Back to school is a stressful time for teachers. Getting sick during those busy first weeks with a new class is always a nightmare & just adds to the craziness! Fortunately, there are some things you can do to keep you & your students healthy as you adjust to being in such close quarters together.

I like to think that I’ve found a balance between germophobia insanity and common sense. Somewhere along the lines of this sensible cat!

1. Wash your hands throughout the day.

Build handwashing for you and your students into the daily classroom routines. Teach your students how to properly wash with soap and how to dry their hands when they are finished. I have a really small sink in my room so I usually have one table group at a time line up to wash while the rest of the kids stay on the carpet singing, listening to a story, or having some other type of fun brain break. This is important because the kids end up racing through when the line is long and they feel rushed. It also helps cut down on the wait time for each child to get a turn at the sink. You do not want to be stuck in a classroom with bored, wild 1st graders waiting in a long line! Trust me on that one!

2. Never use student pencils, crayons, markers, glue sticks, etc.

Get in the habit of avoiding your students’ supplies. Keep your own separate pencils (& every other supply) that will only be touched by you. This might seem a little paranoid until you try this creepy experiment. Pick one child to watch for a few minutes and don’t let your eyes wander for even a moment. You will be horrified at what you see but let that horror motivate you to stick to your own supplies. I’m talking fingers in eyes, ears, noses, mouths… pencils & more in all of those same places. And some even grosser ones!

3. Set up a tissue station for students far, far away from your desk.

Teach your students how to blow their noses and properly dispose of used tissues. I keep tissues for students on a table along with a bottle of hand sanitizer with  a trash can underneath. I chose a spot as far away from me as possible! I keep my own personal tissue box & hand sanitizer at my desk. The other bonus to doing this is you won’t have a front row seat for any gross tissue related disasters, which can happen quite frequently with younger students.

4. Teach your students to avoid the T-Zone.

I am a big fan of Henry the Hand and his wise advice. For the past few years I’ve used these resources with my class at the start of a new school year and as a part of our calendar routines. The calendar helper each day leads the group in saying, “Don’t touch the T-zone. Never put your fingers in your eyes, nose, & mouth.” While we say this the kids trace a T shape on their faces and then point to each body part as we say it. And we definitely do this without actually touching our faces! Click below for a freebie you can share with your students & post in your classroom.

 5. Wipe every surface, everyday.

Helping clean the classroom is a regular part of our end of the day routine. I keep sponges, scrubbers, paper towels, & cleansing wipes out so they are readily available to my students. One of the many awesome things about first graders is that they are almost always excited to clean. I think they enjoy feeling mature & in charge of something. I have my kids start by cleaning their own desks and then they branch out to other shared spaces in the room. It doesn’t take much time for the kids to get really fast at this so we usually have a 5-7 minute cleaning spree before the last bell rings at the end of school.

I have my fingers crossed you won’t get sick this back to school season! But if it does happen, I hope you have someone there to sing Soft Kitty to you!

It will definitely speed your recovery!

images: giphy.com, KG Fonts, Halfpoint/Shutterstock

The post Stay Healthy This Fall & Beat the Back to School Germs! appeared first on Happy Teacher, Happy Kids.

Ready to join me in some vicarious organization enabled by Pinterest?

Here are my favorite classroom organization finds shared by some very creative teachers. Click each picture to head on over to their blogs:

1. Sort construction paper into a filing box.

No more random crumpled edges & you can easily spot any colors you are running low on. So much better than my current system of shoving construction paper into drawers & keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have enough of each color when I need it.

from Diane at teachwithme.com

2. Store math games in plastic bags & hang them on a towel rack.

I’m so doing this for my math workshop menu choices next year! I had a hard time keeping enough supplies out for multiple math games at a time without it looking like a small hurricane has blown through my classroom so this looks like a perfect solution.

from Arlee at Small Potatoes

3. Store base ten blocks in supply caddies.

I spent this entire school year thinking I didn’t own any of these blocks until afterschool on our very last day when I discovered my dusty class set of foam base ten blocks! So frustrating but at least I’ll be ready for next year. This idea is brilliant! When the kids clean up they get to sort ones, tens, & hundreds one more time.

from Sally at Elementary Matters

4. Label, label, label!

I had a really hard time choosing just one adorable & perfectly labeled picture from this gorgeous classroom. Seriously, you must click the photo below and give yourself some time to take it all in! Amazingly cute & functional! As my good friend Liz Lemon would say, “I want to go to there!”

from Mel D. at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations

5. Then add more labels!

I don’t know how I’ve been living all this time without knowing that self adhesive chalkboard vinyl exists! So many fun possibilities starting with these fun teacher supply jars.

from the x-acto website

6. Color code your curriculum files by subject.

One of my big summer goals this year is to purge my files and hopefully eliminate one of my file cabinets. If I survive the file downsizing this will be my next project.

from Angela at Primarily Primary

7. Sort extra crayons by color.

Wouldn’t it be great if this eliminated some of the daily, “Where’s my (fill in any color here) crayon?” Maybe it was just the group of kiddos I had this year but missing crayons was quite a frequent (& dramatic) event. And I love anything that incorporates another rainbow into my classroom!

from Bethany at Ship Shape First Grade

8. Use plastic dishpans to store classroom library books.

I am a girl who loves her plastic containers a little too much so I thought I had seen all of the classroom storage options at this point. I am so happy to be wrong! These are amazing! I love that they are clear and wide to store odd sized books. This entire classroom is so beautiful & very organized. Click through to see more!

from Eloiseney

9. Store earbuds in a plastic bead box with numbered sections.

This year was my first year to have the kids bring in headphones to use and it was a hot mess! I had kids losing headphones left & right not to mention that some kids brought really big and really expensive ones to school which were hard to store & gave me some serious anxiety about anything happening to them. I’m hoping to encourage next year’s kids to just bring simple earbuds and then we are going to give this box storage a whirl.

from Brittany at Inspire.Love.Learn.

10. Store extra scrapbook & construction paper by color.

I love using scrapbook paper but I really hate how spendy it is. And I hate it even more when I see kids destroying the scraps or just dumping them once they are finished. This year I had a tub for kids to save the scraps in but having all colors in one tub made it time consuming to dig through when we needed more for a new project. I don’t know if I can fit something like this in my room space wise for next year but I’m going to try to make it work as Tim Gunn would say

from Rachel at I Love My Three Sons

11. Set up a check out station for your classroom library

I love how you could reuse this from one year to the next using class numbers rather than names. It might be a little ambitious for my first graders to manage at the start of the school year but I think by mid-year they will be up for the challenge. This is another photo that leads to an amazingly inspiring classroom tour so be sure to click through to see the rest of this room!

from I Love Labels

12. Label & separate each child’s crayons on the group supply caddy.

I always struggle with class supplies and I feel like I’ve tried everything from individual pencil boxes to store everything for each child to group supply baskets with no names on anything. I like this idea because it meets somewhere in the middle. I’m getting ready for my 10th year of teaching and I’m pretty sure I’ve used 9 different ways to organize the supplies. Maybe this will be the one to stick!

from Karen at Flamingo Fabulous in Second Grade

13. Store emergency sub plans in a well labeled container.

I’ve always done emergency sub plans in a binder but I like this idea even more- you could put read alouds & any other needed materials right in with the plans. This way it would definitely be easy to spot too!

from Melissa at Teach Bake Love

14. Gather copies & materials for the whole week in one spot.

I used some rainbow dividers from Lakeshore for this same type of storage but I could never fit everything I needed into  each day’s container. I love how roomy these bins are and that they stack to save on counter space. Especially since I have no free counter space at this point!

From Alison at Rockin’ and Lovin’ Learnin’

15. Store ipods in labeled caddies.

Since I’m busy organizing my imaginary classroom this evening I’m going to store my imaginary ipods in these cute containers. Fingers crossed I’ll have some real technology to store in the future!

From Molly at Lucky to Be in First!

16. Separate teaching resource books by topic.

I spend way too much time squinting at the teeny tiny titles on the spines of skinny teaching resource books trying to find stuff. This will save me so much time and hopefully eliminate eye strain too!

From Clutter-Free Classroom

17. Store puzzles in pencil pouches.

I am in favor of anything that means I can get rid of the severely abused cardboard boxes my rainy day puzzles live in! Such a great idea! I’m putting these pouches on my back to school shopping list.

From Kelly at The Navy Stripe

18. Sort prep materials for aides & volunteers in plastic drawers.

Somehow I think this system will work much better than my current system, especially because my current system is one giant pile of papers with post-its barely hanging on!

from Anna at Crazy for First Grade

 Doesn’t it all just make you want to head to the Container Store immediately?!

image credits: giphy, KG Fonts,  all other images belong to the linked blogger or website owner, please let me know if you would like your photo/link removed from this list

The post 18 Amazing Classroom Organization Tips & Tricks appeared first on Happy Teacher, Happy Kids.

David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken has become one of my must reads for back to school. The kids enjoy the easy to relate to story and quirky illustrations and it is also a great way to start a friendly conversation about interrupting.  I saw a wonderful idea on Kim Adsit’s blog 2 years ago that has really been helpful to me in cutting down on chattiness & focusing on being good listeners in my students.

Check out her post (it’s full of great ideas!) and look for the section about Target Behaviors.

Click the pictures below for some fun freebies I made to go with this story as well as to get  your very own interrupting chickens to use & hopefully curb this annoying behavior!

This is my old version from my classroom, I like to call it the “single classroom fair use not kosher for distribution version”,  but I just wanted to share it so you could get an idea of how I set it up in my room.

This system has really helped me not lose my mind with all of the unrelated, blurted out (& occasionally hilarious!) comments from little friends. After the first month or so of school I didn’t need to keep the chickens on display & we had (mostly) no interruptions! So thank you to Kim Adsit for sharing this idea! I hope it is helpful for you too! Check out my Interrupting Chicken pinterest board for more ideas:

The post Interrupting Chicken appeared first on Happy Teacher, Happy Kids.

Here is my last minute Unity Day necklace for the kids to wear tomorrow. I’m printing them on orange paper to coordinate with National Bullying Prevention Month.

Buddy Not Bully Badge

I’m also planning to sing Red Grammer‘s classic “I Think You’re Wonderful”.  Somehow I had never heard this sweet song until last week! It is perfect for building community. And super catchy!

I read Katherine Otoshi’s great book, One, the first week of school and I think tomorrow will be a great day to revisit it. I saw a readers theater done somewhere online with this story and it turned out really well. I like that the story is simple enough for first graders to really get into and have a more meaningful discussion. Maybe I’ll track down the readers theater for later this year.

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