Off to St. Louis and Some Back to School Thoughts...

Well, hubby and I are off to St. Louis for an overnight getaway...I have never been there!

I didn't want to abandon my little blog so soon, so I am writing a post to be uploaded in my absence!

Now that July has come, the back to school sales will start next weekend and that means I am already thinking of Back to School.

Every year I have a theme in my classroom.  I don't think it costs that much more money and it makes it fun for me!  Yes, I said {me}. Think about it, these kiddos are coming back to school and everything is new to them: new classroom, new teacher, new grade level...  Me?  I am still teaching in the same room, same grade...I need to change it up a bit.  So that is where the theme comes into play.

Over the past seven years I have done everything from sports (my first year) to Superheroes (last year).  I have the kids make something on the first day of school so that they can feel part of the theme and classroom decor. Here are my kids from last year making their superhero shields on the first day of school:

One tip of advice is that I sort out the letters for their shields before the first day of school.  It makes the process so much easier.  We hang these up in our classroom all year and like I said, it makes the classroom theirs': to walk into the classroom and see their names, they know they belong.

I will talk more on themes later (I STILL cannot decide on what my theme is going to be for my upcoming year), but I am curious: What kind of first day activities are you planning for your kiddos?