First Day FREEBIES and Our Lastest Giveaway Winner!

Howdy peeps! Lindsay here . . .

Well, I survived. Barely.

Our school district had its first day of school yesterday, but at my school the first day of kindergarten is the "Kindergarten Tea" and the parents and kids just come for 2 hours.

Easy peasy, right?

Well, it went really well, HOWEVER there were probably almost 60 people in my room with my 28 kindergarteners, their parents, and a few little siblings as well. And combine that with the fact that my room was probably around 95 degrees, it made for a HOT AND SWEATY first day!!

I'm proud to say that this preggo (that's me!) put on her big girl panties and survived, although not without copious amounts of sweating. And waddling.

After welcoming my kiddos and their parents, their first task was a classroom scavenger hunt - which they LOVED!!  They felt OH SO  important looking around the room with their paper and clipboard! :)

Here is a closer look at the scavenger hunt itself.  You can click on the picture below for a link to this FREEBIE in my TPT store!! :)

And of course the MOST exciting part was the treat at the end that they discovered in their cubbies . . .

 . . . Smarties for my lil smarties, of course!!!

Next I had stations at my five tables where each student rotated from table to table with their parents. Each table had an activity for the kiddos to complete (a dot-to-dot, tracing the ABCs, pattern blocks, etc. - which were all great for some informal observations as to what my kiddos can already do!) and an activity for the parents as well (sign-up sheet for volunteering, filling out my "getting to know you" student info form, etc.).

At this particular table I had the parents take a lil card and write a love note to their kiddo, which I then put into their pencil boxes.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of one of the completed notes - they were all so sweet and heartfelt!  Even though my kidlets could read their love notes on their own, they were SO excited to have a lil something from mom and dad when they got their pencil boxes today (the 2nd day of school).

If you would like to use this template, you can click on the image below to link up with this FREEBIE in my TPT store.

Aaaaaaand . . . I finally gave in and jumped on the bandwagon.  Here is my "1st Day of Kinder" frame that I used to take super cute pictures of my little kidlets with!  (I am lovin those funky letters - courtesy of the "Boho Birds" set from Lakeshore!)

And today . . . well today was our FIRST REAL OFFICIAL DAY of kindergarten.  So naturally there were some tears. And a few kiddos crawling around the floor, and some others lining up with the wrong class after recess . . . but overall, I think I have a super sweet bunch this year!

Even though we were all DYING of heat stroke, we did manage to do the cover and the first page of "My First Week in Kindergarten" packet. (Click the picture below to check out this FREEBIE in my TPT store!)  I have my kiddos do this packet at the beginning and end of every year and it is such a fun thing to put out at Open House to show my student's amazing progress! 

First my kidlets wrote their name and practiced NOT "scribble-scrabbling" on their cover page.

Then we did self portraits!  Again - such a great informal assessment to see their fine motor, what details they are adding to their pictures, etc.

And then tomorrow we will be doing writing and a dot to dot! :)

Well, that's all I have to share for now!  I hope some of these FREEBIES will come in handy for your class next year!

One more thing before I sign off . . . we have a winner for our magnet board giveaway! Drumroll please . . .

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats to Sue B!!!!  We will be contacting you soon about your fabulous prizes!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday night! I'm off to raid the freezer . . . surely there is a carton of chocolate ice cream in there after my long day of teaching, right??

Lindsay