Meet & Greet- Plus Something Sweet!

This week we have eat out every night because I haven't been home. I have bags under my eyes, my fingers hurt from opening and closing binders, my hands hurt from cutting out popcorn shaped words, and my back is killing me from climbing up and down- putting things in cabinets and hanging things on the wall.

This week I went to sign out of school one day and realized I had been there 12, yes 12, hours. I started wondering if I should just get my mail delivered to the big brick building on the bypass since that's where I've been everyday.

I guess by now you all have guessed that it is the week before school starts and we had our teacher inservice days on Tuesday through Friday of this week. Most of that time was spent in lovely and very *informative* meetings so we didn't get too much accomplished in our rooms during the day.

Thursday night was our Kindergarten orientation. I have been excited about trying out these new ideas. I can't wait to share them with you!

A few years ago (when times got tough and we stopped getting classroom supply money), I started making a classroom wish list and putting it on the board during orientation. In the past, I have just put up sticky notes with the items I want (usually one item per sticky note) and the parents that choose to participate can pick up the ones they would like to purchase. Items I usually include are: Mr. Clean sponges, air freshener refills, AA and AAA batteries (for air freshener sprayer and remote controls), sponge brushes, ink cartridges for our classroom printer, cardstock, etc...

This year, I decided to make it a little cuter. After all, a bunch of yellow sticky notes on a board are not very festive!!! I wrote my items on cute little apples:



I drew a tree on the board and wrote "The Giving Tree". Parents could pick an apple from the tree. It turned out really cute!!! ( Sorry for the rough photos. I had to use my iphone. A classroom digital camera is on my digital wishlist along with 18 Ipads and a ton of other things!)




Another new thing I'm trying- e-mail magnets! I got the idea from an online professional development class. One of the other participants mentioned it. I made the design in PhotoShop and then used Vistaprint to print them. I think I paid less than $7 for 24 of them! Too cute!!! I know every parent doesn't have email, but if the parents who have it would utilize it, it would be great! I wanted to really encourage it this year, so I thought the magnets would be great for them to stick on their refrigerators or filing cabinets at work.




And last, my favorite new thing that I did this year....

I ran across this cute little poem a while back and I really wanted to do something with it for orientation. I made cute little tags and tied them to the apple stems with ribbon. I cannot tell you how adorable it was!!! I thought it turned out so stinkin' cute!




Here's the really fun part! I want to share these with you!!!!!! If you would like to have a FREE copy of these cute little tags (without my name, of course!), please go over to the side and become a follower, share the link to my blog, leave a comment and let me know where you shared and where to send the file. EDIT- JULY 2012- Due to the high volume of emails, please visit my TPT store to download the tag for FREE!!!