Classroom Management

This Year in Kindergarten

I've taught K-2 now and have learned how to adapt my classroom management to meet the different grade level needs.  I love Dr. Seuss and my classroom is heavily decorated with Dr. Seuss.  This year I changed the card system to look like little cat in the hats.  When a student turns a card, they change the color of bow tie the cat is wearing.  Every color is another "oops" moment.  The basic principles are the same, but it's cuter this year.  In Kindergarten if a student has to turn a card they take a time out.  In first grade if a student has to turn a card they complete an "Oops" slip colored coded to match the color of the card turned.  I stapled the "Oops" slip into the planner and the parents return it signed the following school day.  As a second grade teacher we did the same thing, but had a more in depth reflection piece.  The reflection documents for second grade were purchased at www.teachersclubhouse.com.  In every grade we always begin the year discussing how to fill our buckets.  I spend several weeks on the concept and we give each other "warm fuzzies" to fill our buckets everyday for being a good friend, following directions, and doing the right thing when nobody is looking.  If a student has to turn a card, we say they are getting a "cold prickly", and we need to brainstorm ways to get the "warm fuzzies" back.  I'm sure you've heard of the series for filling buckets, but if not check them out Have-You-Filled-Bucket-Today and How Full is Your Bucket?.  Resources are available to help with the bucket filling at http://www.bucketfillers101.com.  Finally, all of the slips are available by clicking the name below.  It's worked great in my room and I hope you can use them as well. :-)

Oops Slip

Think Sheet

Problem/Solution Sheet

Word Families

Word Family Animals inspired by a mailbox magazine idea

Word Family Animals Enrichment to differentiate the learning task

Word Family Ice Cream Cones (differentiated by word family choices)

Word Family Eggs to use with the Egg Recording Sheet Below

When I first returned to work we started learning about word families.  I did some research, discussed ideas with a very good friend of mine, and with a little inspiration from the mailbox magazines came up with a few fun and challenging word family learning tasks.  The animals came from a mailbox magazine, the ice cream cones were of my own creation, and the Easter Egg Word Families Recording Sheet came from KMY at littlemissglamourgoestokindergarten.blogspot.com.  To enrich the work products, my students who needed to be challenged were asked to create their own word families.  My average kinders were given words and word families to sort.  On the egg recording sheet, all students were given word family eggs; however, the word families practiced varied with the individual student needs.  All of the eggs were in a basket together so the children didn't realize who was working on which word family.

Shape Flip Books

In Math we have been practicing shapes while identifing everyday objects that are a particular shape.  A colleague of mine has a fantastic book with flipbooks for almost any subject area.  I set up a workstation for creating flipbooks and the children loved it!  Even my beginning readers enjoyed the station because they were able to read the math books they created.  To purchase the book series click flip books.  They are super cheap and very engaging as a workstation.

Busy Bee Back At Work

Ok, so I've been back at work for almost two months now and life has been super busy.  I've had so many great things happening in the classroom, but no time to share.  I've been taking pictures and over the next few days will hopefully get some things posted you may find helpful to use in your classroom.  Any feedback is always appreciated.  Happy Friday Eve! ;-)