First Day Idea - Telling Your Students About You

I have always believed that you can be more scared of the unknown than anything else. This definitely rings true for our new little friends coming into Kindergarten. They have no idea what to expect, they don't really know what their teacher is going to be like, or for our non-preschoolers. what a teacher even is, all they know is Mommy and Daddy won't be there and it might be hard. All of that is more than little scary. And then there is us, the teachers, all a little scared of what the year might bring. Especially the first day. I agonize and worry about my first impression to the parents and kids. Will I have a runner? Or how many criers? How many students will I have to peel off the parents’ legs? How many potty accidents? How many times will I answer “When is it time to go home?”. How long will it feel like I am herding cats before I have them trained to stay... there. Stay where ever it is that they need to be...centers... their seat...the carpet. ahhh! My heart is starting to race just thinking about it. So. Many. Things. I am not alone in this right??? I can never sleep before the first day of school thinking about all of these things. Anyway... I am getting a little carried away here!
So, what I really meant to talk about was the children and what can be a very stressful day for them with all their worries about the unknown. I came up with a couple of things I do to alleviate their anxiety so at least one of us is more relaxed and EXCITED about the first day J My ideas aren’t ground breaking or even new stuff but they are just something I do that works for me. Maybe it might work for others too.

ABC’s About Me
A few years ago, a friend of mine gave a code for a free 8x8 photo book from Shutterfly. My kids were 3 and 4 years old at the time and I saw an idea on Pinterest to make them an ABC book of their current life. So I did. It said things like "A is for Allison, B is Beach camping, etc... and it included pictures of us and things we did, and places we've been. It turned out so cute and they love it! I read it to them as a bedtime story often. When it came for school to start up I thought it would be a perfect little story to read to my new little Kinder babies to tell them about me, my kids, my pets, my husband and the things we like to do together. My students loved it just as much and would ask me to read it to them several times during the year. As they got to know me, and the people I talked about most, it was something of a novelty to the kids to connect these names to faces. Or stories I’ve told them about my family to the events in the pictures. This is the first book I made:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own custom photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Last year, when I brought out the book on the first day, I realized that it was severely outdated. My kids were 3 and 4 years old in the pictures (they are now 7 and 8 years old), the pets we have now were not in our family back then, and there are more family events I can include now that we’ve done them with our few years older children. So this year, I got my hands on another free code when we went to LegoLand in May. I finally just finished our new and updated ABC book. They take a bit of time to make, but in the end, so worth it. Plus it’s a family keepsake that serves 2 purposes . I will show you my new updated version when it arrives on Tuesday. Follow me on Instagram @SmartCookiesInKinder

Letter Home
I never had a teacher send me a letter but my siblings did. I knew I wanted to be a teacher back then and when they received a letter in the mail from their teachers, I thought it was the coolest thing. I tucked that little idea way in my head for future teacher use. It took a few years of teaching to get my hands on an address roster before school began but eventually someone let me have it. I now write a letter every year that looks like this:

 I just edit a few things and change out the pictures to updated ones. When Kinder orientation comes (Meet The Teacher), many students bring the letter with them and are so excited to share with me that their favorite color is pink like me or they love the Dodgers too! They tell me about their pets or their brothers and sisters and they are the oldest child like me. Right away I have broken down that barrier of the unknown, because now, they know me. They know I am a Mommy and that Mommies are nice. They know I like kids, and sports. Then when the first day of school rolls around, they are excited to come back and see me. I haven’t had criers or runners since I started doing this...maybe about 5 years ago... Though I still stress over the possibility of having one.
Is there anything you do to help your students cope with first day nerves and get to know you? Please share!