Over the years, I've seen many versions of the welcome back poem that goes with a goodie bag. It's one of those, "Oh, I want to do that next year," projects that I forget about by the time the next year rolls around. But since I'm super motivated to make big changes this year, I finally decided to hop on the wagon and do a goodie bag for the first day. Instead of grabbing an already created version and using it to create my shopping list, I went a little backwards. Instead, I thought of all of the things that I would like to put in the bag, bought them, then sat down with a version of the poem a teacher gave me a few years ago. I don't think anyone knows who the original author is since it's been around for so many years and edited to fit everyone's needs, but whoever began this, teachers around the world adore you and if the creator happens to be you, send me a message so I can credit you for the years of inspirations! Anyway, since I now had the items and a poem that only fit a few of them, I sat down to revise the poem for my classroom. That seemed easy, and perhaps I should pretend it didn't take me hours to get it just right, but it did. I'm very happy with my final poem and of course, it wouldn't be right if I didn't add some polka dots as well! I've used the polka dot borders for EVERYTHING this year! You can get them at Free Polka Dot Classroom Labels. So for my bags I included the following items: white lunch bags (Target) fifth grade specific pencils (Really Good Stuff) Welcome bracelet (Really Good Stuff) - These were a big hit last year Eraser Sharpener Lifesavers, Smarties, Laffy Taffy, Starbursts You can grab the poem here: Welcome Back Poem for Back to School I can't wait to surprise the kiddos with these on the first day!