classroom management

8 Fun Morning Work Activities Part 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of my Morning Work Activities post! So, without further ado, jump right in to check it out and grab your freebies! In my last post, I started talking about Morning Work Activities that don’t involve worksheets! Check out some other ideas! 5. Talk to your friends! Sometimes the kiddos come in with a story to tell or something that they desperately want to share. I am not a fan of Show and Tell, or Show and Share, so I try to give them time to just come in and talk to one another. Sometimes I

Positive Classroom Management: Behavior Buddies

I am always looking for ways to promote good behavior in my classroom! This is a fun, inexpensive way to help kiddos see and understand when they are doing the right thing!BEHAVIOR BUDDIES! I LOVE “catching” my kiddos doing the right thing, and so do our Behavior Buddies!Meet R2, Dwight, and Stormy! Here’s how Behavior Buddies work in my classroom:Each day I choose a Behavior Buddy to pass around our classroom during the day.He gets passed around during our morning meeting so we know who’s turn it is to talk.If I see someone doing the right thing without being asked,

Positive Classroom Management Idea for the New Year! with a fun freebie!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase (with no extra cost to you). For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link! I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for ways to make my student’s classroom experience more positive! One of my Teacher Goals (or shall I say resolutions) for this year, is to try and catch more of my kiddos being good! My kiddos LOVE stickers! Like crazy LOVE stickers. So I thought, let’s put that

Let Them Do it! Fostering Independence in the Classroom!

We all want our students to be independent. We want them to figure out a solution to the problem, to get their work done, to make sure that they put their things away, and not lose their homework. Check out some ways that I am fostering independence in the classroom! So, I figured out the other day that I have been teaching for 17 years. Sheesh, that seems like such a long time, but it has really flown by! One of the things that I have always had some trouble with is being a control freak, perfectionist, little reluctant to relinquish

A Peek at Last Week

Oh my goodness! Isn’t that kitty just adorable? Thanks to The TLC shop for the kitty, Creative Clips for the Elements and KG fonts for the font! Wow! Can this time of year get any busier? I am trying to help organize my blog life and my school life! So, I thought that a weekly “peek” might help me stay on track (at least in the blog world!) So, here are some of the things that we worked on this week (obviously not everything): Morning Business: We call our Morning Routine our Morning Business. After the kiddos come in and

Classroom Snapshots: Reading Workshop organization

Wow! I have been AFB (away from blog)! Sorry about that. We had parent conferences this past week. I really enjoy meeting with my cherub’s parents, but it takes a lot of prep! Enough about that! I am writing about Reading Workshop today. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love doing Reading Workshop everyday! I do a modified version of Daily 5. I do 2.5 rounds everyday. How can I do .5? I will explain below. Everyday everyone does Read to Self. Then, I have a computer rotation. I only have 3 computers in my classroom,

Classroom Snapshot! Writing Part 1: Our Writing Workshop Routine.

Thank you to Creative Clips and The Enlightened Elephant for the clipart and Kimberly Gerswin for the font for my button. Hello! Thanks so much for stopping by! Today I am starting my little series on the kinds of things that I do in my classroom. I thought that I would start with my favorite part of the day: Writer’s Workshop! I have been using some sort of Writer’s Workshop in my classroom ever since I started teaching (a while ago). This is what is working for me now. Of course, I am still tweaking and each year it changes

First day of school!

Phew! I know that all of you can sympathize. I get so tired of hearing myself talk at the beginning of the year! I always forget how many things there are to teach my new cherubs! I no sooner start explaining one procedure, when I realize that I have to teach another one! It’s exhausting!So, let me share with you one of my favorite things to do for the first few days of school. Playdough! Now, I know that I am not the only one who does this, but giving the kiddos a small tub of playdough for morning work has been

In case of emergency…

Are you required to wear your identification badge while you are at school? We are. Our card also lets us access the copy machine, so it is handy to have it all the time. Another neat safety feature that our school has implemented is that our classroom keys (we can only unlock our own classrooms) can LOCK any room in our school building. So if I am in someone else’s room and there is an emergency, I can lock their door using my key! That being said (an me being super paranoid), I keep my keys on my lanyard as

Shout Outs!

Hello all! I am sharing an idea that I have been using in my classroom this year that I love! Shout Outs! A few years ago our school implemented a school wide Positive Behavior Plan. We are trying to catch the kiddos doing good stuff. When I read about this product on Teacher to the Core, I knew it would be perfect in my classroom! (You can find her original post here). This has become part of our classroom routine. The very last thing that we do at the end of our school day is gather together as a class

Happy Birthday to you…

Hello! I wanted to share how I celebrate birthdays in my classroom. This year in our building we have made a “No edible treats” policy because of all the kiddos with food allergies. So, not a whole lot of the kiddos are bringing in class treats anymore. But, I still want to make their day as special as I can! The birthday kiddo gets a birthday pencil and a birthday sticker, but they also get to keep a paper copy of the morning message written on their birthday! They LOVE this! I have the rest of the class sign

What’s Your Schedule Linky!

I am always looking for ways to tweak my schedule to make it work just right! It is always fun to see how other people do things as well. So, I am joining Thank God it’s First Grade for a fun linky to show off my schedule! Mine is different everyday because of specials etc… So, here is what it looks like: Nice and confusing huh? I have to rearrange everyday because of my specials schedule. It works for us! I also have recess duty once or twice a week (it is a rotating schedule, and I have a paid

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Category: classroom management