More Back To School Ideas: Open House Scavenger Hunt:

Open House Idea

I sent Welcome To School Packets to my Y5's the 3rd week of August. We don't start school in Michigan 'til the Tuesday after Labor Day. (Wahoo) for there's no air conditioning in my school.

One of the things I included in the envelope was an invitation to our school's open house that's always held the last week of August.

We have a separate open house for the preschool, Y5's and kindergarten classes, so they don't feel so overwhelmed with all of the "big kids" running around.

I liked having an open house before school started so children could meet me, see their room and take a tour of the school. It really helped dispel first day jitters and the fear of the "unknown".

We even had several buses there so children could take a ride around the block with their parents so that "first" experience is not scary either.

To get students excited to come to open house, I designed a scavenger hunt.

This was not only a looked-forward to fun-event, but it served the purpose of students finding specific things and familiarizing themselves with "stuff", while they had the one-on-one help of their parents, like finding and opening a locker, which is not an easy task for a 4-year-old who has difficulty recognizing their name and manipulating knobs.

This made the first day of school a lot less hectic for me, and empowered my students to feel a bit more knowledgeable and independent. I rarely had anyone crying anymore on the first day and things ran much more smoothly.

Here's what to do:

Keep your list short and simple.
Think of the things you really want your students to be familiar with and write them down.
Revamp your list.

Type it up.
Make it bulleted with hollow bullets so that students can either add a sticker or color in the dots as they "find things".

My Y5's aren't familiar with the term scavenger hunt, but they know what a treasure hunt is, so I label this as a treasure hunt.

Once they find all of the things on their check list, they can claim their treasure, which is a goodie bag from me. If the plastic supply boxes go on sale really cheap, I'll buy those and fill them.
I fill treat bags or boxes in an assembly-line fashion, putting one of everything, one at a time, in each bag. It goes really fast that way.

I always make at least 3 extra bags, for parents sometimes take them for a younger sibling even tho' I post a note that these are only for my students. I also have new students show up as well.

Make up an invitation to your open house and include information that their child will go on a treasure hunt to find things, like their locker, their teacher, their name on the bulletin board, their desk, cubbie, their open house-take-home packet etc.

Put directions on the check list such as: Find these things and put a sticker next to them. You do not have to go in order. When you are done, keep the sheet as a keepsake for your scrapbook and claim your treasure.

You can have a basket of stickers and a basket of Treasure Hunt Check Lists on a table at your open house, or you can send them in the mail so they can look at them ahead of time and get excited with the perusal.

I've done both. Parents have been very good about remembering to bring both check list and stickers with them and there was not a crowd waiting to pick things up, or wasting time reading things when they got here.

I did have extra's there for the parents who did forget, or for the ones whose mail was returned.

Positive feedback was so tremendous for this, and the students have enjoyed it so much, that I have continued to do a treasure hunt every year.

In fact, most of the other elementary teachers in my school have also adopted my treasure hunt idea and done some type of scavenger hunt for their open houses as well.
To give you an idea of what I have on my list, click on the link to view/print my letter, invitation and treasure hunt check list.

You can use these things as a guideline to tweak and dream up your own. It's just nice to have a "skeleton" of "something" to jumpstart you in the right direction.

Just a "heads-up": One of the most important things I added to my checklist was that little note after "check out our room"....but don't haul out and play with any of the tubs of toys..."

I highly recommend you add that, especially if you plan on being in the hallway part of the time, like I was; greeting parents, talking, answering questions etc.

My first year, I came back into the classroom to find it an utter disaster! Toys were everywhere and it took me 'til almost 11 at night to get everything cleaned up.
I was in tears and exhausted driving home. That simple sentence has done the trick EVERY year since. My room was always ship shape from just that one gentle reminder.

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