Welcome! Welcome! First off I want to start with a big bang and share with you a new classroom management skill that is spreading like crazy! It is called whole brain teaching for challenging kids, and is an excellent classroom management plan for any classroom K-12. I will share some of my own experiences, because I am very new to it. If your interested their is a great book that can give you tons of information called Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids, by Chris Biffle and it's amazing.
Now that I've gotten those beautiful thoughts off my chest let's move on to my five classroom rules. These rules I have learned from WBT (whole brain teaching) and I have also implemented in a classroom and I must say they are fantastic! Rule #1 Follow directions quickly! Rule #2 Raise your hand for permission to speak. Rule #3 Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. Rule #4 Make smart choices. Rule #5 Keep your dear teacher happy! All of these rules are done with hand gestures when the students say the rules. So for rule #1 you use one hand and make a swimming motion very quickly. For rule #2 you raise your hand and then when you come to speak students will open their hand and make it look like it's talking. With rule #3 you will also raise your hand and the motion for leaving their seat they will use two fingers making a walking motion on their other arm. For rule #4 students will point at their brain reminding them to make smart choices. Lastly, rule #5 students will make an "L" sign with both fingers on each cheek and smile while they repeat the rule.
Here are some procedures that will be enforced and practiced on the first day of school and will be followed and used throughout the school year.
Entering the Classroom: Students will line up by the door where I will be standing to greet those students. They will not enter the room until I allow them in. Once they enter the room they need to hang their jackets on the coat rack and place their belongings in their cubbie. Morning Calendar: Students will grab their calendar journal from their cubbie and get started on it before the bell rings. Coming to the carpet: When students are signaled they will quickly and quietly clean up their mess and walk to the carpet. Once they have arrived to the carpet they will sit at their carpet square with voices off and sitting criss cross apple sauce hands in their lap. Lining Up: Students will line up quietly in a straight line behind their peers and not touching whoever is in front of them. When they are in line they have one arm on their hip and a finger to their lip with a bubble in their mouth looking straight forward. When and how to use the pencil sharpener: Students are only allowed to use the sharpener when given permission. It only needs to be used if all of the other pencils in the bucket are taken or or not sharpened. |
Turning in Assignments: Their will be a specific turn in box that students will always turn their assignments in at. Taking out/ putting away/ caring for supplies: Share group supplies, recap markers and glue, use your own supplies do not share your own with friends and always putting supplies back in the correct place. What to do with unfinished work: Their will be a folder to hold assignments, one side of the folder will be labeled with a sticker " Stop! Still working on this!" and that's were the students will place their unfinished work. The other side will have a sticker that says "Go! This is ready!" and the students know those are ready to go. When to use the restroom: Students are allowed to use the restroom at any time. When they go their will be a restroom break area by the door where they need to put their name at letting me know that's where they are. During instruction, student must raise their hand to ask permission and it has to be an emergency for them to go. Classroom Helper: Every morning their will be a new helper for the day. Duties for this helper include: line leader, taking care of the calendar, turning off the timer, sharpening pencils, bathroom monitor, and choosing a caboose for the back of the line. |
BRAIN BREAKS!!!!!!!
This is my favorite thing ever! This is a great ice breaker to have within the classroom and it's also something to get those wiggles out of your students in the classroom. Students love to dance, especially to music that they are familiar with! The best possible way to find these is go to you tube and search brain breaks and several will pull up! It is that simple! Here are a couple that we have experimented with in the classroom: The Sid Shuffle Here and What Does the Fox Say Here!
First Week Activities!!!
The main thing for the first day of school was to make my classroom and the environment as comfortable as possible. That definitley all starts with the setup of the classroom. Some activities on the first week that I implement in my classroom include: practicing the rules using the whole brain approach, brain breaks, ways to get to know the children and for them to get to know you, fun, fun, fun!!! We also really worked on those procedures of the classroom and making sure that we follow the classroom rules as well as the school wide rules.
This is my favorite thing ever! This is a great ice breaker to have within the classroom and it's also something to get those wiggles out of your students in the classroom. Students love to dance, especially to music that they are familiar with! The best possible way to find these is go to you tube and search brain breaks and several will pull up! It is that simple! Here are a couple that we have experimented with in the classroom: The Sid Shuffle Here and What Does the Fox Say Here!
First Week Activities!!!
The main thing for the first day of school was to make my classroom and the environment as comfortable as possible. That definitley all starts with the setup of the classroom. Some activities on the first week that I implement in my classroom include: practicing the rules using the whole brain approach, brain breaks, ways to get to know the children and for them to get to know you, fun, fun, fun!!! We also really worked on those procedures of the classroom and making sure that we follow the classroom rules as well as the school wide rules.
This is a great first day acitvity that students Love! You will read the book First Day Jitters by: Julie Danneburg. After the story interactivley create an anchor chart and have the students share some of their first day jitters. Then have your students enjoy some "jitter juice" (green hawiian punch mixed with a little bit of sprite for the fizz). This is definitley a way to help your students feel comfortable and seeing that they are not the only ones feeling that way.
Some Super Math Fun!!
Everyday with the students we practice counting to 20 forwards and backwards, and we practice counting to one hundred as well! We also work on some ADDvantage math. We will have a number of the day and use that number in several different ways, for example, we show what that number looks like with tally marks, we make patterns with it and we make number sentences with the number as well, and we also show which number comes before and after. We also show what that number looks like in written form and what the word of that number will look like too. Here is a video of our favorite song that we like to count backwards from 20! We also found a new one we love, counting to 100 by 1's!
Everyday with the students we practice counting to 20 forwards and backwards, and we practice counting to one hundred as well! We also work on some ADDvantage math. We will have a number of the day and use that number in several different ways, for example, we show what that number looks like with tally marks, we make patterns with it and we make number sentences with the number as well, and we also show which number comes before and after. We also show what that number looks like in written form and what the word of that number will look like too. Here is a video of our favorite song that we like to count backwards from 20! We also found a new one we love, counting to 100 by 1's!
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Here is a new math video that the kids are absolutely loving right now, it is counting to 100 by 10's!
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Pete The Cat
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The kids really loved our Pete the Cat theme! We did several read alouds and they even made their own Pete the cat. With their cat they chose what color of shoes he would be rocking at school. We also integrated some math by creating a picture graph, involving what each child's favorite color of shoe is!
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*Here is a really good example for you to view what Whole Brain Teaching is all about. I use this every day in the classroom and it really keeps the kids engaged and they also are enjoying it! *
All About me!!!
During this week, I and the students really had the chance to share with each other about themselves. The students made self portraits of themselves. We practiced writing our names and counting how many letters each are in our name. We then recorded this together as a class on a graph! We also made a eye color pie graph. Each student told me what their eye color was and as a class together we recorded and collected our data on a pie graph. During our whole class math lesson we really have been hitting it hard with shapes! There are some poems that we learned to help us remember the attributes of a shape. For Example:
'I'm Cindy Circle, Watch me turn, round and round and you will learn
I'm not straight and I don't bend, my outside edges never end!'
During this week, I and the students really had the chance to share with each other about themselves. The students made self portraits of themselves. We practiced writing our names and counting how many letters each are in our name. We then recorded this together as a class on a graph! We also made a eye color pie graph. Each student told me what their eye color was and as a class together we recorded and collected our data on a pie graph. During our whole class math lesson we really have been hitting it hard with shapes! There are some poems that we learned to help us remember the attributes of a shape. For Example:
'I'm Cindy Circle, Watch me turn, round and round and you will learn
I'm not straight and I don't bend, my outside edges never end!'
America
What a week! Constitution Day was on Wednesday and the theme for the week was all about America. Students learned the American symbols of our country and what they stand for, they made an American flag, the bald eagle, and a liberty bell. We also did a Venn diagram as a class comparing the American flag and the Texas flag. In interactive writing we worked on writing the pledge together as a class. I let the students choose which symbol was their favorite and we made a graph to represent our data we collected. We love our country! |
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!!!!
This week our theme was based of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book! It was so much fun we really focused on the upper case and lower case letters of the alphabet. What sounds the letters in the alphabet make as well as what words begin with those letters. The kids loved this read aloud of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
This week our theme was based of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book! It was so much fun we really focused on the upper case and lower case letters of the alphabet. What sounds the letters in the alphabet make as well as what words begin with those letters. The kids loved this read aloud of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Literacy Rotations!!!!
We do literacy rotations every day of the week this is when our guided reading takes place. The rotations include: work on words, work on writing, read to self, teacher's choice, and computers. During work on words the past weeks we really have been focusing on our letters and sight words, but soon we will be expanding that. Teacher's choice could be anything I decide for that week for example a craft or a book to work on. Work on writing you really focus on your writing skills, recently during that time we have really focused on writing our alphabet, as well as drawing pictures with detail to tell a story. Here are some pictures to give you an idea about the rotations.
We do literacy rotations every day of the week this is when our guided reading takes place. The rotations include: work on words, work on writing, read to self, teacher's choice, and computers. During work on words the past weeks we really have been focusing on our letters and sight words, but soon we will be expanding that. Teacher's choice could be anything I decide for that week for example a craft or a book to work on. Work on writing you really focus on your writing skills, recently during that time we have really focused on writing our alphabet, as well as drawing pictures with detail to tell a story. Here are some pictures to give you an idea about the rotations.
Apples!!! We had so much fun with apples! We did a science observation all week and we observed a different apple each day. We looked at the differences that a red and green apple have, as well as things they would share in common. The students practiced with patterns and representing a pattern with apples. Another fun activity is the apple glyph. It has questions to ask the student and based on their answer is how their apple turned out.
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Making Applesauce
The kids absolutely loved this! We actually made homemade applesauce in the classroom and it turned out so good! Step by step we followed directions and put all the right ingredients inside a crock pot. I let it cook for 3-4 hours and once it was finished, each child had their own plate of applesauce! It was so fun! During interactive writing this week, we also wrote all of the steps to making applesauce together as a class.
The kids absolutely loved this! We actually made homemade applesauce in the classroom and it turned out so good! Step by step we followed directions and put all the right ingredients inside a crock pot. I let it cook for 3-4 hours and once it was finished, each child had their own plate of applesauce! It was so fun! During interactive writing this week, we also wrote all of the steps to making applesauce together as a class.
Fall!!!!
Fall is finally here and I love this time of year. The kids have had so much fun collecting leaves and talking about their change this time of the year. Discussing pumpkins and learning about the pumpkin life cycle! We estimated the circumfrence of a pumpkin and found out if our string was too long, too short, or just right. We also did a pumpkin glyph, that asks questions to decide what their pumpkin would look like. Some questions include: how old are you, do you like pumpkin pie?, do you like to carve pumpkins?, what size pumpkin do you like?, and have you ever tried pumpkin seeds? The students also wrote about why fall is fun and made a fun scarecrow to go with their writing!
Fall is finally here and I love this time of year. The kids have had so much fun collecting leaves and talking about their change this time of the year. Discussing pumpkins and learning about the pumpkin life cycle! We estimated the circumfrence of a pumpkin and found out if our string was too long, too short, or just right. We also did a pumpkin glyph, that asks questions to decide what their pumpkin would look like. Some questions include: how old are you, do you like pumpkin pie?, do you like to carve pumpkins?, what size pumpkin do you like?, and have you ever tried pumpkin seeds? The students also wrote about why fall is fun and made a fun scarecrow to go with their writing!
3-D Shapes
The students learned about 3-dimensional shapes this week. We talked about the sphere, pyramid, cube, rectangular prism, cone. We discussed the attributes of each shape, for example: if they had edges, corners, how many faces they have, what objects in everyday life are shaped like that. We also had a fun shape hunt and the kids brought items from home that are 3-dimensional. They loved it! Here is a shape song that the kids liked and helped them distinguish the shapes from others. |
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