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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Open House Night: A Step By Step Guide With Free Resources

Today we had open house.  Here's a step-by-step guide to everything that I do:

I stand at the door and greet parents.  I have a podium outside the door with a framed 8 x 10 class picture, a sign in sheet/volunteer sheet, and a plant.

I have a powerpoint rolling when the parents walk in the room.  It's class pictures on a loop.  I used this Powerpoint background:
This background came somewhere from the site Brainy Betty, but I can't find the exact link.  If someone has it, send it to me!


How to Loop a Powerpoint slide show:

  1. On the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show.
  2. Select the Loop continuously until 'Esc' check box.


The parents would enter the room, look around, and find their child's desk with their letter on it.  This year I had the parents reply, but I only had 11/18 parents show... so next year I'm ditching the parent's reply portion.  Third grade is a little different... less parent participation than 1st.

When everyone arrives, I start a formal presentation with Prezi.  Prezi is a free, beautiful and easy to use site!  I highly recommend it if you haven't tried it yet.  They have a really cute owl design too!  The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes- don't ramble on and on!  Short, sweet and to the point.

Back to School Prezi

You can click here to get your own editable version.

5 comments:

Anonymous

Well, I must admit I am the proud mama of Mrs. Cross. Your room looks AMAZING!!! Your hard work is paying off.

Anonymous

Post your classroom banner.

Unknown

Wow! Your classroom is beautiful! Thanks for stopping by my blog so I could find yours....it's wonderful and I'm your newest follower!
Linda

AroundtheKampfire

Tania

Your room looks amazing! How do you like mountain math/language? i am thinking about buying it.
Tania
My Second Sense

Unknown

@Linda, thanks for the follow! :)

@Tania- Ummm... actually, I'm not crazy about the Mountain math & language. I like the concept of the spiral review, but essentially MM is just a long worksheet with a bulletin board. I think the smartboard version would be slightly better. I am actually taking those down and converting the space to social studies & a reading board. I use Math Minutes (http://www.amazon.com/3rd-Grade-Math-Minutes-Alaska-Hults/dp/1574718142), the spiral review from Envision math & a geography spiral review (just 2 questions a day) every morning now. I would recommend a cheaper spiral review book such as Math Minutes to get more "bang for your buck".

I also REALLY like Beth Newingham's daily math review: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2010/05/math-workshop

Hope this helps! :)

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