Table Reward System: Links

I use links to reward tables for cooperative behavior. This helps when you are trying to get children to follow directions quickly (like, take out your math notebook) or to work independently for extended periods of time. 

The only thing about this system is - sometimes children get upset when one person in the table isn't doing the right thing. But, on the bright side, you can take this as an opportunity to teach social skills. "Instead of being upset or getting angry at someone, how can we help our friends make better choices?" Soon enough, you see children quietly tapping their friends and calmly reminding them what to do. 

Once a table accumulates 10 links, the children at the table get to pick a prize from the treasure chest. The best part? One person from the table takes the links home. It's such a big deal to them! 

Whole Class Reward System: Marbles in a Jar

This is one of the simplest ways to compliment good behavior, especially in the first few weeks of school. Whenever the children do a spectacular job as a whole class - like transitioning quietly, lining up quickly, working independently, or getting a compliment from another teacher - I select one child to go put five marbles in the jar. Sometimes I have them put more when I am impressed with their behavior.

Once the children fill up the jar, they can choose any party they want. I usually make a list of party ideas suggested by the children and we vote on one! Some of the past parties have included:

• Movie & Popcorn Party
• Ice Cream Party
• Pizza Party
• Arts & Crafts Party
• Reading Party (with pillows)
• Extra Recess Party
• PJ Party (with cookies and milk)
• Board Game Party

I'm sure there are plenty more. Leave it up to the kids, and they will come up with something! This not only encourages positive behavior, but it also teaches them to work together to reach a common goal.

In the next few entries, I will discuss table rewards and individual rewards, so stay tuned.

Attention Signals

One of the first things we teach children on the first day of school is a signal to get their attention - commonly and simply referred to as an "attention signal." This lets the children know that we need their undivided attention for whatever we have planned next. Of course, this needs to be taught explicitly and practiced a million times before it is mastered. But once we teach this successfully, the rest of the year will be smooth!

Below is a collection of attention signals that I have used over the years, mainly in a first grade classroom, but can be used and adapted in other grades as well. You don't want to teach all of the attention signals at once. Start with one, and every week, teach a new one and build it up.  Novelty catches children's attention like no other.

It is assumed that after you say your phrase, children say their line and show ready to listen.

1) Teacher: Class
Students: Yes
*Variations: You can also say "class class" and they will respond in a similar fashion "yes yes." Or you can say "classity class" and they say "yessity yes!"

2) Teacher: Hands, hands, hands and eyes
Students: Hands, hands, hands and eyes

3) Teacher: S, T
Students: O, P

4) Teacher: One, two, three, eyes on me
Students: One, two, three, eyes on you
*Variations: You can change the numbers in the front - for example, you can say "Two, four, six, eyes on me" or "Two, oh, three, eyes on me" (203 is my room number).

5) Clap a rhythm and students clap the same rhythm.

6) Teacher: Stop, look, and listen
Students: Ok!

Morning Routine

This visual, step by step, easy to follow directions will teach your little ones what to do when they first come into the classroom each morning. What I like about using pocket charts for teaching routine is that you can teach the steps, one at a time. You can turn all the sentence strips around and as you introduce each step you turn it one by one. This helps the little ones focus on one step at a time. Notice how I kept the words simple so most of them can read, but also supported the visual readers with pictures on the sides.

You can do this whenever you teach a routine or procedure!

Math Routines

As the new school year is nearing close, I thought I would get into the habit of blogging again. It has been too long! So without further ado - Here is the Math Routines that I do with my first graders every day. It takes no more than 10 minutes and it helps develop number sense. By the end of the year, the children are experts at it!

What I like about Math Routines is that it fosters an opportunity for students to talk about math. A lot of times when we get students to "turn and talk," it's during read-alouds, because we realize the importance of challenging students to think more deeply around a story. But with Math Routines, you can do the same because it requires children to explain their thinking. For example, you can say something like, "25 children are in our class. We know that 2 children are absent. How many children are present? 23 - great! How do you know?" This gets the kids talking about HOW they got the answer. It forces children to think about the strategies, or "math tools," they used to solve the problem.

With the new Common Core State Standards for Math where the emphasis is on the DEPTH of its instruction, rather the breadth, meaning that we want students to think more deeply about a topic, this is pushing them in the right direction. And it only takes 10 minutes! For older students, you can choose more grade-appropriate routines for them to do every day.

Clustering and Color-Coding Charts

One of the most important lessons I teach my students is to be resourceful human beings. "Don't just sit there when you are stuck...look around the room!" (Of course, my language with the kids is more positive - something along the lines of "Use the charts to help you!")

Early in the year, I teach students where to look around the room when they need help. As you can see in the pictures, I like to cluster the charts by subject (writing, reading, math).  This way, they know exactly where to look when they need to refresh their memories on a skill or strategy that was previously taught. As a rule of thumb, I have no more than three charts per subject.  No more than three because I don't want to overwhelm them.

You would be amazed at how many children actually utilize the charts throughout the day.  How much more would they use the charts if they are clustered and color-coded? When I see a child pointing to a chart, telling his or her partner, "look! We can add feelings and dialogue to our stories to spice up our writing!" that is my proudest teacher moment.  Talk about building independent learners!

Name Bar Graph

After reading Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, we created this bar graph as a class. If you have never read the story, it is the perfect text for the first week of school. It is about a girl (mouse) named Chrysanthemum who loves loves LOVES school but begins to dread it when other kids make fun of her name. You can do a lot of things with this book - do a lesson on anti-bullying, talk about name meanings, or create a bar graph like this!

For the activity I chose to go with, I had the kids write their names on a post-it, then count the number of letters in their names. Then one by one they came up to the bar graph and placed their post-it above the right number of letters for their names. Another extension activity I could have done was to create a key for the colored post-its. Each table had one color post-it for this very reason, but I didn't get to it - oops!

Again, you can informally assess your kids during this activity - can they write their names? Do they use uppercase for the first letter and lowercase for all the other letters? Is their handwriting legible? Can they count accurately? Can they follow directions? Can they follow along on the bar graph? Etc Etc. I feel like as teachers we are always assessing them, whether we know it or not - how much do they already know and where do I want to take them next? Then you can figure out the next steps for instruction.

Birthday Chart

This is a great way to review the months of the year at the beginning of first grade, but an even better way to informally assess your kids! After you have them come up to place their cupcake next to their birthday month, you can ask questions like:

• How many children have birthdays in April? 
• How many children have birthdays in April AND May? 
• Who can give me an addition number sentence to support that? 
• Which month has the most birthdays? Least birthdays?

You get the idea! This is a wonderful way to gauge where your kids are in their ability to read a chart and answer math-related questions, while simultaneously showing them that you care about their birthdays. This really matters to five-and-six year-olds!

BEFORE and AFTER revealed

With the new school year underway, I present to you some BEFORE and AFTER pictures of my classroom. Being a teacher in a new school means: hours and hours of cleaning, sorting, organizing, wiping, sweeping, dusting, and more! But of course, with the help of loved ones. Thanks to the special three who helped me with classroom set-up!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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That's all for now. In the next few entries, I will share some anchor charts from the first week of school. Until then, teach on, fellow teachers!

What is a "Think Sheet"?

Hello blogger friends! I know I have been talking about this "Think Sheet" for awhile and haven't really gotten a chance to blog about it - I have been super busy setting up my classroom and getting ready for the new school year. But like promised, here is a little description of what a "Think Sheet" is. First, the picture for the entry:

"Think Sheet" is just another phrase for "Behavior Journal" - a chance for students to reflect on their behavior in writing before more serious consequences kick in, like detention or a phone call home. Just like the behavior chart, there are many variations of a "Think Sheet" depending on the grade level. This is a simple "Think Sheet" for the lower grade children, where they can either draw or write what they did (bad behavior) and what they should have done instead (good behavior). Not only is this a good chance for students to reflect on their behavior, but also great documentation for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

In the next entry, I will reveal some BEFORE and AFTER pictures of my classroom. Five days of super hard work getting rid of junk from previous teachers and setting up my classroom to make it my own!

Behavior Chart

I'm sure many of you have seen a behavior chart like this one or variations of this. This is the behavior chart that I use in my summer school.  Normally, I would have more clips (more students during the academic year) and more colors (more opportunities for students to fix their behavior), but this is the basic idea.

• Every child has a clip with his or her name (or I like to assign numbers).
• Children start on green at the beginning of every day.
• They get one verbal warning before moving their clip from one color down to the next. Each color has a consequence, as seen in the key above.

Pretty simple - You can choose the colors, number of colors, consequences, etc. One thing I would do differently the next time I make a behavior chart like this one is to include some colors above the green. So instead of going down if you misbehave, you have a chance to go up if you make good choices. This way students will have a goal to consciously make choices that you will earn them a "star" student rank!

For those of you wondering what a "think sheet" is, I will post about that in my next entry. So stay tuned!

Management System for Centers

Every kid loves centers! I think what's most appealing to children is the fact that they can CHOOSE which center to go to. But if you have any experience managing centers in your classroom, you know it can get pretty crazy. This is what goes through the kids' minds: REALLY? I CAN CHOOSE A CENTER? YOU ARE LETTING ME CHOOSE? And they literally have no idea how to handle this freedom that comes very rarely - either they don't know where they are going or everyone is at one center with not enough materials.

So this is a center board that I use in my classroom. It is pretty visual for kids and works well. There is no right way to do centers, but here is how I manage it:

• Every child has a popsicle stick with his or her name on it. The popsicle sticks are color-coded and grouped by reading levels, as you can see in the bottom row.
• While I work with a small group of students, the rest of the class has independent work to complete.
• After the students complete their independent work (we talk about not rushing and making sure they do their best work), they choose a center.
• Only three students are allowed at each center, so if they see three popsicle sticks on a center pocket, they have to choose another center.

If you are wondering how I made the pockets - real simple! I laminated medium-sized envelopes and cut them in half - and voila! Pockets ready to be used. Since the pockets are laminated, you can use a dry-erase marker to write the name of the center and change it to another center if you want. The board is pretty sturdy and lasts the whole year. 

Classroom Jobs - Less is More

When I first began teaching first grade, I had about fifteen different jobs in the classroom, which was honestly impossible to manage.  Although I wanted to get as many students involved, some of the jobs were not needed to begin with and other jobs were not needed as frequently. It was an epic fail. So the following year, I consolidated the jobs to these trusty six! Two children per job, new assignments every week. I decided I rather have certain children really own their jobs for a week, every two to three weeks, than to try to assign a job to EVERY student EVERY week and lose track of who is responsible for what.

If you are asking - don't you need a messenger to deliver notes? Supply manager to sharpen pencils? Chair monitor to push in chairs? Filers to file for you? My answer to you - that's why you have a "Teacher Helper"! More realistic than having 2982734 helpers for 23402923 different things.

Keeping Track of Where Students Go

With the beginning of a new school year just around the corner, I thought I would share one of my classroom management tools. This is the system I use during the year to keep track of my students' whereabouts when they leave the classroom.  The clip system is a useful way for me to quickly identify which students are out and locate them without having to look around the room.  It is also a way for students to know when NOT to ask me about leaving the classroom. General rule of thumb, two children out at a time, unless there is an emergency.

What you don't see in the picture is the matching color-coded hallway passes that students wore around their neck so that the other adults in the building knew where they were going.

I'm still trying to figure out how to upload PDF files - once I do, I will share the images for the signs.