Teacher Tricks Tuesday: Beuller? Beuller? Beuller?

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  It's a rainy morning here!  My son and I ran to the store to get something really fast and I ended up with 30% chance of rain all over my newly applied clothes. But we were desperate for rain, so I won't complain at all.  And an added bonus...it's COOL outside!  At the end of July!  God's little blessings! 

Anyway, for "Teacher Tricks Tuesday," I wanted to feature something that a dear friend and I came up with our first year of teaching.  She's more of the genius behind it, I just sort of said, "You know what we need? Something to make taking attendance and lunch count less of a time consumer."  And she, being the brilliant teacher/creative mind she is, took it from there! 

Our theory was this:  Taking attendance and lunch count in the morning, based on what we had seen through student teaching and subbing, turned into a 30 minute routine once everyone was settled.  What a waste of precious teaching time!  Plus, it was a classroom management issue.  Does this sound familiar?

     (Teacher taking attendance): "Joe Smith?"
     (Student, not Joe Smith): "He's sick!"
     (Another student, also not Joe Smith): "No he's not!  I think I saw him in the cafeteria!"
     (Another student): "No you didn't!"
      ...etc.

Well, we may have done a lot of stupid things our first year of teaching, but this was not one of them!  The concept is simple...

Here is the version I've adapted over my years of teaching...
1)  Make a clothespin for every child.  Put their names on BOTH sides.
2) Clip them to a long piece of ribbon attached to the wall
3) When the student enters, he'll find his clip and move it to the left side to show that he's here.  If he brought his lunch, he'll move it to the left, but he'll place it below the red line (not pictured here, sorry!) on the ribbon.  
4) Student unpacks his backpack and gets started on his morning work quietly
5) Teacher takes attendance by quickly glancing at the clips and marking it on the attendance sheet.  Students are not disturbed, enticed to blurt out, or make those silly (read: annoying) alternatives to saying "here" such as "president,"  "not here," or the more creative ones like, "salami."

*I used to put their numbers on the clips instead of the names, but I changed that for 2 reasons.  First of all, I moved down to first grade, and I just thought it'd be simpler from the get-go for them at the beginning of the year.  Second, when I had a sub, she didn't have to get a class list and figure out which student was what number.  I figured I could afford the 50 cents it costs to replace the clips each year.  And it's worked beautifully.

What do YOU do to save time and keep classroom management in the mornings?  That's always a busy time, and I'd love to hear any other brilliant ideas out there!  Have a wonderful Tuesday and stay DRY!

So, We Meet Again

Oops, I did it again.  I have been thinking about getting back to blogging for a few weeks now and I just couldn't resist any longer.  So, here we are.  For all two of you (hi, mom!) who are interested, I'm back and I hope to share my side of the teaching world with everyone.  Some (read: most) won't even be my original ideas, but I hope to share things that may be new to you because we teachers like to STEAL, save money, and spend more time with our families than doing unnecessary work!

So, we find ourselves at  "Musical Monday," a day where I share some of my favorite ways to incorporate songs and chants into the classroom! 

I teach first grade, and one of the common core (gasp, sigh, groan, grumble) standards for 1st is to write opinion pieces.  Even before this standard came along, I found that a commonly used word, yet a hard-to-spell word for firsties is the word "because."  Thus, one day I lied and told my students I had a song to help them with it so they'll never forget it again.   And as I spoke , the stars aligned just right, the clouds opened up, and little diddy popped up into my head:

The BECAUSE Song
(To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb")

B-E-C-A-U-S-E
U-S-E
U-S-E
B-E-C-A-U-S-E
Because, Because Because!

I know.  You're thinking, "that's it!?"  Yep.  I never promised it'd be super brilliant or exciting.  But it works!  And now they're held accountable for spelling that all important, frequently used word to justify their opinion!  Cool!

I also want to include a song I whipped up for could/should/would, also frequently used and difficult words:

The COULD/SHOULD/WOULD Song
(To the tune of "BINGO")

There is a word that we should know
And this is how you spell it
C-O-U-L-D
C-O-U-L-D
C-O-U-L-D
And "could" is how you say it.

(Repeat with "would" and "should."  Say "S-H" quickly when you sing the "should" verse!)

There you go, folks.  It's good to be back.  As always, I'd love to hear your input and ideas, so comment with love or one of your own original songs.  Do you use songs or chants to help with spelling?

That's the Ticket!

Every teacher has his/her own reward system: treasure boxes, stickers, cheers, pencils, candy (gasp!), etc.  

The system that has worked the best for me has been those little carnival tickets that you can buy at Wal-Mart, office supply stores, etc.  When I catch them doing something great, I hand them a ticket.  When they have a spare second, they put their name on the ticket, and drop it in the basket on my desk.  Every afternoon I draw 3 or 4 tickets and those students choose from the treasure box, and on Friday I usually draw a few extra.  What I love about this system is that you buy one roll of tickets, and it lasts more than one school year (and that's with being VERY generous with tickets throughout the school year!).  Speaking of being generous, it's great to use these especially at the beginning of the year when you try to frontload the positive reinforcements of desired behavior!  Doesn't cost an arm and a leg :)

I also like it because it gives me an easy way to affirm EVERYONE'S positive behavior, instead of accidentally  rewarding the typical "good students" the majority of the time.  The most difficult student in your classroom can do one tiny good thing, and it's an easy way to reward that one thing, not matter how trivial or monumental it was.  It boosts their positive energy, and it gives them a chance to get something special later...gives them hope.  If they DO get their name drawn for a prize, I try to say something to them like, "WOW!  That great choice/hard work/whatever paid off!  Keep that up!"

And of course, the more tickets they earn, the better chance they have at getting their name drawn!  (I definitely use this example when it comes time to teach probability later ;)

As for storage of the ticket roll, I used to just keep them in my desk, but it was annoying not having the easy access to them.  Well last year it occurred to me that we have a free-standing toilet paper roll holder from when we lived in a tiny apartment that didn't have one built in.  So I went to our garage, and found it, and it was the PERFECT little dispenser for my tickets!  I could leave them out and when I want to reward behavior I can just quickly tear off what I need and go!  I can even tell a student, "Great job!  Go grab a ticket!"  I love it!

One thing I want to change this year is to have the students spin the "wheel of rewards" instead of getting a treasure from the box.  This was Pinterest inspired...I saw a pin that used a lazy Susan attached to a wall as a "wheel of fortune" type wheel (genius!).  HERE is the link to the tutorial.  I am hoping to make one for the classroom that has 4 or 5 reward ideas (lunch with the teacher, work on the carpet, etc.) that they can spin for if I draw their name.  I will post later when I complete the project and show you how it turned out!

I know there are so many brilliant reward systems in classrooms.  And with our different personalities, some work better for us than others.  I take no offense to anyone not preferring this method.  I just know it's worked for me!  What about you?  What positive reinforcement works in your classroom?

Teacher Tricks Tuesday...My 2 Cents on Coin Counting

Hello! We started back to school this week after a fabulous spring break...and boy did we have to hit the ground runnin'!  Next week is testing!!  Eeek!

For those of you under the common core standards in K-1, you know that money is NO LONGER in the math curriculum for us ( I have mixed emotions about this!).  But, until we do away with the current standardized tests, I still feel the need to teach them at least some basics- so I address this briefly during our calendar time every day.

Teaching coin counting can be a pain because not only do students have to be able to identify which coin is which, then figure out how much it's worth, then count it all together- but they have to switch counting patterns....first by 25's, then by 10's, then by 5's, then add ones at the end.  CONFUSING!! But last year a colleague taught me a teacher trick for counting money that I just LOVE!

Teach your students to tap the coins when they count.  Tap the quarters 5 times, counting by fives.  Tap the dimes twice, counting by fives.  Tap the nickels once counting by fives.  Then add one more for each penny. 

This way, they're only counting by FIVES instead of constantly switching the counting patterns!! Genius!   I had never heard of this, but it has changed my teaching and definitely has given my students confidence in such a challenging area!

So if you've never heard of this trick, I hope it makes teaching coin counting a little easier like it did for me!  I love hearing awesome ideas from colleagues and teacher friends across the globe!  Any other great tricks for coin counting out there that you use?  Share your ideas!

Graphing the Playground Plus SPRING BREAK!

Hard At Work!

Well, I MADE IT!! Spring break is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So before I sign off and refuse to think about work for the week, here's one more post about the last few days.

This week we've been talking about tallies & graphing.  We did class graphs, graphed our Lucky Charms marshmallows, etc.  And a couple of days ago I came up with an idea to end our week with and it turned out to be really fun!

We've been having gorgeous weather, so I created a little sheet with various playground equipment listed (slide, swings, merry-go-round, etc.).  Then I partnered them up and took them outside to tally the equipment we had on our playground.  We brought the data back and compared info. to make sure everyone counted correctly.

Some serious counting going on!

The next day they individually turned that data into a graph.  It turned out to be a nice little final activity/assessment of graphing.  But of course, their favorite part was being outside and collecting the data.  They did a great job of staying focused even though spring fever was personally starting to kick in for me!  

If your spring break hasn't come yet, hang in there (and nanny-nanny-boo-boo!! ;).  For those of you off this week, have a very restful and happy spring break...enjoy every minute of it and may you return to work rested and rejuvenated for the last few weeks of school!

Thrifty Thursday: A Serendipitous Discovery

I love dollar stores.  If you’re a teacher reading this, you’re thinking, “DUH! Don’t we all!?”  But this is my blog and not yours.  ;)

Today I’m featuring TWO good finds, the first of which is an idea I came up with last year when  I was teaching the concept of time.  I wanted a more active and fun activity to do with my math small groups, and this idea popped into my head. 

I bought a dollar store shower curtain liner and freehanded a large clock (no clock hands) with a Sharpie marker.  Then, I had my students lie on the “mat” and use their arms/legs to show me a certain time.   They had a BLAST doing this, and the shower curtain has lasted the last two years with no tears-  even with the kiddos wearing shoes!

Here's one of my sweet girls showing 12:30.  I once was that flexible...

To adapt it for math centers, I created large hands out of construction paper that they can place on the clock to show the time (my class is a little wild and I didn’t think that letting them use their arms/hands would be as successful without me there to keep them on task).  Then I wrote digital times on an index card so that they could draw a card out and show the time on the clock mat.

My kids ask to play it every day now and it only cost me $1 to make!  I can just see a pre-made clock mat like that retailing for $20+ at one of those teacher supply stores.  I love cheating the system!

I’m sure there are other great things to make for the classroom with a cheap shower curtain.  I’m picturing something Twister-esque.  I'm anxious to hear if any of you have any ideas for repurposing shower curtains in the classroom!

The 2nd idea is a little bonus addition because I found these puppies today!  I was at Dollar General (which in our small Arkansas town, we happen to have FOUR of these!).  I was checking out when I saw a clearance basket so I sifted through the items.  

I found these little desk calendars, assorted colors.  Originally $1 but clearanced at 90% off!!!!

That's $.10 people!  So I had this idea... I bought 6, for a whopping total of $.60.  I took them to my classroom and cut them into two sides, separating the numbers from the calendars.

I realized that the numbers on the left would only have the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 in the tens place since they corresponded to the calendar dates, so I bent the bindings on 3 of them, and removed the numbers from the once place to replace the numbers in the tens place on the other.  That sounds very confusing, so I hope this ends up making sense.  Regardless, I ended up with 0-9 in the tens place and 0-9 in the ones place.  So I bent the bindings back in place and ended up with 3 cute little flip charts to use for place value in a math center!  Plus, I have 6 adorable little flip-chart calendars that I can use to create a calendar concepts game for a math center as well!  

Check out these little cuties!  Too bad they're all in super girly colors, but they'll make fun additions to my math centers!

Well, tomorrow is FRIDAY and just so happens to be a triple whammie:  Friday....pay day....Spring Break Eve!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww!  I'm just a tiny bit excited.  I hope you all have a fanTAStic weekend and are getting to enjoy some sunshine like we are here!  I'd love to hear your latest thrifty finds, so leave some blog love to share!  Tah-tah!

Why I Teach Wednesdays- For the Love of Reading

So, today was a rare occasion in which I told my students that they could color after they finished their work (they had a packet about Arkansas symbols that they had been coloring all week for social studies).  I had a student come up to my desk and ask, "Can we read from our familiar reading tubs instead?"  My reply, on the outside, was, "Yes, darlin'!  You can always choose to read in your spare time."  But on the inside, I was going, "WOOO HOOOOOO!!! CHOOSING TO REEEEEAD!!"  Yippee!  It's always good to hear a student make that choice, but this particular student happened to be a pretty reluctant reader when she first came to my class!  It's little things like this that can make a teacher's day and keep us pushing on (especially when spring break is in t minus 2 days...AAAHHHHH!!)

I hope you all are having a wonderful 'hump day'...the weekend is creeping up on us! Happy teaching!