College Bound Kids {a new packet}

As teachers and educators, I think we all agree that college is important. As a first generation college graduate in my own family, I can honestly say that college was never really on my to-do list growing up. It wasn’t until my aunt decided to take it upon herself my senior year of high school to see that I went to college, and she told my mom that she had to kick me out! I often thank her for that, even though I hated her at the time! I never pictured myself as “college material” and I certainly never dreamed I would someday have a master’s degree!  College just wasn’t something we discussed growing up…

Well, next week at school, we will be having "college week". This is a new tradition that we started last year, and is definitely something I look forward to as the school year is coming to a close. Last year it was all put together pretty quickly, and we sort of made it up as we went along.... This year I decided to make a packet for all of the teachers at my school to use, and today I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. So what exactly IS college week, you might ask? Well, college week is designed to get even the littlest of kids to think about college and help your students set goals and get excited NOW about attending college in the future.

Because my school is K - 6, I wanted to make the packet as versatile as possible, so there are writing pages with both primary and secondary lines, and more than enough activities to keep any grade level engaged throughout the week. Not every page will be used depending on your grade level, but there are plenty of activities to choose from.  Here are some of the highlights:

* College application

* College research page

* Vocational / trade school research page (great for upper grade students who may express interest in trade school over college)

* College K-W-L

* Create a mascot

* If I were a college student – graphic organizer & writing pages

* I would make a great college student because… - graphic organizer and writing pages

* College is important because… - writing & coloring page

* Things I can do now to prepare for college – graphic organizer & writing pages

* When I grow up – writing & coloring page

* Blank graphic organizer and writing pages

* Characteristics of great college students anchor chart (cut-n-glue version is perfect for the littlest college-bound kiddos!)

* Multiple graphic organizers for college versus elementary school, compare two colleges, etc.

* College words word-search

* Design you own dorm room

* Bulletin board materials with endless possibilities (college pennants, college kiddos, caps, etc.)

* College Week Participation Certificates (color & black and white)

If you are interested in having college week, this packet is a great resource to help you get started. Each day, I start by showing my class a YouTube video about one of the colleges here in Utah, and of course you can find videos for colleges in your own area by searching on YouTube... My kids get so excited each time we get to take a virtual tour of a college campus in our area. The videos are also great to use with the Venn diagrams in the packet if you want your students to compare and contrast two colleges in your area.  I will post my youtube playlist at the bottom of this post :)

A few other suggestions to make a great college week:

** Call local community colleges or universities in your area and ask to speak with a recruiter -- these folks are usually more than happy to send you some college "swag" to share with your students (I have gotten pencils and pennants in the past).

** Invite a recruiter to come to your school and speak to the older students about things they need to do to become “college bound”.

One class made a poster and had everyone
sign it to commit to attending college!

** Hold a food drive during the week, and have students donate food in bins labeled for their favorite university in your area…. See which university can get the most food.

** Have a theme each day – such as team colors, university tee-shirts, athletic day (many of the boys wore school jerseys, and some of my girls dressed as cheerleaders for various schools), cap & gown day (if they have a cap and gown from a parent, or you could do a dress-up day where they wear nice clothes and make them their own caps to wear).

** Hold a “commencement” ceremony (as a class, grade-level, or whole school).  We are doing this next week, but it’s new this year, so I don’t know much about it… I’ll have to blog about it later…  I have included a few certificates in the packet if you want to do a commencement for your future college grads.

Ok, I have rambled on long enough… click {HERE} to check out the packet on TPT… if you would like to win a copy, comment below with the university you graduated from… I will pick a winner Friday night whenever I get home from school.  Enjoy!

Here are a few teachers from team USU (I'm in the middle in my cap, gown, and hood). Go AGGIES!

here's a little playlist I put together last year... this highlights some of the schools here in Utah: