A Peek Around My Room

This is our Scoreboard from WBT.  I use it as a class management tool.  I never let Smilies or Frownies have a difference of more than 3.  This keeps it exciting and motivating.  When students get a Smilie, they yell, "Oh ya!" with a mighty fist pump.  It has to be altogether and very quick (1 second party), or they get a Frownie.  When they get a Frownie, there is a mighty groan with a shoulder shrug.

Here is my Religion area.  I found the mirror words at the Dollar Store.  Could only find 5 of the Fruits of the Spirit, but that's a pretty great find!  The space around the heart will be filled with family photos the class will bring in.  This goes along with the Grade 1 and 2 curriculum for Religion.  I have a cute little antique-looking desk 
for our Prayer Table.  I keep a Crucifix, Children's Bible and Prayer book on it.  At the side is my Faith bookshelf.  There are several devotional books, Bibles, and Bible storybooks there.
The Circle of Friends, which is the Grade 1 symbol, is on the shelf along with other faith-based artifacts that may be brought in.  There are a couple of posters to the left that I picked up while camping at Fairhaven's Ministries a few years ago.

Here is my Super Improver Team wall.  The year starts with each child's name on a white card.  They get a sticker each time they improve in any area.  It could be academic, responsibility, organization, self-regulation, you name it.  This is a place for everyone to succeed as anyone can improve at something.  Once a student has 10 stickers they move up the ranks - first they become a Rookie and get an orange card, and so on.  Start out the year with lots of stickers to get the excitement going and then slow down.  You want them to respect how difficult it is to reach 'Living Legend'.  There are many fun strategies to use along the way which you can find at Whole Brain Teaching.

Here is are my months of the year and my Rules.  Beside it a picture of that whole section, showing the SIT wall and Days of the Week.

And these are my Math Centre Rotations.  I got this idea from Clutter Free Classroom a couple of years ago.  It is an acrostic for M A T H.  M - math facts; A - at your seat; T - technology; H - hands-on.  I have 5 centres - the 5th rotation is working with the teacher.  I just really liked this acrostic, so left it at that and the students know they have one rotation with me.  :) 
                                                                      Bonnie
                                                                                                             

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Math & Language Centres

Yes, it is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada!  It has been a chilly but nice and sunny weekend thus far.  Yesterday Ella and I had a big fire in the backyard to get rid of all the giant branches that have been falling off the trees in my front yard.  It was extremely windy when they fell, but it does have me a little concerned about the winter --- I do not want a tree through the roof!

So, what do you think of this font?  It is one of my very favourites!  It’s called ‘Baby Boston’ (which could be a bit of why I like it - as I LOVE Boston!) and is from the best free font site on the web:  Fonts for Peas.  Check it out and add lots of fun fonts for free!

This past week my class discussed the origin of Thanksgiving and what we are thankful for in our own lives.  We made these mini-pumpkin books.  (I have used these in the past with grades 2/3/4 to do connections and retells.)

I also had an amazing mom bring in these cute turkey crafts.  Sometimes it is very nice to have a pre-made activity!

               

               

Here is a look at some of the Math Centres I did this past week:
Domino Addition from What the Teacher Wants.  Bull’s Eye Game to reinforce Place Value also from What the Teacher Wants.  I used wiggly eyes for the children to toss onto the game board.  And Even Steven, Odd Todd game to review even and odd numbers from First Grade A La Carte.             

   

Some of my Language Centres:

Puzzle names:  I premade index cards with students’ names.  I used this when I taught Kindergarten years ago, so to make it just a bit more challenging I used all the names from each group, cut them with more angles and mixed them altogether in a baggie.  It was fun to watch them use each others’ letters and then realize they didn’t have a rectangle.

Ordering months of the years and days of the week and Cut & Paste ABC’s.  Very sorry, but I can’t remember what teacher blog I got these 2 from.  If you find them please let me know.  Thanks!

And the fourth centre was putting the week’s sight words in alphabetical order.  This is our third week doing this and I think they are finally getting it.  J

            



                    Bonnie

Place Value (with some freebies!)

We have been working on Place Value for the past couple of weeks.  Isn’t it the best feeling when your little ones don’t have a clue what you are talking about at the start of a unit and by the end they know it inside and out?!  Here are some of the activities I used:

We started out with the Elmo (opaque projector) and just learning the Base 10 manipulatives.  Next we moved on to the Smart Board and the base ten manipulatives that are in the gallery.  The kiddos always love when they can play with the Smart Board – instant engagement!  At first I would pick the number, but once they got the hang of it, I had one student pick a number and another show it in Base 10’s.  Here is a picture of the format I was using:

I used these cute animal place value cards that I got for free at DoodleBugs.  I wasn’t sure how she used them, so I numbered them and the students filled out this recording sheet at a math centre:

We also made little folders.  I got this idea from Step Into Second http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.ca/search/label/place%20value  I used this sheet and filled in different 2-digit numbers for each student.  They determined how many ten’s and one’s and then cut them out and put them in the correct side of their mini-folder.  This also allowed for a mini-lesson on even and odd numbers.  Using bright paper and creating ‘mini things’ always excites kiddies!

 


As a mini assessment/exit slip, I used this page:

Hope you can use these!

                                                                                       Bonnie

School BBQ

Our school hosts a BBQ - an evening for families to come together, meet the new teachers and have a look in their child's classroom.  This year I got some fantastic ideas to use in my room from Pinterest.  During the day, my Firsties drew a self-portrait and filled in clues of who they were.  I spread these around the tables for the parents to find their child.  Once parents located their little darling, they used a white crayon to write a secret message.  The next day, students painted with water colours to find out their parent's message.

Rules and Promises

Our 5 Classroom Rules come from Whole Brain Teaching.  I did change Rule 3.  At WBT it reads: Raise Your Hand for Permission to Leave Your Seat.  We are moving ALOT and I don’t want them raising their hand every time, so I changed this rule to:  Respect Others, Yourself, and Our School, which I feel is a very important rule.  For the first month of school we review these rules at the start of each day and after every recess.  Now we are doing it at the start of the day and as needed throughout the day.  It's fun to call out the number of the rule that is being broken and they all chant it together and do the little gestures.

From Amy at Stepinto Second Grade, I got the cute idea for our door.  Students coloured a cut out, my wonderful EA cut out the backgrounds and we put them on our door with our classroom promise.