Jobs in Kinderland

Happy Friday everyone! I hope that everyone had a fabulous week. I know that many of us have seen then end of our summer vacation and I have a few Northern friends who will be doing so soon!!

When I was in Third grade, I had a job for everyone and followed Beth Newingham's system (okay... loosely followed) for credit/debit and classroom economy. But when I came to Kindergarten I knew that I couldn't have everyone have a job. I think it would drive me nuts to manage! Now I know some out there do.... I admire you for being able to manage it! I spoke with a team member and saw how she manages her jobs. Below is my take on it:

This was a really ugly cabinet in my room. No joke. See those black stripes? They are magnet bars that the teacher before me glued to the cabinet.... maybe they are welded there. Not sure. Anyways, we work with what we have :) So I had to make the cabinet pretty and I thought this management chart would work pretty well. I have 8 jobs in total for my class: line leader, door holder, washer 1, washer 2, sweeper 1, sweeper 2, calendar helper, and caboose. Each of my students has their name on a ladybug. On the back of the ladybug is a small adhesive circle of velcro (the soft side I think). I put the other side (the scratchy side)  onto the leaves. Every morning the very first thing we do when we come to the carpet is change jobs. My new calendar helper gets to help that morning. I rotate the ladybugs clockwise from the bottom left around to the bottom right.

If you look at the top of the picture, you'll see an envelope that is hanging from a hook on the side of the cabinet. There are actually 2 envelopes, each on their own hooks. One says "I've had my turn!" and the other says "I'm waiting for my turn!"... and of course they both have ladybugs to decorate them. As I rotate the ladybugs, the student is on the bottom right gets rotated "off" into the "I've had my turn!" envelope until everyone has had a turn. This leaves an open space on the bottome left job leaf. So, after I rotate the ladybugs, I pull out another ladybug from the "I'm waiting for my turn!" envelope. This ensures that everyone will get a turn to do everything. I change the jobs daily so my students should get several chances to do all of the jobs through out the year.

Please feel free to ask questions if my explanation is a tad bumbled or confusing! Or maybe you could post about your amazing jobs and leave a comment below with a link. I'm always looking to improve my systems and management!

Have a blessed day,