Back to School & Birthday stuffs....

Trying to wrap my head around the fact that my summer is almost gone.  It's not working #thestruggleisreal
I'm dipping my toes into the back to school pool slowly!  My first order of business, welcome & birthday postcards!  I do these every year, and it's such an easy way to make your kids feel special!  Who doesn't love getting mail, ACTUAL mail?!
I buy postcards at my local teacher store, they're inexpensive!  To start, I fill out each card with a basic welcome message, and follow that up with our meet the teacher night info.  This serves 2 purposes : welcome AND a reminder to come to back to school night. (We're a Title 1 school, and parent attendance at events is important!)  Last, I put a stamp on each card, so they're ready to go....remember postcard stamps are cheaper than "regular stamps" so make sure you buy the correct stamps to save a few dollars!

That's the hard part, now I play the waiting game.  WHEN DO I GET MY ROSTERS?!  I get almost as excited as the kids do to see which students will be in Room 128 each year! When I finally get my roster, all I have to do is address the cards & put them in the mailbox!
Along the same lines is my birthday "routine."  I make sure I have a pre-addressed, stamped, and written out postcard for each student at the beginning of the year.  I keep these organized in a notecard holder, by month...I'm pretty sure I found it at the $ bin at Target.  (I just covered the lettered tabs with the months of the year)

I wish I could say that I mail these the week of their birthday, but honestly, I mail out postcards at the beginning of each month.  Pretty simple, and my kids LOVE it!

Cheap finds from Five Below

Dollar finds @ Target

best goody bag helper. Ever. 

On top of that, I have a small bag of "goodies" for each student....pre-made of course.  Mainly school supplies, and "treats," but I also put a coupon for a free book in there and the bag tag doubles as a free homework pass!  The free book pass I get from my Scholastic book orders,

you can buy them with your "points" at the beginning of the year.  Each student gets to choose a book from the catalog for a few $$.  If you'd like the tags, just click the pic below to download!

AND.....

All of my goodies came from Five Below!  

My new favorite teacher store!  It's not really a teacher store; kind of a glorified dollar store for teens.  So much good stuff there, if you have one in your city, you should seriously check it out!! 

#summerisover