I have been busy this evening! I finally got some card stock today so I started printing things I've created for school, getting ready to go to GLRS tomorrow and get it all laminated. I printed so much I had a printer go on strike! I had to switch printers! I'm a little worried this one will go on strike when I start printing my labels tomorrow! But I am going to stay positive about it. Let me show you some of the things I have created.
My classroom has a sports theme this year, same as last year, but I am still learning to go overboard with the theme! So, here are my job cards that I will post on my whiteboard. They are soccer goals with the job name on top. I am going to get some little soccer balls from Hobby Lobby and put student numbers on them. (not names, so I can use them year after year!) To show students what their jobs are, I'll put their soccer ball in the goal of their job for the day! The jobs I have are Table Washers, Class Blogger, HW checker, and Official Filer. The Table Washer job is pretty self explanatory, they clean up the lunchroom and wipe down the tables. The Class Blogger is going to be a great job that I am starting this year. Since I'll be back in 1st after all, it will be slightly different than I originally planned it, but I'm still going to make it work. I applied for the funding for a project from Donor's Choose. (an amazing site I suggest you check out!) I asked for a digital camera and the accessories for it so that I could get my kids excited about learning and allow them to be a part of the social media and technology world. For the first half of the year, I will change this job weekly. The Class Blogger will get to use the camera to take one or two pictures of some learning activity they found exciting that week. Then, with the help of a parent volunteer or my paraprofessional, they will upload the picture to the computer and then write about the event in the picture on an educational social media site called Edmodo. Their parents will have Edmodo accounts too and will be able to see what they post! (I'll blog about Edmodo later!) When I get this project started, I will blog about it separately, because I am really excited about it! Another job is HW checker. This job description has changed too since my return assignment to first grade. Anyway, this student's job is basically to make sure that each student turns in their binder to its proper place in the morning. This student will also let me know who is absent for the day, based on an empty binder slot. The last job is Official Filer. This student will sort student papers into their "mail slots" so they can go home.
Next thing I did!
I got this idea from Pinterest, which, thanks to my friend Drea, I am TOTALLY addicted to! OK, so anyway, this is a chart I'm going to put on my whiteboard as well. It basically shows the options that might be available for a given assignment. I will simply check off the ones that go with the task so students don't constantly raise their hands to ask if they can or not. Either that, or I'm going to cut them out and put magnets on the back, and just put up the appropriate ones at the time, I haven't decided yet. That last one, "stick a rubric to it," is because of a local thing we have going on, where the county is encouraging us to have students evaluate their own work. So I made a bunch of labels that have a mini, student friendly rubric on it, where students can check off how well they think they did on their work. My rubric has a sports theme too, so I'll post that later too.
This is another Pinterest idea I found. It is a classroom management strategy that doesn't disrupt others. Each stop sign says "Please STOP what you are doing and make a better choice." Of course, 1st graders won't be able to read these at first, but they will be explained, and the bright STOP sign gets the point across. I can carry these with me in the hall, to assemblies, lunch, specials, library, and even in the classroom to use. I will simply hand out a stop sign to a student when he/she needs to check a behavior. They will hold onto it until they have corrected the behavior, then I'll take it back. If this doesn't work, then further action will be taken.
A game I created for a math center. Base ten memory. Students play memory where they match the number to its base ten representation. As we learn more number sense skills, I'll add expanded form memory and word form memory.
Obviously didn't print these, I made them by hand, but they are another math center. I am pretty sure I got this idea from Pinterest too. This is a game played with playing cards. You would take out the face cards and use only the number cards. (keep Ace and explain that it is one) Students pick a task card, then find playing cards to fit on the empty spaces that will make the card true. Some are more open ended then others, and students will also learn that they may have to change cards to be able to complete the task. (for example, on the far card to the right, students will have to find a low card to add to the 8 to be able to find another card to put after the equal sign)
Sports theme alphabet cards. Thanks to Pinterest again, I got the idea to have a bulletin board, sectioned area, whatever, to post a Boggle board on! Students can play Boggle as an activity if they finish work early. I think my friend Drea is going to use her Boggle as a word work station. This reminds me, I need to print out another set, because Boggle can have repeat letters!
These are my sports theme months labels for my birthday board. I have never posted birthdays, shame on me, but this year I am going to! (BTW, I have always celebrated birthdays with my students! More on how later!) Anyway, I saw on, ahem, Pinterest, a really cute birthday board. Here's what you do. Take all the students who have birthdays in the same month and take their picture together, with each holding a card with the date of the birthday on it! Then, post the pictures under the month it goes with. Love it! I'll post it once we've done it.
I got these cards from another blogger out there, who I found on, you guessed it, Pinterest! Anyway, I like how she did these cards, she made each set of 100 Fry words bordered with a different color. This is the printing that caused my printer to go on strike, btw. Anyway, I printed out 2 sets of the first 100 (eep!) so that I could use them in a Language Arts center. They are going to be available to play sight word Go Fish!
Ok, so this wasn't printed today, I did this a couple of weeks ago, but it's in the stack to get laminated. It's my Homeworkopoly board. I have never done this before but I have seen it very successfully done. My friend has done it for many years and I never got inspired to do it until last year, when another friend who uses it showed me the chance cards she created herself. Then I got excited about it. I asked her if she would share the cards with me and she said yes! Yay! She um, has since forgotten to email the file to me, so I'm going to have to give her a friendly nudge to send them before school starts.
Obviously not printed, but I did this today. I learned about a token system on Pinterest which seemed about the easiest way ever to offer incentives without keeping up with charts or rewards or anything. Which is great for me, because I am awful with keeping up with that sort of thing. Notice that on my job boards earlier I didn't have those staple jobs that all early elementary teachers have, including me, up till now. Those jobs like line leader, paper handler, helper, messenger, etc. Well...... here's why I scrapped them. I found these chips (finally!!) and wrote student numbers on them, about 15 of each number, and placed them in this sectioned off case. When a student does something great, is caught being good, kind, showing a character trait, paying attention, whatever you want, you reward them with a token. You do not give it to them, nor do they need to keep up with it. Instead, you just put the token in a bag. Anytime you reward a token, you add it to the bag. Now, you need a message sent, you need a line leader to PE, you need someone to pass out or take up papers, etc, which of course we know, students LOVE to do. I reach into the bag and pull out a chip and voila! I have someone to do the job. I can pull a token for virtually anything, including who will go to the smart board first, who will demonstrate something, someone to read... etc. Students learn quickly that the more they do good things, the more chips they have in the bag, and the more chances they have to earn extra privileges. You also explain this at first, and use it a LOT the first week or two so they get the idea. Of course, a disclaimer is you would not want to use the "pull a token" for normal classroom response, you want all students to have a chance to get called on. Oh, and I'll start over every week.
Whew! I posted way more than I thought I would today! I got a lot accomplished! I'm proud of myself, hehe. Now it's time to sit back and relax for a little while, watch some of the Olympics, (gymnastics is my fav!) and play, instead of work, on my "nerd box." (Nerd box is my fella's playful nickname for my computer :))
Hope you got some great ideas from my post today! If you have ideas to improve mine, by all means, tell me!
