Behavior Management

So, I posted about some awesome tongue depressers I got at Joann's a couple weeks ago and I am finally finished preparing them for their final destination.

As you can see from the photo, one side has a happy face and the other side has a sad face. Everyday the kids will start with their colors on the happy side. Instead of using a "pull a card" system the students will move one of their pieces of colored felt from the happy to the sad side. The supplies used to make this project include:

tongue depressers
markers
velcro dots
3 different colored pieces of felt

We will see how this works out this year! I might be more excited about how cute they are then the fact I got to make my own behavior management system that wasn't "pull a card"!! What are your behavior management plans this year?

Target Project Anyone...

Much like the rest of humankind, I LOVE Target. I cannot go in that place without spending $100. The sad part is I load up from the dollar bin--my hubby thinks I am certifiable but I can't resist! So, today I loaded up on these fabulous little accordian file folders:

These are miniature and perfect for flashcards among other things. My "among other things" will include: punchcards (so students can easily keep up with them) and "Blue Jay Bills" (our school positive behavior incentive money that students can spend in a store). I am loving this idea!!

Check it out-- I put labels on each tab: Need to Practice, Sight Words (2 tabs), Math Facts, Blue Jay Bills, and Punchcards. The first tab can be used for specific sight words or math facts that need to be practiced. So if we are studying certain words they will be in this tab to practice at home. After the student has mastered their cards they will get a new set to go in that tab and the cards that have been mastered will go back under the sight words tabs. Same with Math Facts. Blue Jay Bills can be kept in their tab until spent and the Punchcards will be brought out daily for punches.

I am calling these S.T.A.R. Files. (Students Taking Academic Responsibility). I am hoping this will be a great way for students to keep up with their own stuff. The label has S.T.A.R. in yellow...sorry you can't see!

Please excuse the nails...in need of a manicure ASAP!!


I cannot wait to use these and they are perfect for going back and forth from home to school! Parents will know what should be practiced and will be able to see how many punches their child has received on their card! Plus these can be used year after year. I just wrote numbers on them to assign to students!

So, if you would like to create these it is super easy and not too time consuming. To save you time I have labels here.

Have fun creating!

Behavior Calendars!!

Last year my school made monthly calendars to keep track of behavior. They were in the students folders and were easy to mark at the end of the day for parents to see how their students behavior was daily. Each night I would send the calendar home in the student's folder and the parents would initial they read the note or saw the behavior indicated.

The school I am at this year doesn't have anything in place for this except a very hard to read weekly form that I am not fond of. So, I decided (using that form as inspiration of course) to make my own calendars. Having a calendar you put in the folder once is easier than puting a new sheet in the folder weekly.

I don't really have a theme going this year but thought an easy to read and remember calendar is the "star behavior chart". I went ahead and made the whole years worth so now all I have to do is print and copy :) They are not super, duper cute like some things you can find on teacher blogs but they are sufficient and will work for me. I will probably copy each month on different colored paper so it will be obvious it is a new month.

If you would like a copy of these fab behavior calendar/chart things then click here!

Hope these are helpful!

First Day Nightmare Averted!!

The first day of school can be overwhelming, and if you are not prepared...some might say, a nightmare. While updating my class website today I thought of a fabulous way to get information from parents without dealing with any forms the first day of school. Most forms are sent home anyway, but there is some information, for example, how the kids will get home (very very important) that you need to know the first day of school. So here is my plan to avoid filling out forms in my doorway the first day of school:

First of all I am going to mail postcards as soon as I can get my class list. Last year I didn't get my class list until the day before school, so this wasn't possible. This year I know it will be considerably earlier so I am excited to send them out! On the postcard I will put a cute little message (to be determined..hopefully soon!) and I will put a label with our classroom website. You can visit that here.

Before I go any further I have to thank Abby for the top picture that I doctored up to go along with my website name:

Back to the point... So I have created a Student/Parent Information Form on Google Docs that I embedded on the first page of my website. Here is a screen-shot:

This form includes all the pertinant info (especially how will the kid get home!). I realize some people will not have access to Internet so I may have a few forms that will be filled out but 5 is better than 25!!!

Click here to see the form in its entirety, but please don't fill it in (its active!). Thanks :)

So, how do you do this you're wondering?! Let me walk you through these easy steps!

1. First you need a website of your own. I like weebly.com it is pretty easy, if you type in "free webpages" in Google tons will come up. Choose one your comfortable with and get started.

2. Go into Google Documents, click "Create New" then "Form" in the dropdown box. Your screen will look like this:

3. You can pick a template in the top left corner. Then add all the questions you want. Feel free to copy my questions!

4. When you are done, be sure to save!

5. Next, click "More Actions" in the top right of the screen. From that dropdown box choose "Embed". You will copy and paste this code onto your website!

It really is easy. I am hoping this will take away some stress from myself and parents on the first day. As you can see from my website it is under construction. There will be a page About Me that will show pictures and information about me for the students to see prior to meeting me. Also, I love the Wallwisher!! You can embed this on your page too and the kids can write little "post its"! Too cute!!

I finally did it!!

It took forever, and I will probably change it but.. I finally made a button for my blog!! Yay! I have to say I couldn't have done it without the help of this blog:





I am so glad I finally learned these steps. If you need help, click the link!! Now on to making a new, fun signature...

Back to School Giveaway!!

OMG!! Check out this giveaway from Erica Bohrer and other bloggy friends!! Click here to see the amazing prizes!

All this back to school fun is making me want to do some planning... We'll see... :)

IN ADDITION, to this wonderful contest you can get in on this other giveaway I just found here. This one is available to all...Check it out! I can't wait to see it!

I LOVE Joanns!!

Needed to get out of the house today, so I took the kids and ran over to Joann's for a look at the sale items (which were plentiful!). I got a ton of cool stuff...

These are apple chalkboards that can be hung pretty much anywhere. (They can them in a crayon shape too but I only got apples). $2.50 a piece! Too cute!

How about some tongue depressers that have shapes on top?! I got some last year with animal heads and this year they had multi-packs of 16 a bag (only $1 per bag). One pack came with stars, hearts, and balls. The other pack came with butterflies and flowers. Love them! These will be perfect for my new behavior management system that I am borrowing from another blog that I lost. But as soon as I have it ready I will post and hopefully will have found the original author that gave me the idea!!

And who could pass up chalk for $1! A big thing of sidewalk chalk with a couple small pieces too! Since I am going to have a chalkboard this year I had to grab this!

Last, but not least, when I got home I finished my bookcase project and added some chalkboard contact paper to some reading bins. The perfect labeling system!!

As you can probably tell, I am super excited about getting in my new room next week and getting to work!!

Fun work!

Today (during nap time) I got to work on a project I have been putting off. A couple of weeks ago I bought some small bookcases on Craigslist and was going to paint the sides with chalkboard paint and make each side a center location. I have been debating on chalkboard and magnetic paint or just chalkboard...then I found chalkboard contact paper and that made my decision for me because it was super cheap!! I found a six foot roll on Amazon for $6.

So today I finished one of the bookcases. I decided to put some cute school bus fabric I had leftover from last year on top. Then I took some leftover yellow ribbon and hot glued it to the edges. It turned out a lot cuter than I thought.

Unfortunately I ran out of ribbon and am trying to decide it I want to do something different on the other bookcase do I didn't finish that one.

This year I am going to have a big chalkboard in my room (along with the whiteboard). I think I am going to get chalkboard markers for the chalkboard contact paper and the boards...no smearing! Has anybody out there used them before?? Just want to make sure there fabulous before I shell out the cash.

This chalkboard contact paper can be cut into any shape and size, which makes it awesome!! Some of my leftovers are making great labels for my book bins!

Anyway, my internet is down so I am posting from my phone. Hopefully more fun postings soon :)

-Laura

Web Quest Time

It is Web Quest time and I have just finished uploading my "Telling Time Review Web Quest" on zunal.com. Normally I wouldn't be planning a Math unit for the last nine weeks of school the summer before but I am doing it for one of my graduate classes, so I don't mind so much!

I am planning to incorporate a Web Quest into all my science units this year. Last year when we did that Fish Web Quest the kids loved it, so if in no other subject Science and Social Studies will be Web Quest time!!

The Time Web Quest is actually a review of the unit with games and a little bit of interesting info for kids to read. I don't know if you have noticed but the Math Common Core Standards for 1st Grade are SHORT! The time standard is simply: Be able to tell time to the hour and half hour. Hey, I am not complaining...just saying SHORT! Anyway, click here to visit the Telling Time Review Web Quest.

If you would like a copy to the "Telling Time Web Quest Journal" and "Telling Time Web Quest Rubric" then click here and here.

Well, I hope you actually remember this post months down the road and get a chance to utilize this Web Quest. As I develop more quests I will be sure to share :)