First hour of school helpers

Is it just me or does everyone get the first hour of school sweat?  When 27 pairs of eyeballs are staring up at you, you hear "teacher, teacher!"as they tug on your arm, some have school supplies and others brought it the night before, some can stay in their seat, others pretend to be airplanes flying around the room.

I LOVE teaching first grade.  However that first hour-  is enough to give me nightmares! I try to be proactive.  We have meet and greet and each parent receives this paper:

 

It helps a lot with students finding things around the room.  I have used a cute poem in the past but I've noticed parents are in a hurry to get to the other classrooms so I made it simple and to the point!

I also have assortments of baskets of books on each table, supplies in table baskets and a very simple coloring sheet on the table for the first day of school.  However, I still get those first day "sweats!"

This year we have enlisted the help of our in house preschool teachers.  They are going to hand small groups of our students to us (it is a giant school and a ton of ways to get to school) and we will get to walk those 3-5 students through hanging up their items, lunch count and finding their seat.  These amazing teachers have even offered to stay for the first hour to make sure things go smoothly.  If that wasn't enough-  show up to help us for dismissal!!!  

So-  to thank each of them- I am giving them Riesen, Hugs, and Lifesaver candy with this tag:

 

You can download the tag for free here.

I encourage you to call your retired friends, stay at home moms, PTO and ask for help!  I know I feel a LOT better knowing that I will have that support!  :-).