Running a Smooth Back to School Night

You guys...seriously. School has begun?! We've been in for 3 days now and it has been a blast (but so, so exhausting). I'm still trying to get into a groove for this year but I will tell you about one thing that has gone smoothly this year...Back to School Night! My night went off without a hitch because I made sure that I was incredibly organized and ready for the night! I'm going to share a peek at my night with you and maybe you can share some tips from your night with me!

I'm going to walk you through my room as if you were a parent of one of my students. Ready?? Okay!

I have my Back to School Night set up in stations and I LOVE it!! It frees me up big time so that I'm able to meet children and talk to parents who have finished working through my stations.

First up...Sign in! I put a sign-in sheet at Station 1 so that I know who came and so I have parent email addresses in one place!

Next is Station 2!

At this station, parents pick up their child's information folder. Our school requires that parents sign a form saying that they have received all the forms so that is what the sign-in sheet is at this station.

Now let me give you a rundown on my folders. First of all, they took almost no time at all to put together! I seriously sat down one Saturday night while watching a movie with Mr. Cain and got them done in no time!

First, I glued all the covers onto the folders.

Next, I laid all the papers that go into the folder out on my floor (yikes, that's a lot!).

Then, I stuffed the pages by category. One side is for forms that have to be signed and returned. The other side has pages that are informational and can stay at home.  I put a 'Forms to Return' checklist on the 'Sign and Return' side so that parents can mark off all the forms that they have completed.

Last, I stuffed a business card into the folders that had each teacher's email address and our class website address!

Now, luckily, I was super prepared and made an extra folder just in case a new student came the night of Back to School night. Well, I didn't get a new student that night but I did have one parent walk off with another student's folder (even though they had their names right on the cover :P), so I had to give the folder-less student's parents the back-up folder so his parents could get started on his forms. Always be prepared, y'all!!

While I was stuffing folders, my dog Maggie got bored and decided to go to sleep. 

Isn't she adorable?!

Okay back to the stations... Station 3 is a station where parents tell me how their kiddos will be getting home on the first day of school and throughout the year! This station is super important so I make sure that I'm hanging out near this station so I know how all my students will be getting home.

Station 4 is a station where parents fill out an information card about their student. I don't let parents take these home because this is information that we will need right away. I put a bunch of pens at the station and make sure there are plenty of chairs around the table so that many parents can fill out forms at one time.

Station 5 is a fun station! It's our class wish list! Here I post things that we need for our classroom so that parents can donate supplies if they wish to. I ask for things like disinfecting wipes, markers, post-its, and other fun things we'll use throughout the year. I made cards for this station that are adorable but ran out of time to print and cut them so I just used apple post-its instead :) The key to teaching is flexibility, right?!

Station 6 is my supply drop-off zone. Many students bring their supplies to school on Back to School night so I had to have a way to sort and organize their supplies. I got bins and milk crates out and labeled each one using my supply label tents. I also left 2 permanent markers at the station so that parents and students could label supplies. I also had a checklist at the station so that parents could mark-off everything that their student brought.

Finally, after parents worked through all the stations, I had a PowerPoint presentation rolling on my SmartBoard so that my students and their parents could learn some important information about our classroom!

Well, there you have it! My Back to School night was so stress-free and smooth! It was great! I had plenty of time to interact with students and parents and I spent no time explaining to parents what I needed from them throughout the night!

If you are interested, you can purchase my Chevron Back to School Night Pack from Teachers Pay Teachers! It includes all the things used at my Back to School Night (plus more)! I included signs, forms, PowerPoint presentations, labels, and so much more! It is fabulous! But maybe I'm biased ;) Click the pic below to check out the preview for my pack!

I hope you found some useful information in this post! I'd love to hear about your tips and tricks for managing Back to School Night!

You Oughta Know About...Bunting with Brads!

Hey y'all! This month I'm linking up with Mrs. McClain over at Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for the monthly You Oughta Know blog hop! We'll be sharing tips, advice, websites, and products that teachers just oughta know about! Make sure that you check out the other blogs at the end of this post to discover more things that You Oughta Know!

Now I think you oughta know about......my super secret bunting trick!

I love bunting banners as much as the next teacher. Actually I probably love bunting a little bit more than your average teacher. I use it for everything! See evidence below......

Mrs. Cain bunting over my desk

Plastic bunting on my main wall

Focus Wall bunting on my bulletin board

And I couldn't even find pictures of my 'Book Recommendations' bunting! Do you believe I have an obsession now?! 

Now my FAVORITE bunting is bunting that I make myself. Can you guess why?? BECAUSE I CAN PERSONALIZE IT (hence the name bunting, welcome bunting, and bulletin board title bunting). Now I could make bunting all day long, y'all. I created a template on my computer so I can either add a background on my computer, add letters, print it out, cut, and laminate OR I can just add the letters, print it on colored or patterned paper, cut, and laminate. The possibilities are endless!!

BUT......

There is one thing that I was super annoyed with when I started making my own bunting.......

RIBBON!!!

Now I love the idea of ribbon. But I just can't stand to use it! It is so annoying! You have to make sure that your ribbon pieces are all the same length or your bunting will look wonky. After you make sure that the ribbon is cut to the same length, you have to make sure they are tied exactly the same or else your banner will look wonky. Don't even get me started on the fraying madness! All that to say, ribbon and I do not get along.

Fear not friends! I have come up with a solution! No longer do you have to deal with fussy ribbon when making adorable, personalized bunting for your classroom! Instead of using ribbon to connect my bunting triangles together, I use...

WAIT FOR IT......

BRADS!

Insert the hallelujah chorus here y'all.

Brads to the rescue! Now some of you may be thinking...but brads are gold and ugly and don't match my beautiful bunting at all! I've got you covered there, too! Your local craft store carries tons of different varieties in the scrapbooking/paper crafts section! 

Okay, now let me show you how to do this:

Supplies: your bunting triangles, a hole puncher, and some pretty coordinating brads

NOTE: You have to make sure that your hole puncher punches a smaller hole than the heads of your brads. Otherwise, your brads will slide right out and won't hold your banner together.

ALSO NOTE: If you don't laminate your bunting, you could probably just stick the brads right through the paper. I laminate mine for durability so the hole puncher is necessary!

Here we go!

First. Lay out your bunting triangles in the order that they go in (I'm using my Chevron Welcome Banner that you can find as a freebie HERE!)

Second. Punch a hole in the top corners of each triangle. NOW BE CAREFUL! Don't punch the holes too close to the edge of the triangle or the brads can tear the paper and fall out. Also remember: unless, you're going for a completely uniform look, don't punch holes in the top left corner of the first triangle or the top right corner of the last triangle. They won't have another triangle to attach to!

Now go through and place the second triangle over the first triangle. Insert the brads and fold them down on the back of each set. Keep doing this until you have a beautiful bunting banner!

Now once you hang your banner, you may notice that the prongs on your brads are hanging out like this......

Once your banner is hung you have two options to solve this issue:

1. Just turn the brad heads on the front until the prongs disappear and pat yourself on the back.

2. Do the same thing and then tape the brad prongs down on the back if you think they'll move around a lot.

Option 1 always works best for me and I've never had a problem with the prongs showing once I turn them all the right way :)

Well there you have it friends! Beautiful bunting for your classroom without all the hassle of annoying ribbon!

I hope you enjoyed this tip!

Make sure to check out the other blogs below for more great things You Oughta Know!

An InLinkz Link-up