Welcome Next Years Class in Style!

I recently posted about a few things that I do to prepare my classroom (and keep my sanity) in the Fall. But I also have my current class do some things to help welcome my next years class as well. Every Spring, my current third graders complete a welcome brochure (grab it below) for my new kids, explaining some of the highlights of third grade. I save them to put on my new students desks in the Fall, along with my back to school informational packet and some goodies from me. This brochure is by far my new students favorite thing...it seems to put them at ease to know all of the fun things that they have to look forward to. I usually encourage my kids to write something silly that they liked about me as a teacher this year in the the "one thing you need to know about your teacher" section, although they really don't need that much encouraging after all.

If you maintain a class website or class blog, you could also take a compiled list of the "highlights of third grade" that your current students write about at the end of the year and post them for your incoming kids to read about before school starts. You can view my classroom website post of what this might look like here.

Here is the brochure I use with my kids. In fact, we will be working on these next week.


I create a welcome bag for my kids as well-filled with goodies that I mentioned above. This is nothing I invented, but I did create a team themed letter to attach to the welcome bag. The bags look much better than a plain brown bag. Last year I found some team pennants and mini foam fingers to throw in the bags as well from Oriental Trading. The poem was not written by me, one my colleagues and I came across it a few years back and have been using ever since.


I also have my students write a letter to next years class interactively so that I have a great poster to hang up on my otherwise blank easel at back to school night. I let each student write their name when they sign it so it is a bit more personalized.

Lastly, I ask the teacher of the grade level above me (for me it would be fourth) to have their students write a "what to expect next year" style letter to my kids so that I can pass them on to my current kiddos on the last day of school.

I would love to hear about some things that you do to help welcome your kiddos back in the Fall.