Open House Ideas

Last night was my first open house as a solo classroom teacher. I finally had a chance to use some of those ideas I have been stock piling for a while.

This apple favor serves as a nice 'thanks for getting a babysitter and hanging out in a tiny chair for 20 mins' gift and also as a tool for taking attendance easily. The poem can be found online. I printed it on green paper and cut it out in the shape of a leaf. The apples are in fold-over sandwich baggies. I twisted the top of the bag and used it to hold the leaf on. My good friend, Mrs. G (who I got this idea from) uses pipe cleaners to hold the leaf on and to act as a stem.

Each child's seat housed a pile of items about classroom proceedings and of course book order flyers. A top the pile was a 'love note' written by each child ('written' with pictures, this is a K classroom after all). Parents were instructed when they entered to use the matching blank paper to write their child a note. Students whose parents did not attend received a note from either myself or another teacher in our hall.

On another table I set up a pumpkin patch. I cut out orange pumpkins on construction paper and wrote an item from the wish list on each pumpkin. The harder items also had photos on the pumpkins (as much as I love Do-A-Dot markers, very few non-educators know what they are).

The front table housed conference sign up sheets and a list for volunteers (farm hands). Next to the conference sign up sheet were slips of paper saying, 'my conference is on ______' for parents to fill in. The front door was equipped with a sign (positioned to obstruct an easy exit) asking parents if they had signed up for conferences.

Overall it was a good night. 13 of my 17 families attended and I made it out of the building shortly after the, 'the building will be closing' announcement.

Good luck to everyone with upcoming Open House nights!