Fun Behavior Management Tool!

We started back to school today after our 2 week break. I was a little leery that my kiddos would forget our procedures and we'd have a rough day, but it was actually one of our best days! We had a great time, although I did have a couple who begged for a nap by mid afternoon - one little guy even gave up his recess to sit inside and lay his head down! I am hoping as the week progresses they get used to being back on school schedule.

One of the things that helped was a new whole class behavior management tool. I got this from the Target Dollar Spot (where else?!) and actually had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I couldn't pass it up for just a $1 lol!

Isn't he cute? He's a little more than a foot tall, so he's easily visible across the classroom. There are two pages of stickers with him, so we will have fun customizing him!

The deal is, we have our snowman hanging up for the whole month of January. Whenever I catch  the whole class doing the right thing, ie working quietly, walking in line procedure etc, then I choose someone to add a piece to the snowman. Today we got the sunglasses, he's apparently a very cool snowman!

If we get our snowman completed by the end of the month than we get a special prize like popcorn, or extra recess etc. It just so happens that our 100th day of school falls on Feb 1st, so chances are I can combine the two occasions via bringing in a 100th Day of school snack or incorporating 100% longer recess lol! I like this because its incentive for everyone to be good at the same time. Many of my students are good most of the time, but honestly, I would just love for everyone to do the right thing at the same time once in a while - particularly when someone comes into the room to speak with me (ie tutor, parent, principal, spec ed teacher etc). Right now I have a small group that feels that whenever we have an interruption that's the signal to crawl around, wrestle, talk and basically completely ignore procedures. They all came from a class where that was the norm last year, and so far I can't break that habit yet! But, they really seemed eager to get that snowman dressed today, so I am crossing my fingers!

I am also hoping that Target will have other sticker sets so I can continue this idea each month. I know they had a big gingerbread man one which would have been great for December. If you happen to be in Target, make sure you check the Dollar Spot for me! I am thinking a leprechaun for March, but no idea what would be good for February? Ideas?

Facebook Scavenger Hunt!

I just wanted to stop in and tell you about the awesomeness that is happening on FB TODAY
(Sunday, Jan 6th) at 3:00! I have joined up with a few of my fabulous friends to host a FB Blog Fans 

Scavenger hunt! Sound fun right?!

So here is the deal:

There are 16 bloggers participating and each is donating a fan-ta-bu-lous prize

To win all you have to do is follow the clues and leave a comment on the person's FB page with 

the correct answer.

The first clue will be given by Shuna from A Pocket Full of Kinders on her FB page here at 3 p.m. central time on Sunday.

Once you figure out what fabulous blogger her clue refers to leave their name or link in the 

comments! All fans who answer the clue correctly will be entered into the individual drawing as

well as the big drawing!

To find the next clue you will hop over to that person's FB page, you can get to it by visiting their

blog and clicking on the FB button in the sidebar, and read your next clue.

There are 16 clues so that is 16 chances to win

There will be a winner for each clue.

Each winner will then be put into the big drawing where they will have a chance to win it all!

Before we look at the prizes here are the rules

* you must follow each person's FB page!

( You can do this before hand but we will check to make sure that you are a follower!)

* You can only comment once to each clue {So make it good}

*You can comment between the times 3p.m. central time and 7p.m. central time

*Winners will be announced at 8p.m.

( If the random number thingy chooses you as a winner and you have not followed each FB
another winner will be chosen)

Take a look at the prizes that will go into the big drawing

Pst, this may or may not be your little cheat sheet

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Preparing for January Themes!

Hello! I don't have to go back to school until Monday (woohoo!) but I am using this week to plan and prepare so that I can relax on the weekend :)  Apparently my school will be open to teachers today, so I can spruce up my classroom for the new year. (Do you have to wait for your school to be "open" or do you have a key and carte blanche to enter whenever you need to?) This month my major themes will be Snowmen and Penguins/Arctic Animals, although we will also be doing a lot of Martin Luther King Jr. activities (check out the book list on the right hand side of the blog for some great books about MLK and diversity!)

One of the things I am going to do today is put up my new set of Winter Ten Frame Cards. This is my cabinet wall where I hang them:

(ignore the ? - one of my cards went missing lol)

I used the male side of the velcro on the cabinet, so now I just use the female side on each set of cards and can switch them out quickly. Since we actually got snow here for Christmas, I think the kids will be thrilled with our snowman cards:

Remember I said it was easy to take them down and switch them out? Well, that's what we do a lot!  I use these as a quick transition exercise - just pull off the cards, shuffle and pass them out and my kiddos have to silently find their match! I also use the same technique to pair up students for activities/projects - whoever has the card that matches theirs is their partner for the day! Sometimes we take down the cards as part of calendar time and use a timer to see how quickly a small group of kiddos can get them back up in the right order!

We have the smaller sets for math workstations:

The kiddos pair these up and then fill out one of the recording sheets. Ten frames are so good for really building number sense. My kiddos can see that 14 is just 10+4 or, wait for this amazing mental math: "5+7 is really just 5+5+2 and 5+5 is 10 and 10+2 is 12!" Can you imagine firsties making such complex mental calculations? Love it!


So now that my ten frames are printed, laminated and cut, I am moving on to my Roll & Cover games! I love these because you can just print and go (well, I do laminate for durability since they get so much use, but there's no cutting involved at least!) I also love them because they are a great way to keep my own kiddos occupied:

Here's my two youngest playing addition and subtraction roll and cover games -  they needed a break from the video games and it was too cold to play outside, so I set them up with some colored cotton balls and two games. Even though they're two years apart, the randomness of the game play makes sure that my red head doesn't always trounce his brother, which also means that I can pair up any two students in my class and not have to worry about the more advanced students always winning over struggling students.

In class we usually use two-sided tokens to play with, but I got an idea to use cotton balls to look like snowballs, so I just dyed some so we'd have more than one color. To dye them I simply placed the cotton balls in a baggie and added a little bit of water that had been dyed with food coloring. I squished it around to get all the balls colored. Then I squeezed the water out and placed the cotton balls in a low temp oven to dry. My boys loved the colored cotton balls!

So now I'm off to do some filing and hopefully get a little bit of a headstart on Monday! I hear a lot of people get a teacher work day before the kids come back - wish we had one here!