Get ready for the new school year

We are at the beginning of a new school year and parents and children are busy shopping for school supplies and clothing and teachers are getting ready to welcome their new group of children.

Teachers are busy planning activities for the first days of school. These activities will be geared at helping students get to know each another, exploring the classroom and the materials around, coming up as a group with classroom rules, establishing routines and taking notes of the strengths and needs of each child.

There are many ways of providing activities to reach your goals but one important thing to keep in mind is to make the activities fun and enjoyable!

For very young children the beginning of the school year is loaded with new experiences. Therefore, we need to help them settle into the daily routines and the classroom environment so they can feel comfortable and safe.

The whole environment needs to be simple, with a few number of manipulatives, materials, posters and learning centers. In this way children will be less distracted, may attend more easily and may have the opportunity to absorb the new experiences little by little. Again, keep it simple! You have a whole year to add new and/or different materials, posters, and decorations to your classroom according to the seasons and the thematic units planned.

You may want to provide children with simple and familiar activities, such as songs, short stories, self-directed activities, movement and arts and crafts activities.

Take the first days of school to introduce, model, practice and constantly reinforce procedures, rules and routines. Remember that repetition is a major factor in learning. Set the tone for your class and have a great start!