Welcome back to a new school year! I hope everything has gone well so far as you start the 2021-2022 academic year. This is the time of year I make my new school year resolutions. One of my resolutions for this school year is to send out a newsletter around the same time each month to let you know about upcoming events, available online training, and just some interesting or fun activities to try with your students.
This is also the time of year when schools typically get new supplies and materials. When I was a new teacher one of my mentors suggested having students help organize as all of the new school supplies are coming in. This activity is a great way for students to work on sorting skills and you could incorporate some math concepts if they are counting to help keep an inventory of what is available or one to one correspondence if they are putting one of each item in a set of supply boxes or at each desk.
I also found this great post on The OT Toolbox website: Back to School Sensory Activities August OT Calendar. It has 31 quick ideas for the classroom (one for each day of the month of August) such as putting beads on shoe laces to make a discrete fidget during circle time on the floor, having desk chairs on rugs to reduce auditory distractions, and practicing spelling words with movement.
