Reviewing Procedures and Building Community After a Break

One of the most important things I always do following any break is review our classroom procedures and expectations. This is usually about the time of year when my kids start feeling VERY comfortable with me, and we all start getting a little lax on procedures and rules. Unfortunately, allowing one little thing to slide becomes quite the slippery slope! So, I have created this awesome checklist of procedures that helped both at the beginning of the year, and throughout the year when your class needs some reminders. Click HERE or the button below to save yourself the headache and grab it for those first days back!

Instead of just getting up and modeling the procedures, I plan to turn it into a “Be the teacher for the day  moment.” If I just get up and model the procedures, or talk at my students about the procedures, I get a lot of eye rolls and groans. By having students come up and teach the procedures (that they all SHOULD know by heart), it makes it much more fun and allows the students to remember the procedures much better. I plan to break the procedures up into little chunks and hopefully be done reviewing them by Friday.

Besides reviewing our procedures, I plan to get back to building community with my kids using my Team Building ideas. Click HERE or the button below to check this resource out!

There are 30+ team building type of games and activities. It’s always so fun to reconnect with your kids after a break! You can see these two in action in this blog post!

You never know what you’re going to get when you go back to a short week that is immediately following a vacation. In the past, I’ve had ten kids show up, so not much work gets done. At least with these team building games and activities, I’m prepared!

5 Comments

  1. Have a great first day back! I am going back, too, and I have to admit I am a teeny tiny bit jealous of the teachers who are off until Monday. Happy New Year! :)

  2. Hellooooo!
    We didn’t get to have our Christmas party either because a huge thunderstorm knocked out the school’s power on the last day of school, so we had to close! Rotten luck – of all the days to lose power…
    I am looking forward to seeing my kiddos again and partying it up with them on Friday.

    I know what you mean about reteaching and reviewing procedures. I’m planning to do that as well – in between a bunch of fun activities to ease them (and me!) back into the school routine.

    Have a wonderful first day back!

    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

  3. Thank you so much for your comments ladies! I hope your days back went well! We had our “Christmas” party today! It was so nice and the kids were so happy!

    @Jessica- Did you guys get a party do-over?!

  4. I am your newest follower and I am about to purchase your data binders… I have really enjoyed reading all your posts about it and I have a much clearer vision so I am ready to implement this when I go back to work on Monday. You rock!
    Heather
    Kickin’ It With Class

  5. I love these Team building games
    . I’m all about taking the pressure off of me and letting students work together. Otherwise, I lose my voice every year during the first week! Team building games.

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