The First Day of School: How are your students getting home?

You've been busy preparing for the first day of school all summer long!  The 1st day is going to be amazing, and when the bell rings at the end of the first day, you will be SO EXCITED that you survived it!  :)  Here is something you may or may not have considered...

You are probably going to have parents drop their kids off to your classroom on the first morning.  As they are waving goodbye, they will holler to you... "Oh ya!  Miss Campbell... I forgot to tell you that Ben's Grandpa will pick him up after school today.  Normally, he will ride Bus #22, but today Grampy will pick him up."  After the third or fourth parent does this, your mind will be spinning, and you won't remember if Ben is supposed to ride Bus #22 or go to parent pick-up!  Trust me... dismissal is CHAOS on the 1st day of school because many parents do something different on the 1st day of school than normal.  Maybe they want to get a picture of their kiddo after school or they are too nervous to let their child ride the bus on the first day.

Here is my advice to you.  When parents come for Meet the Teacher night, keep two lists.  One list will be "Transportation for the 1st Day of School" and the other list will be "Regular Transportation."  You can put these lists at the sign-in table, or keep them on a clipboard and ask each individual parent.  If a child does not show up for Meet the Teacher, CALL THE PARENTS and find out how the child will get home on the first day of school!

(These forms are part of my Meet the Teacher Night resource on TpT.)

My next piece of advice is write the child's mode of transportation on their name tag.  You are likely going to be giving kiddos name tags all week, so put "Bus #22", "Walker," or "Car Rider" on their name tag.  If they get a little lost at dismissal, somebody can easily help them find their way.  The teacher will have the master list, but if little Ben is lost, his name tag will help another teacher get him to the right place.

 Putting tags on backpacks is especially helpful for Pre-K and Kinder kiddos.  

You can download these Transportation Tags for FREE in my TpT store.  

If you want something even easier, just buy some Avery labels and print name tags for your students.  You can add car rider, walker, bus #s, etc. to their name tags and change them throughout the week as needed.  This would take less than 5 minutes to do, and you would probably use them throughout the year for subs, field trips, etc.

Hope these tips make dismissal on the 1st day of school go very smoothly!  :)