End of the Day Routines

Organization is key when it comes to teaching...especially if you are an elementary teacher.  Everything must be ready prior to the day starting.  I mean everything.  All heck can break out if you {God forbid} forget to lay out the manipulatives you plan on using or even worse, forget to make a class set of copies of a worksheet you wanted to you.  Am I right!?

All of this "prep" work happens for me after the kids leave each day.  My plan time is an hour after they go home and I spend the first 10 minutes or so "cleaning up the room."  I do enlist in students to help out with most of the "cleaning" jobs for the next day.  Below are the things that I do to prepare for an upcoming school day:

I change the "helper" of the day.  

I change my center charts.  I do Literacy and Math centers.
*I have 23 kids.  Some go to guided reading/RTI during this time!*

The last thing the kids do before dismissal is silent reading.  I quickly grab their pencils while they are getting situated.
I sharpen them after they leave.

I straighten up the computer area and put the left out AR books away.

A student moves the clips back to the starting point on our behavior stick.

I have a student put out the next day's morning work.  Love Kelley's morning work!

I lay everything {I mean everything} out for the next day.  You can never be too prepared when teaching littles!  I have a long counter that I keep clear for the day's stuff.

I stuff mailboxes with homework for the next day.

One of my kids changes the date and day.  I get their lunch cards from my mailbox and put them in the pocket chart.

I'm a germ-a-phobe.  I have a student wipe down my guided reading table every day and put the chairs up.

I use a wipe on my desk.

Or maybe two wipes. 

And I wipe down my computer desk and shut down my computer.  

I get such a feeling of satisfaction leaving my second home in order each afternoon!  What do you do to prepare!?

xo
Megan