AUGUST 1ST ! 
I know, I know. It's hard to believe it's already here; the beginning of another school year.  As great educators, we press onward for the sake of our students to make the coming year another fantastic one.
With the first of August here- don't be like this guy and stick your head in the sand. Start now, be prepared and make this YOUR best year ever!

Teachers Pay Teachers is having their Back to School sale today and tomorrow, August 1st and 2nd and my entire store is on sale. Catch these and other great items at my store:


Establishing rules and setting guidelines is one of the first things you need to work on at the beginning of the year. Posting the rules and expectations is such an important thing to do. Always have the rules posted. As I was working in special education classrooms, I added visuals to the rules to aid in the comprehension of what the poster was conveying. Take a look at these rules posters.



Another key component of activities that need to be done at the beginning of the school is pre-testing. You want to know what the new kids know and test how much your returning kiddos have retained, so make sure you have all your assessment resources ready to go. Check out this letter and letter sound assessment. It contains several assessments including identifying letters from groups of 2, 3, or 4 letters plus recording sheets for results. Easy to fill out recording sheets make it super simple to perform these assessments, record the results then drop the data sheet in the student's folder or portfolio.  Take a peek!
Letter Assessments

Another important part to me of getting a year off to a great start is working with social skills and social skills stories are a big part of that. Whether it's working on expectations of how to behave during arrival at school, what to do during a fire drill or how to make friends, social skills stories are a great way to start a discussion on what behavior is expected in these situations or even to review with kids you have had for awhile. Check them out here!


Another MUST HAVE especially for the beginning of the year are visuals and schedules. I like to have visuals for just about everything that happens during the school day. Visuals for going to PE, eating lunch,  calming down. and even visuals for choice time or free time. Check out this great group of visuals. And of course, don't forget a reinforcer inventory to get an idea of what motivates your kids this year.

Thanks for joining me for a quick update on vital items to get you started on a super school year!
Catch you next time!



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