Kleenslate Response Paddles!

Oh, boy, life is crazy around here.  I’ve been neglecting this little blog, just trying to stay afloat of everything that’s been going on!

I’ve got lots of gingerbread ideas to share with you, but I wanted to tell you about these really awesome whiteboards….

I met the Kleenslate people back in July at the I Teach K conference.  Their white boards are SO awesome.

They are a “paddle” whiteboard and the pen fits securely right in the handle! No more passing out whiteboards and markers.  The markers are super nice too – they last a long time, and there is an eraser built right into the cap. AND – the marker can not be pushed into the marker! So, these are great for those sweet babies that like to push as HARD as they can (just to see what happens), right?!

You do have to teach the children to be careful when they are erasing because the felt erasers can pop off the lid, but with a little but of hot glue, they can be glued right on.

There is even a little hole in the paddle of the board so you could attach a large ring attached to an eraser cloth (cut up washcloth, sock, felt, whatever you wish).

Here’s a little video about the boards:

 

I have the paddles with these absolutely amazing sleeves on the back:

Folks, you can slide in ANYTHING here!  They come with a grid and handwriting lines.  We LOVE the handwriting page for practicing our letters, but I’ve also slid in….wait for it….ten frames!!! I’ll flash a number, and the kiddos fill in the ten frame on their boards.  You could slip any paper into the sleeve – is your mind spinning with possibilities?! I know mine was when I first saw them.

My children are SO excited when I tell them we get to your our dry erase paddles.  Like seriously.  They cheer and clap.  We love to write, hide, and show.  They write their answer (maybe we’ll be stretching out CVC words, our practicing our teen numbers), hide it against their chest, and then show.  It’s awesome because EVERYONE is accountable.  I can see everyone’s answers SUPER quick.

So, hop on over to the Kleenslate website and take a peek at their paddles!

On a side note, today, December 8th, is a day set aside for bereaved families to remember their children that were gone from this world all too soon.  The holidays can be a very difficult time, especially knowing that there will be one stocking that isn’t filled.

I’m remembering my precious Nora tonight (and every day), and all of the children that left this world much too soon.  

Daily Schedule Cards

 

I’ve had lots of requests for my daily schedule cards.  This daily schedule is super important in my classroom because we refer to it all.the.time.  The children like to know what’s coming next, and I always TRY to let them know if something is going to be different! I also hang the digital date cards from my calendar pack above it, so it is easy to find.

This is part of our daily routine, and right next to our daily focus wall (coming soon!) at the front of our room!

I’m offering my cards to you today!  I really, really wish that I could customize these for you, but I just don’t have the time to do it! :( Sorry!  So, if you can use these, great! If not, sorry!  I’ve included a few blank ones at the end so you could hand write any other subjects/classes you might use. Just click the image to download!

PS – My doc called back today and the radiologist said that it wasn’t bronchitis, but pneumonia. blegh. So, sick day for me tomorrow.  My principal sent me this:

She knows me too well. I will *try* not to work!

Rules & Routines: Lining Up

 

During the first few weeks of Kindergarten, it is SO essential to establish rules and routines for the kiddos in your classroom.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting about some of the rules and routines that I teach my kiddos. 

One of the hardest things (I think) to teach Kinders is lining up and walking in the hallway.  For those that have never been in a school setting, it could be a new experience – especially doing it independently! Usually they’re with mom and dad while waiting in a line, right?

I use a drive through analogy with them.

Most have been through a drive through, right?! We talk about how cars can’t pass each other, and they have to wait patiently for the car in front of them to move.

My smarties made a connection to the line at the gate to the base.  They have driven through the gate SO many times, and know that cars can’t pass each other.  SO SMART.

This year, I also incorporated THE MOST AMAZING new product into our lining up routine.

Introducing…..Sit Spots!

I first saw these at the I Teach K conference this summer in Las Vegas.  They were created by a teacher! Joyce is the owner and has been a teacher and principal for 25 years! She knows her stuff and she is absolutely the sweetest person!

These colorful shapes (she has them in all sorts of colors and shapes – check them out on her website) Joyce uses them as a classroom “rug” in her classroom (one for each kiddo to sit on), but since I already had a rug, I immediately thought about using them for lining up.

They are a hook and loop type product and they’ll stick great to industrial carpet (low pile).  Here is the most awesome part – they can be vacuumed right over!!! No mad custodians!!  Once they’re down, they are stuck – kids can’t peel them up!  At then end of the year, you can pull them up – put them away for next year, and your custodians can clean your carpet like usual.  Joyce even lets you order a sample so you can try it out to see if it will work on your carpet. (Psst….  They’re only $1 each!!)

Okay, back to lining up – here’s what I did with them….

Since I want to incorporate learning whenever I can, I numbered one row (1-13) and wrote the letters A-M on the other set. It’s still a little tricky for kids to remember their number/letter when we are OUT of the classroom, but they line up so quickly when we are in the classroom – and there are NO arguments about where kids are in line.

I have personally found that it is easier for ME to walk in one very LOOONNNGG line.  Two lines were confusing for my kiddos.  So, I’ve trained the letter A walker to watch for the number 13 walker, and follow him when we leave the classroom. (I picked a very responsible kiddo!).

Lining up and walking in line is ALWAYS a work in progress – with a large class it takes a while to get this mastered :) 

I also use some fun songs and chants to help kiddos get ready for the hall.  Check out What the Teacher Wants for this collection of line up chants/songs.

Here are some more fun chants from First Grade Owls – LOVE the shimmy shimmy coconut one!

I also adore this idea for lining up:

From Mrs. Kopacz at Artistic Geniuses: At the end of the class a student from the helper table puts up the tables (named after shapes this year) that are clean and quiet first, this is the order we line up in. Boy do they clean up fast and you can hear a pin drop!

Here is another fun idea for walking in the hall from What Happens in First Grade.  She labels these poker chip type pieces with students names, grabs one as she walks out the door.  If that person is doing the right thing in the hall, he/she gets a little prize/treat!

This is super similar to my Mystery Person idea that I blogged about waaaay back in 2011!  I use the sticks from my lucky duck can, but I like having a dedicated “mystery walker” can!

Of course when we’re in the hall, we either have a “bubble” or a “marshmallow” in our mouths! 

So, What are your best tips and tricks for lining up and/or walking in the hall.  Please share! We can all add a few ideas to our bag of tricks!

Management of Math and Literacy Centers

I’ve tried lots of different ways to organize math and literacy centers.  Sometimes I’ve needed to change because of the kiddos in my class, sometimes I’ve had to change because it doesn’t work for me.  So far, I like what I have so far!

Here is the management/rotation chart:

The top (red) chart is for literacy centers, the bottom (blue) chart is for math centers. (Thanks Julie for the great idea!) We do our literacy centers in the morning and our math centers in the afternoon.  Each child goes to one center a day, and it takes about 15-20 minutes.  I don’t pull any guided reading groups during literacy centers right now since we have extra support that comes to our classroom for guided reading/interventions.  I try to pull small groups or individuals for strategy work or assessments.  

The yellow strips are transparency/word highlighter thingys (I don’t know what they are called!).  These rotated every day in the beginning to show who was responsible for keeping the group on task and cleaning up materials.  I’ll admit, I’m not very good at changing them daily anymore! The kids have started to manage this on their own.

These drawers are where I keep the centers.  If something is too big to fit, it just goes on top.  The kids take the drawer to their table and take out the supplies they need.  Each drawer is labeled with a letter (literacy) or a number (math).

The tables are labeled to correspond with the number/letter.

Any questions?  Just leave a comment below!

Are you behaving?

It’s a Saturday night, are you behaving?  Just got the kiddles tucked into bed and ready to sit down and watch a movie with the hubby.  So, yes, I am behaving.  No party animal here!  Maybe I’ll make myself a Chocolatini-that’s about as naughty as I get!

My kiddos at school are starting to figure things out thanks to lots of teaching of expectations and routines.  We are just in the transition of become an RTI-B school (officially – we’ve already done most things!), so we do a lot of positive reinforcement with the kiddos.

I started right away with “The Day the Monster Came to School” story – the kiddos loved it and can’t believe the monster would behave so badly!

We then talked about above the line/below the line expectations and completed this chart together.  I have it hanging up and many little kiddos still refer back to it.

I also have the kiddos do a sort on their own.

The pictures are from Board Maker – I got them from a friend and don’t have a digital copy to share. Sorry!  But, if you check with someone on your special ed team, they should be able to make some for you!

We also did our class promise (I found the words here and thought they were perfect for kinders!)

I love their sweet little drawings, don’t you?!

I have also implemented the fabulous rainbow behavior plan that Julie Lee has created! This is the only picture I have – you can see it on the left.  You can also read more about it at Julie’s blog.

Here is a pic from Julie’s blog:

And for the little sweeties that just can’t seem to figure it out, this is my version of Lynda’s clipboard from Curls and a Smile.  I loved this idea when I first saw it.  I never liked having clip charts on display because others (especially parents) could see how each child was behaving.  I love the clipboard because it can stay private between me and the student and it can also travel with them to specials.

I use the red note from Kim Adsit’s site.  You can download it here.  She has posted both a pdf and a word doc so you can modify as needed.  I modified mine slightly to fit our needs.  If I can find it on my computer, I’ll post it!  I print it on red paper so parents are sure to see it!

I keep track of the behavior throughout the day with the tracker from The Polka Dot Patch. I just love it!  It’s so easy to keep track of behavior throughout the day – great for when you need to go to those BLST meetings and have to have documentation of behaviors!  You can download it from Ashley’s blog right here.

What is your best behavior management trick?