0 Getting Back to the GRIND!

Well teacher friends, anyone else kicking and screaming about going back tomorrow? I can't lie to you, this lady is! UGHHH...

That's ok though, because I am eager to see my kids, as I wasn't able to wish them a Merry Christmas, or give them a holiday party. Our school closed unexpectedly two days prior to break because of all of the threats circulating. So, being that we have a short week, we will be having our Christmas party on Friday! My kids will be so excited when I tell them! ;)

Since tomorrow is really going to be a "getting back to the grind" kind of day for all of us, I have a fun and easy day planned for us.

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 for me though, allowing one little thing to slide becomes quite the slippery slope! So, I have created this awesome checklist of procedures that helped a TON at the beginning of the year, and will help now too. Click HERE 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 with them by Friday.

Besides reviewing our procedures, I plan to whip out this baby too from the beginning of the year.

Click HERE to grab this fun pack!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 two-week vacation. In the past I've had 10 kids show up, so not much "work" gets done. ;) At least with these team building games and activities, whether I have all 30 of my kids, or only 10, I'm prepared!

Last but not least, have you seen all of the amazing FREE New Years resources on TpT? There are SO many super cute writing and craftivity type activities for FREE! Here are some I hope to use with my students this week!

Don't forget, 20% off my entire store for today only! Have you started implementing data tracking in your classroom yet? The New Year is the PERFECT time to start! Click HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE to learn all about using standards based assessments to track student learning and data in your classroom! It's so easy!

What do you all have planned for your short week back!?