Fun Ideas to Brighten the Start of Your School Year

Hey, ya'll! I'm a little bit late with this post, but my partner teacher came up with a really sweet idea that started off our year on a very positive note. I definitely wanted to share regardless of the fact it's almost October - maybe you can use it for next year. :)

So, my partner teacher texted me this summer about taking a silly sunglasses picture to mail to our prospective students before we met them this year. I was really not feeling it (I am often a Scrooge), but I'm sort of indebted to my partner teacher for life, so I agreed, and we had a silly photo sesh at my house complete with over-sized sunglasses.

I edited the picture with my favorite photo editing apps - PhotoToaster and Word Swag.

My partner teacher then took the image to CVS and worked her postcard-making magic. She snail-mailed a copy to each of our 41 students.

We can't wait to see you in 4th grade!

Sometimes I wonder if these types of thoughtful gestures are appreciated enough by students to be worth the time and effort they take to pull together. However, a few weeks into the school year during car duty, I saw one of our girls take our postcard out of her book bag and just stare at it a bit before tucking it back inside. I was touched.

Some other "bright" ideas for the beginning of the year are as follows:

1) First Day Highlighter Gift by The Tom Cat Studio.

2) If you find some silly sunglasses for your photo shoot, tack them onto your bulletin board afterwards for a cute beginning-of-the-year display. That's what my partner teacher did, and of course I forgot to take a picture before she changed it up. Here's an adorable display to consider by The Techy Teacher.

So, here's hoping your year is SUPER BRIGHT, too! Hugs and kisses from FlapJack!