Table Organization

 

As many teachers begin to prepare for the upcoming school year, I thought I'd share some tips on organizing tables.

 

I absolutely *love* tables! When I switched classrooms, I had desks for one year and hated it. If you are a table person, here are some ideas for you!

 

 

I color code my table groups. Look carefully and you can see the colored TENT signs hanging above each "campsite," as we refer to our groups in our room.

 

The bins you see on the tables in the picture above (and the trays in the title picture) are from Oriental Trading. I also have a class set of scissors in the same colors. I found plastic cups in 4 of the colors (plus 2 clear) at WalMart. We keep pencils in the cup, glue sticks, scissors, erasers, name tags, etc. in the bin. I added the tray after the start of last year. It has worked wonders for keeping up with "work in progress!" Students put their work in the tray and can pull it out to finish when they have time, or when we work on it again.

 

I also can't imagine not having my chair bags! They are amazing and very reasonably priced. This will be my 6th year with them and they are holding up great. I think I had ONE that has gotten torn!

The kids keep their CAMP notebook, journal, and math book in the deep pocket, and their color crayons and markers in the little pockets.

Look them up at www.chairpads.com

 

To help keep clutter and mess to a minimum, every Friday for morning work the kids empty out and clean their chair bags and trays.



WBT Conference, Book Club and Common Core Posters

I am SO (I mean SSSSOOOOOOO) excited to be attending the WBT National Conference next week!

My son's teacher from last year is attending with me.

I hope to get energized and ready for the upcoming year!

Woo Hoo!

 

Check back for details and accounts from the conference. :)

 

 

Speaking of WBT...there's a book club going on right now!

Head over to their new blog and check it out!

 

 

Last...I've finally finished my Common Core I-Can Posters!

They are {of course} a camping theme, and so stinking cute!

You've got to check them out if you teach first grade!

I'm starting to work on other grades as well! Follow me on TpT and you'll be the first to know when I've added them.

 

 

Have a great day!

 



Scoreboard Questions Answered

This post is for my own benefit as well as others.

I recently had an email question about the scoreboard. Below you will find a transcript of the questions as well as my responses.

 

I hope it will be of use to some of you that are just starting out with WBT! I've let my scoreboard number slack off and am hoping to get that excitement and energy back into my class.

 

Hi,

I am just trying bits of WBT this year.  I’m not having as much buy in to the idea of the scoreboard as I wanted.  I think there’s a few reasons, but could use some ideas.  I don’t think I’m using it often enough.  When do you use it?  I find kids are very slow at transitions and getting a smiley or frownie doesn’t mean a lot to some of them.

Another point I’m struggling with is how often and with what can I reward them for smiley frownies?  I was trying the “minute of extra” recess based on count @ end of day.  The transition issue, impacts this extra time… I haven’t trained them well enough somehow to line up quietly so we take too long and the extra minute is gone (so they don’t see the reward for smiley / frownie).  It’s a challenge to stop and count the total at the end of the day. I often don’t do it with the class until the next morning (which isn’t too terrible since the extra recess time is the that day) Any suggestions?  Should I build in more  small rewards (we have an am recess and then a lunch recess)?  Should I do the scoreboard from after AM recess until AM recess the next day?

I don’t understand “fun bursts”..could I mix these in somehow?

Interested in WBT but confused,

________________________________________________________________________________

 

The key to the scoreboard is using it to the max! When you are putting 30-40 tallies on each day—you are keeping the kids pumped and “in the game”. I have to admit…it can slide by! I only had about 10 marks up last Friday! That’s the worst I’ve done. And I can tell a big difference when I let it slip!

 

Someone on the forums put together a nice list of rewards for winning the scoreboard. You might search for it. Some other ideas are:

 

A hand stamp, a sticker, 1 minute more center time, 1 minute more story time, get the principal to come in and congratulate them, let them choose where to sit for one class period, let them read with a friend during silent reading time, let them read with a stuffed animal during silent reading time…find things that will motivate them! Give them a few of the options and let them vote at the beginning of the day. Their buy in is crucial!

 

I’ve also done long-term rewards like giving one letter in the word MOVIE for each day they win the scoreboard. When they spell the word, they get the reward. We eat lunch in our classroom, so this is an easy reward for me to do during lunch.

 

Fun bursts are short periods of “practicing” the behaviors you are wanting—and ping ponging the scoreboard. Like this:

 

“Rule 1-“ (follow directions quickly)

“Oh, not fast enough!” –frownie/mighty groan

“Raise your hands.” (they do it quickly) “That’s what I’m talking about!” –smiley/oh yeah

“stand up” too slow, “sit down” yes! Etc….back and forth—giving smilies/frownies and getting ENERGY flowing in the room!

 As for lining up, I NEVER thought the 3peat of Lines, Lines, Lines would work for me. I thought it would be chaos! But, after really introducing it, modeling it, practicing it…my kids do it marvelously! It is quick and easy.

 

 Another thing that has helped me this year is a portable scoreboard and mini dry-erase marker. These help me keep track of points whenever I need to give them. I made the scoreboard small enough to fit in a badge holder on a lanyard. It is great having it so handy!

 

 Hope some of these ideas help! Keep at it! It is the most amazing way of teaching I’ve ever found.

~Melissa

 

_____________________________________________________________________

 

One last scoreboard question/clarification…what about when you win the scoreboard?  Like I said, I just did 1-2 minutes on or off recess.  Do they lose something every day or just NOT earn the priviledge?

 

On the positive, you do reward it daily? Do you count the total at the end of the day so they see where they stood.  Do you feel it’s more effective to have the reward be that day (rather than the following day , like I’ve been doing with earning extra recess time).

Thanks again,

__________________________________________________________________

Sometimes they can lose recess time, or lose a privilege. Or they can just not earn the agreed upon reward.. Daily is best!

The kids can see the scoreboard and the tallies. I will also announce near the end of the day if they are really close, or "even Steven", so they can try to earn those last smilies...especially during dismissal!

It doesn't really take much time to see the total if you keep both sides even...remember YOU are in control of the scoreboard. Use it to your advantage!

~Melissa

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Thank you so much for your quick and detailed response. I know there’s the You Tube videos, blogs etc. but I sure wish I could visit a classroom with it in place. Thanks again,

______________________________________________________________________

 

There is it! Hope it helps some of you, too!

 



SIW is Up and Going!

I finally got my SIW going this week!

My kids won at the scoreboard, so I told them...this was the day. I waited until I caught one of my kiddos making an improvement and then I jumped up and down and yelled out, "It's time, it's time!" They were so excited. I explained what my super, exciting, bestest thing in the entire world was...and told them it was to keep track of their improvements. We did a teach session on what an improvement was. I heard some good answers, but one was superb...when we get better at something. That's it!

 

Then, I told the class I had just seen one of them getting better at something. I had them guess who...lots of names were flying around. Then I told them who it was and that he was actually using GESTURES when he was teaching with his partner. I made a big deal about it, because they KNOW how I expect them to use big gestures! I punched his star and he just BEAMED!

It was priceless.

 

Later in the day, we were at the carpet and I had them teach their neighbors something...another little boy that has struggled with talking at ALL during teach/ok was using gestures (small) and teaching. I called out, "CLASS!" and got their attention. I bragged on him and put up a star punch on his tent. He loved it.

 

The next day, during writing class while I was monitoring the room I noticed that a little girl that struggled with putting spaces between her words from the start of school had nice spacing. I've praised her several times during the last couple of weeks. I stopped the class and shared that I was giving out another star on our Improvers wall.

 

My kiddos are eating it up! I've got to start tracking the stars I give out and looking for more stars to give. I don't want to give stars for minimal improvements, but for big efforts! What I am looking for here at the beginning are for students that have struggled with teaching and gesturing and mirroring my gestures. I want to get them on board right away.

 

I'm loving this new addition to our management plan and my kids are too.

WBT Rules and Posters FREEBIE

Greetings again, Wibbeteers! I've been enjoying my morning by watching the latest Webcast on the First Hour of WBT!!

Excellent.

Next, I revamped my rules posters to make them a little more CAMPY!

As stated in an earlier post, I rewrote the rules to fit my classroom and style. They rhyme and fit into our 3 rules:

Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible.

This is a FREEBIE in my TpT store! Click on the pic to grab your set:

Shutterfly Teacher Sites

If you haven't heard of the amazing service Shutterfly does for teachers, you've gotta check it out! It's free.

You can create a password/invitation only website for your class, include class roster and contact information, events, timelines, photos, volunteer sign-ups, and post pictures of your class! Whew...

I didn't get to use this much last year, but I plan on starting the year with it and using it to the max.

It will even email all members with upcoming event notificaitons, remind them about items they've signed up for, and ask them to post pictures after events!

Head over to Shutterfly.com and get your site set up and ready for the new year.

Teachers-Pay-Teachers Store Opening: Freebie

I have opened up my Teachers-Pay-Teachers Store. Yippee!



My first item is a classroom management form I use with my camping theme: S'More Sorry Notes.

Go and grab them if you'd like.
**I've updated the link so the typo has been fixed**
Yikes--so sorry about that.

I have also added my first PAY item...it is a cute set of math stations with a (you guessed it) camp theme.

Behavior Management

I have 3 simple rules: Be safe. Be Responsible. Be respectful. This might be a bit abstract for 1st graders...but it covers about everything.

My management system includes a Happy Camper Board, Campsite Points, and Camp Compliments.

Happy Camper Board:
My kiddos earn camper cards each day if they follow the rules and procedures of our room. Each card represents a quality that will help them be a Happy Camper: boot=they can stay in the appropriate area (no wandering around or bothering other groups, stations, etc.); canteen=they can speak at the appropriate time and in the appropriate level; backpack=they can keep their things to themselves and not bother other people's things; fire=they are on fire for learning and can stay on task; hand=they can give teacher their attention quickly (give me "5"). At the end of the day, they color in all the cards they earned in their CAMP notebooks. If they get a few reminders and aren't earning a card, it gets moved to the "Wrong Way Trail" until the behavior improves (easy to earn back at the beginning of the year...VERY hard at the end.)

Campsite Group Points:
Each group is called a campsite. Each has a different color, i.e. the Blue Campsite. I keep track of group points on the board and the group with the most points at the end of the week gets a reward. We eat in our classroom...so my standard reward is that they get to eat with a friend of their choice on Monday.

Camp Compliments:
As a class, we try to earn compliments --especially from others. I keep track of our compliments by filling in a mystery word on the board (written right above the group points section). I will write lines for each letter needed to make the word and fill in one letter per compliment. It is a fun way to keep them guessing words that will make sense and fit. My rewards are things like: PLAY/RECESS (extra resess or play time), CORN/POPCORN (popcorn), MOVIE (during lunch), etc.