Back to School Tips and Tricks

I’m a total stickler when it comes to teaching handwriting early, but I’ll be honest, I cannot stand the folding, peeling, and constant stickiness of traditional classroom name tags. For years, I used Sharpies to write student names directly on the tables, but without proper handwriting lines, it didn’t do much to help with letter formation or placement.

This year, I tried something different, and it worked so much better. I used a black Sharpie to draw handwriting lines, headline, midline, and baseline, right on the student tables. Then, with a silver paint Sharpie, I wrote each child’s name on top of those lines. Not only does it eliminate the mess of name tags, but it also gives students a built-in handwriting guide to practice proper letter placement every single day.

You know how we’re constantly labeling every single thing in our classrooms, right? Like, if it doesn’t have a label, does it even exist? 😂 But nothing and I mean NOTHING is worse than walking into a new classroom and realizing the teacher before you used those cheap paper address labels. Ughhh. Instant rage. Because you already know…the second you try to peel them off, it’s like a crime scene of ripped paper and sticky residue everywhere.

But listen, I’ve got the holy grail of labeling hacks. CLEAR Avery labels. I’m telling you, game changer. I literally print 20 pages of my kids’ names at the beginning of the year and slap them on everything: books, folders, cubbies, tables, even the carpet spots.

They’re super sticky (aka tiny little fingers can’t peel them off).

When you actually need to remove them, they come off in ONE piece, praise be.

And they last the WHOLE year without looking crusty.

Basically, they’re the teacher version of duct tape. You need them in your life.

Okay, tell me why it took me YEARS of drowning in folders, papers, and random files before I finally figured this out?!  Now I swear by these emergency contact cards, and they live on ONE RING. Like…why didn’t I do this sooner?!

Here’s the deal: I keep the ring in my emergency bag, and it goes with us on every single drill or field trip. Each card has everything: kid’s name, birthday, address, phone numbers, pickup info, and emergency contacts. All the stuff you panic-search for…right there, front and center.

I just copy the contact forms front and back onto cardstock, punch a little hole in the corner, and throw the whole class on a binder ring. Done. No mess. No hunting through 17 papers. Just flip to the kid you need in seconds. Easy. Peasy.