Meet the Teacher Night & Snack Calendar

On the Facebook group I follow (PreK Teachers) someone brought up snack calendars.  This got my mind preparing for Meet the Teacher/Locker night and I thought I would write up how it runs at our school.

I teach public school 4k program to 20 students in the AM and 20 students in the PM Monday-Thursday  following the district calendar.  Our district does the community approach so though it is a public school program it is held in a variety of locations--mine being a Catholic school building.  We are a delicate balance between doing what the school district is doing and following building policy.  When it comes to locker night, I go along with our school policy.

Before Locker/Teacher night, teachers must have their rooms ready for the kids.  Names should be on the lockers, the room set up, and a majority of the stuff ready (behind the scenes jobs can be done after wards yet).

Locker night is a week before school starts for a 2 hour span. Families wander in in that time span and drop off supplies, see the room, meet the teacher, find their locker and get their child ready for (for most) their first school experience.

The Checklist:

• Drop off forms from the summer mail and district wide registration night in the basket
• Drop school supplies off in labeled bins on tables (start them sorting early!)
• Put back up/change of clothes in locker (start identifying their name)
• Sign up for snack on the computer.

Forms:

• Students purchase milk for the school year (or file for assistance) to have with their snack. They turn in their milk payment and Chocolate/White milk option.
• Getting to know you form
• Volunteer forms
• publicity waiver/release form

    

 School Supplies:

School supplies are community supplies in our school.  All supplies are deposited into bins that will be stored in the supply closet until students need them brought out.

All bins are laid out on the student tables and supplies can easily be dropped in.  This is done before locker night as well.

Snack Sign Up:

• We do community snack for a whole week for the students. We note any allergies at the beginning of the year and make sure snacks avoid those ingredients (unless severe and that student may have alternative snacks).  
• Parents sign up 2/3 weeks (20 students 2 weeks each isn't enough but don't need 3)
• Prior to locker night, teacher puts a week long calendar event named AM Snack, PM Snack for every school week
• Parents can scroll through the months looking for the week they would like to sign up for.
• Parents double click on the event (AM snack or PM snack) and put their name afterwards.
• Parents click save
• The calendar is then embedded into my classroom blog.  Parents are emailed weekly for a reminder to check the blog newsletter as well as the person who has snack.