The first days of school are full of hope, excitement, a few back to school jitters, and a great opportunity to set the tone for the rest of the year! I love the energy a new school year can bring, but it can also feel OVERWHELMING.
I know that feeling all too well, but I have some great resources that will help.
It all starts with creating connections and setting expectations in those early days. Here’s a little Back to School roadmap to help guide you to success:
Classroom Management Hacks & Resources
Getting your classroom ready to support a smooth start is all about setting clear expectations and creating routines that encourage independence and kindness. One of my favorite hacks is using visual rules and daily checklists to help students take ownership of their behavior and responsibilities. Visual cues and consistency make routines feel manageable and familiar, reducing anxiety for everyone.
To support you, I recommend checking out visual charts, behavior reward systems, and calming corner ideas that can be customized for your classroom. For example, editable behavior charts are great for tracking positive choices, while simple visual schedules help kiddos know what’s coming next.
Helpful Resources:
Creating a positive, organized environment isn’t about perfection but about building routines that grow and adapt with your students. These resources can give you a great starting point to develop a classroom setting that feels welcoming, balanced, and fun to manage.
Create a Back to School Road Map
Great teaching is all about great planning. Our students get tons of benefits from predictable routines, brain breaks, and a chance to get those bodies moving. Once you develop a daily plan and put it in place, you can revisit and practice the routines throughout the year to keep the energy going.
Here are some tried and true practices that are sure to get you off to a great start!
1- Build Connections with Morning Meetings
Start your day off right with a routine morning meeting. This isn’t just an important routine, it’s a special way to connect with your students, get them ready for learning, and set the tone for a great day ahead. Check out this digital morning meeting resource that you can use in your classroom or adapt for virtual learning.
You can read all about morning meetings here.
2- Plan Transitions & Brain Breaks
Smooth transitions are vital to help busy bodies funnel their energy in appropriate ways. We all need to fill our toolkit with ways to redirect their energy so kids are ready for learning.
Good Transitions Can:
- Keep kids engaged and well behaved even when we have just a couple of “waiting” minutes.
- Impress other teachers/staff with how behaved your class is during those transition times—perfect for those pop-in admin visits!
- Reduce anxiety for kids who struggle with waiting in line, waiting for the next teacher, etc. when expectations aren’t clear.
- Clear minds and build focus with ideas and concepts that require a little practice.
- Build in more kinesthetic, visual, oral learning activities into your day so everybody has access to their best learning styles throughout the day.
- Get controlled movement and talking time for little bodies full of energy.
Get ready to set your students up for success!
Chit Chat
We know little ones that love to chat. I have a resource that gives them time to talk, but structures it so they can learn skills too.
Classroom Chit Chat is a fun digital resource for morning meetings or transitions. It helps build relationships, inspire love of learning, and encourage kids to think critically. Plus, it gets everyone talking and connecting!
Attention Grabbers
Little ones love a fun call-and-response attention grabber to help them refocus on the teacher. I have a fun freebie for you with a set of posters you can display around your room to help support your classroom management. Leave your info below and get them in your inbox!
In my 5 Simple Classroom Management Hacks blog post I share great classroom management resources.
Brain Breaks
Get your kids up and moving to give their bodies an outlet for the wiggles and give their minds a chance to reset. Quick brain breaks throughout the day also help increase the time on task when they get back to work. Here are some of my favorites:
- Four Corners: Project this game to get to know your class and have some fun.
- GoNoodle is a great program that offers a Whole Child Approach to quick brain breaks. They include engaging academic kinesthetic, social emotional activities in each of their short videos.
- Want to go screen free? Here is a resource from a past blog post with 48 brain breaks you can use in your classroom. Check out the complete post here and find more activities for traditional, online, and socially distanced classrooms.
Are you ready for an Awesome Year?
Every class is different, and some routines and resources work better for different students and different teachers. There are no hard and fast rules about how and when to plan these activities throughout your day, but here are some things I like to keep in mind to start every school year on the right foot:
- The goal is about focusing on building relationships and creating a positive environment for learning.
- Make your classroom rules simple and easy to follow.
- Give plenty of movement breaks and time for kids to share/chat/wiggle.
- Smooth transitions set the tone for the next block of learning.
- Revisit the routines and processes in your room to strengthen their efficacy throughout the year.
Check out this super helpful post stuff with ideas: Tips & Timesavers for Back to School Setup.
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