Today is the first day of Teacher Training Week also known as “In Service Week.” Who knows why on earth it’s called that, but it is.

Next Monday night is our Orientation or Open House where all the kiddos and their parents come to school to see their classroom and meet their teacher. That means I have one week to get this room ready to go! Ah!

Third up on our list of Back to School Printables is this Parent Volunteer Form!

Parents are in happy mode at the beginning of the year, so I say use that to your advantage and slap out this volunteer form at Open House and just see if any are able to give some help throughout the year. Things like monitoring lunch and/or recess, helping with take home folders, cutting lamination etc can really make a difference to a busy teacher, am I right?

My room mom last year set up a rotation for lunch/recess monitoring and it was SO nice on those days to have a MOMENT to sit in my room and breathe.  :)

I also do a Wishing on a Star Poster where I have little star post it notes stuck to a poster board of donation ideas. Parents can just take a post it if they think they could donate that item to our class. Things like treasure box items, candy, board games, ziploc bags, fun color dry erase markers, markers, and colored pencils, etc.

Here’s my Wishing on a Star title in pdf if you would like to print it!

I’m doing a PowerPoint presentation during Open House for the first time too.

I basically took my Info Packet and pulled key ideas into the powerpoint. Hopefully, it will keep me on task and focused. I tend to over share so it’s nice to have a way to time myself and see how long I’m spending on each slide etc. I definitely don’t want parents to think of me as a whirlwind on Open House night, so I need to really tweak it and shorten it down. They will be taking home the Parent Packet with them that has all the info they need in case they miss something I said etc.

I also hope to get all the kiddos’ supplies unpacked and semi-put away so we won’t have to deal with that on the first day of school.  I’m hoping that I can label and direct well enough that it won’t be complete and utter chaos.

Crossing my fingers.

Here’s my Powerpoint and Parent Packet and Cover Page if you’d like to use it as a starting point.  If you don’t have the fonts I used then you will have to change the font and size to make it look right.

Seven days and counting!

I’d love to hear if these printables will be a help to you as you start your year!

Linking up at   Weekend Bloggy Link up, & Monday Made It with Tara.