. Make a fun day out of it!!! This can become an annual event!!! Host a “PROJECT PARTY”. You will be soooo glad you did the prep work early!! Once the school rush starts, you will be wondering where the time goes. Early prep makes for less chaos during the school year.

Book Inventory

What kindergarten classroom does not have a lot of books? Do you have ripped, torn, and broken books? Do you have duplicates? How about the books you want or need? This is the time to review what you have and their condition. It is ok to throw out hopelessly damaged books. You can repair the ones that are salvageable. Hopefully, you have been making a list of the books you need and want throughout the school year, but if you haven’t–don’t despair!! Here is link to the posts “10 Must Read Books for the First Week of Kindergarten” and “Books to Teach Rules and Procedures”. Start making a list of books you need and want. Here is an Amazon link for more books for your kindergarten library.