Behavior Management {An Idea to Try Out Next Year}

Hey peeps... Stacy here from over at Funky Fresh Firsties with a short post today.  Can you believe that we are already half way done with February?  I am already counting down the days until summer {don't judge}.
I wanna chat today about behavior management in my first grade room.  I love that all teachers have a strength... it's really cool to watch that play out in a school setting.  I feel like my strength happens to be classroom management.  Some days teaching 1st grade feels a lot like herding cats... but it's nice to know that I am a good "herder" overall!  This is my 12th year and I have found that flexibility is key.  What worked last year might not be that great this year.  Last year I used Class Dojo and my kiddos ATE IT UP!  They would beg me to bring up the screen on the SMART board each day.  You can read more about Class Dojo from my guest post for Rachel Lynette at Minds in Bloom HERE.

This year though.. my firsties don't really dig it quite so much.  What has worked is a very visual behavior management tool that goes with us around the school and is also displayed  in the classroom!  

This is at the front of the classroom right next to the SMART board.  Each child has a magnet with their number on it {These come from Tea and Coffee... mine are lime and teal.}  This allows them to see exactly where they are for the day... and also allows for redemption.  I have found that redemption, or the idea that they can get back in my good graces, is a very powerful motivator this year.  I also make them move their magnets which also seems to be pretty powerful.  If they make it to the top of the chart... they are rewarded with 10 minutes of iPad time or computer time.  

When we travel in the hallways for our special classes or to/from lunch... we take our behavior stick that is painted with the same colors and each child has a clothespin with their name clipped.  I can quickly move them up or down depending on hallway behavior.  

 This also makes them accountable to other adults in the building (their lunch monitor, specials teacher, special education teacher, etc.).  To make the stick, you paint it with the colors you choose with acrylic paint and VOILA!  The green section in the middle should be the biggest section though!  I also separated my sections with mustache washi tape and sealed it with mod podge for extra durability.

I think the key is truly being flexible and finding what works for your kiddos.  I teach in a very disadvantaged area for sure and I think the key to my success with these children is that I am in... ALL the way in.  I know their family situations and it motivates me b/c of how I grew up.  I love these children and they know it.  I hug each and every one before I put them on the buses... regardless of what kind of day they had.  They also know that when they walk in the next day, they have a clean slate.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, I do not yell.  Ever.  The logic behind that is... I know what many of them are going home to.  They are used to being yelled at.  Have they ever seen me upset?  Absolutely.  Do they know when I am disappointed?  Yes.  I tell them at the beginning of the year that we are a family and I truly mean it.  Each one of us plays a part and we all have a job to do.  We share each other's joy and pain.

I hope that you will have a great week with your kiddos.  I think Friday is supposed to be a full moon and Valentines Day {remember when I said herding cats earlier?}.  One last thing... I am going to be giving away a set of clothespins from Tea and Coffee to one of you!!!  Here's how to enter: leave a comment with your best behavior management tip.  I will let one of my little humans pick a name on Valentines Day!  Good luck!!!

President's Day FUN, FREEBIE, & a Giveaway!

Hi Friends....  Anna here from Simply Skilled in Second.  I hope this post finds you all well...and WARM.  I don't know about your neck of the woods, but it is COLD and SNOWY in New York this past week!  I had two snow days this week alone!  I am going to be going to school until July if this keeps up!

Anywhooo....I thought I would share some of the things that I do to celebrate President's Day with my kiddos.  I love President's Day and teaching about Lincoln and Washington.  Leading up to President's Day, I always take about fifteen minutes at the end of two days and read these books to my kiddos.  If you haven't seen these books by National Geographic Kids you are missing out!  They are incredible books that are easy to read but have a wealth of information that is easy for children to understand.  I actually purchased six copies of each book and I have my students use them for their research.  Half the class researches Lincoln and half the class researches Washington and then we switch off.

I also show a few videos on my Smartboard about the presidents to my little ones as well.  Click the pictures to see the video links.

After we read our mentor-texts and watch our videos, I always make an Anchor Chart about each president where we add important information and facts about each of their lives.

I love creating projects with my class and they love it too.  I also think the parents appreciate seeing longer more detailed projects relating to a topic as well.  Here are a few pictures of my little ones working on their President's Day Lapbook.

Here is an image of my bulletin board display!   I titled it

"We are FLIPPING" over President's Day."

Every day I would see different children stop at my bulletin board and start reading the different flip flap books in the lapbook.  You can't help but stop and touch it when I looks so interesting :)

And if you are interested in doing the whole lapbook with your students, click the image below...

Now...here are a few little freebies for you...

 

This one is from me :)

This is from Katie - Teacher to the Core.

This is from Jessica - First Grade Nest

Feel like trying to win some AMAZING President's Day Resources???  Complete the Rafflecopter Below for your chance to WIN!!!!!!

Here are the prizes you can win....

This is from Anna - Simply Skilled in Second

This is from Faith - First Grade Fantabulous

This is from Jessica - First Grade Nest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,

February Writing Fun

Aloha friends!  It's Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

Can you believe next week is already Valentine's Day?  I am excited that we have the whole week to work on a Valentine theme and that it lands on a Friday!!  Since I do Daily 5 rotations I like to add some fun to our writing area for each holiday.

I store our writing folders, lots of different paper, prompts and message books.  I was digging around in my Valentine folder and only found a few items for this month.

A writing template that came from Carson Dellosa and some heart shaped lined paper.  I guess it's time to update for this year.

One thing my kids love doing during writing time is to write bucket fillers.  They look forward to reading them at the end of each week.  It's fun for them to sneak them into the buckets during the week.

I made some cute "Love Notes" for this coming week.

I also created some writing templates so they could make some Valentine notes for family and friends.

Just click on either of the pictures to grab these freebies in Google Docs.

If you need some more writing ideas check out this post from Leslie over at First Grade and Flip Flops.  She has a cute persuasive writing activity.

Leigh from the Applicious Teacher has a fun activity for writing about "The Sweetest Thing".

Laura from Peace, Love and First Grade has these fantastic Vocabulary Books.

Latoya from Flying Into First has these adorable February Writing Prompts.

Just click on any of the pictures to check out these posts and items.

I hope you are able to use some of these "love"ly ideas to add to your February writing.

Place Value Fun!!!

Hi everyone!!! It's Latoya from Flying into First Grade!!!

 

So this week we were studying tens and ones in math.  It was so much fun.   This is what we did today.

 

We love using technology so we played some interactive games whole group and during small group time.  They loved it!!!  The links are below.

 

Some Interactive Resources to Use

(Click the Pictures to Go to the Game)

 

1.  Tens and Ones Online Game- We played whole group and they got to play on the computers.

 

 

 

2.  Making Numbers using Tens and Ones - We played this whole group.  I love that when you build the numbers it keeps up with the value you have done so far.

 

 

3. Tens and Ones Equations - I love that this game gives you an explanation if you get a problem wrong.

 

 

4. Roasting Marshmallows Tens and Ones - This one is hilarious but very good.  The students loved it.  The bear on this game makes learning tens and ones fun.

 

 

5. Working on the tens Place - This game helps students identify how many tens are in a 2 digit number.

 

 

For individual work, the students took numbers and identified the tens and the ones.  Then they drew models to illustrate.  They used base ten blocks to build the numbers.

 

 

 

I brought my math groups over to work with me in small groups.  Each group got a basket of cubes.   They made tens and had ones leftover.  Everyone had to give their mystery number.

 

 

Next, we looked at models on our paper and  counted the tens and ones to make a 2 digit number.

 

 

Earlier in the week we started with just counting tens.  I made a paper for them to do as an assessment.  It is a FREEBIE for you!!!  Enjoy!!!  Click on the Picture!!!!

 

 

Next week we will be learning all about expanded form with place value.  Let us know some of your ideas for teaching place value!!!