Print-Rich Environments

I think that in Kindergarten it is especially important to have a print-rich environment for the students. They can do letter and word hunts all over the room, read the room, and simply practice any and all reading skills that they develop. So many students have nothing to read when they get home, so providing as many opportunities as possible in the classroom is paramount. Over the summer I found these amazing schedule cards:

I printed them out (some I needed duplicates of), backed with construction paper, laminated them, and hot glued magnets onto the backs. Now I can use them to show my children what we are doing when during the day while they work on learning to read. If you want your set, grab them here from What the Teacher Wants. These are wonderful to use!

Have a blessed day,

Enticing incentives for the classroom

I love rewarding my Kinders with treats. They get so excited about the tiniest things that we do in school. For example, we have book buddies who come on every other Friday. One of my little girls gets so excited about her book buddy coming that she claps her hands and puts them up to her face Macaulay Culkin style. I have several different systems in my room with positive rewards for individual students (a skittle, a super ticket, or moving a clip up, verbal praise, etc) and for the whole class. Currently, we are really working on our behavior in the hallway so I remind the students each time we leave that they could earn a compliment when we are out in the hallway. Below is the display that I use:

This system has worked miracles! My Kinders are so, so very quite in the hallways now. They are doing way better about staying in line together and paying attention. We are only 2 compliments away from our big treat. Another teacher who does this on my grade level often lets the kids choose their party. I definitely will being doing this some as well. Our first treat will be snow cones! I have been truly blessed with a room mom this year who has a snow cone machine. How awesome is that? Our room mom is definitely very involved, along with several of other parents, and is a humongous help with classroom needs already!

Have a blessed day,

Amazing management trick

Yesterday I posted this picture:

See that turquoise paper underneath the blocks? Yep, that's it... my secret new management tip. I had an *ahem* interesting experience with my normally calm pumpkins when two of them started to have an intense disagreement over a box of blocks our first day of centers this week. Their real problem was that they (for some reason... like the fact that they are 5) couldn't leave the box in the middle of the table. So on the second day of centers, I simply placed this paper in the middle of the table. Then I put the block boxes on top. I told my pumpkins that the boxes were not allowed to leave the paper and the paper wasn't allowed to move.

Guess what happened!

No arguments, no tug-of-war, and no more disagreemtns! It was fabulous! Do you have any tips or tricks that are so simply to set-up but are life changing?

Have a blessed day,

Outstanding Freebie!!

Wow, it's amazing how time flies! I have a whole list of things that I want to blog about and it seems as though there is no time at all! I do want to make sure I pass along this little freebie that I made last night to go along with my management chart. This way, my pumpkins who are outstanding in their behavior get a little bit of extra recognition in their daily folders :)

Outstanding Note 2

Enjoy!!!

Have a blessed day,

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,

Behavior management gem!

I have always used an awesome sliding scale type of behavior management chart but had considered using the more traditional 'pull a card' system. But... then I saw so many people posting about this system:

I love this system and have used it in my Kindergarten classroom so far this year. It has definitely been wonderful in helping the students to make better decisions throughout the day. I have made sure that I am always speaking to the whole class. For example, I might have to move Sarah's (not an actual student this year) clip I will speak over everyone and say," Oh, Sarah, I am so sad that you are choosing to xyz instead of abc so I will have to move your clip down. I sure hope you rethink your decisions so I can move your clip back up. I would love to give you a sticker at the end of the day!" Or I might say something positive,"I love how Sarah is doing abc. I am thrilled to move your clip up. If you aren't sure what you should be doing, take a quick look at what Sarah is doing right now. I can't wait to put a sticker on Sarah's clip at the end of the day!"

I have seen an amazing effect with the kids this past week. Today, since it's the second Monday, my Kinders were a tad bit more... lively and unfortunately I had 2 who were on the Teacher's Choice at the end of the day and 3 that were on Think About It! section. Really, though, everyone else did wonderful all day!

Here is my version of this chart:

I made my paper's using my amazing DJ Inkers clipart and fonts, glued them to posterboard (2 long pieces glued together), and then laminated it. So far it's been wonderful!

If you would like my printables, please click below and help yourself! Have a fabulous week this week!

Outstanding Poster

Great Job Poster

Good Day Poster

Ready to Learn Poster

Think About It Poster

Teacher's Choice

Parent Contact Poster

Have a blessed day,

Classroom Jobs

There is a great linky party going on right now over at Mrs. Dillard's First Grade blog. She has started up an awesome party specifically for Classroom Jobs! I can't wait to see what other Kindergarten teachers do this. I just can't imagine having a job for each and every single student. I've done several different ways over the past couple of years in 3rd grade. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my systems. But I can tell you about them. Please feel free to comment with questions and I will answer you back!

I've done jobs several different ways:

#1- I first started off not really doing jobs... that doesn't work too well because really, having classroom jobs are awesome! They are a fabulous management tool. They are especially effective if you tie them in with an end of the week rewards (treasure box, tickets, treat, etc.).

#2- I have had years when every student had a job. I typically had a couple of repeat jobs. For example:

2 Teacher's assistants
2 Postmasters
2 Substitutes
Caboose
2 Door holders/Line Leaders
Folder Specialist (in charge of lunch folder and specials' folder)
2 Equipment Managers (playground equipment)
Calendar Helper
Gardener (waters plants)
Veterinarian
2 Washers
2 Sweepers

#3- This past year I used Beth Newingham's way (love, love, loooove her!!) and had an entire classroom economy as well as employment applications, credit and debit sheets, and money in different denominations. My treasure box converted into a store. It was great! I had the same jobs as listed above but the kids and I decided on salaries at the beginning of the year... before I assigned any jobs :) So funny! Any who, it worked pretty well for most of the year, up until someone decided that it would be okay to steal money from others. Since it was at the end of the year I simply discontinued the whole thing and it was first come, first serve with jobs. Oh well, another year, another way.....


What's next?

I'm not quite sure how to do jobs in a Kindergarten classroom. I think if I just have 5 or 6 basic jobs and then just switch the kids out either on a daily basis or weekly basis. I hope this linky party can help me out with it! Click here to go find some awesome ideas!

Have a blessed day,