Yesterday I designed my welcome cards for my new group of students. All classroom teachers in our building send a letter or card to everyone in their incoming class. We have done this for a long time, and all our students look forward to hearing from their new teacher before classes begin. I designed my cards using the program, The Print Shop by Broderbund. I use Print Shop for lots of things. This year I decided to use one of my photos from my photo blog for the cover. For several years I have done a photo a day project, though I haven't kept up very well this year. If you're interested you can see my photos at http://barbaraspics365.blogspot.com/.
On the back of the card, I include a suggested supply list. Inside I tell students about some of the things we will be studying during the year and give them the link to our classroom website. This gives families the opportunity to explore our website ahead of time. I also remind them about open house, which is held prior to the beginning of classes.
The advantage of using Print Shop for this project is that I have a template I can work from, without having to start from scratch every year. I pull up the old file, change fonts, alter dates and details, and decide on a new cover design. You can use art from the Print Shop program, but usually I don't. Last year I used www.imagechef.com to make a word mosaic using the students names. You can see that here. Other years I have used my Stampin Up stamps to create a design. You can see that and read about some of the other ways I use Print Shop here at at my old blog, Day In the Classroom
I am pleased with the way they came out this year, and it always gets me excited about going back to school. I really do enjoy the creative parts of setting of my classroom. I will mail my cards on Monday. I like to have them arrive about a week before school begins.
