Classroom Management

                                                 I'm linking up with What a Teacher Wants. 
I found this great idea 
off of spend a day in second grade. I made her darling blurt chart. I hope this helps with those students who are always shouting out. It's a great chart to go with the book My Mouth is a Volcano. I have this book and I love it for students who shout out.

This is my tried and true behavior management system. Every year I start my behavior management with this clip chart. Of course I change it out every month for different things but I always start my year with this thing. The kids love it because they love watching their name move up. If I move one name it seems like all of them quiet down and try to get me to move their name as well. At the end of the day they each have a punch card. I give them one punch if they stay on ready to learn. If they move up they get more punches. Once their whole punch card is filled they get to choose a prize out of the prize box. I will be posting more behavior management ideas as the year goes on.  

Of course mine is all bees because my classroom is centered around  bees. Each saying is a bee theme. So they start on gathering honey. Then they can move up to be good, be better, be best, the hive is the top. As they go down the sayings say ouch, buzzz, the stinger, and stung.  I didn't  put  my system on a wall. I like to be able to move it, because we move around the room so it's portable. I can carry it to my back table. Or over to the rug. That way my kids can see it at all times. I put it on foam board so it's more sturdy too. 

Power Hour

I thought I would share how we do our rotations in our room. We have four rotations. Two in the morning and two in the afternoon. I like that way better, that way the kids aren't doing four rotations at one time.  We have seat work, vocabulary, table, center. Each rotation lasts 20 minutes.Each center is part of the daily five. center 1 is word work, center 2 is spelling, center 3 is listening center, and center 4 is reading/writing center. The bottom picture is how we group each of the groups. To make it easier on the students we put a black paper that covers the two rotations. First graders would be overwhelmed with reading four rotations. So this makes it much easier for them to see where they're supposed to be.             

Afternoon rotations for the blue group. (sorry it's so blurry)

Morning rotations for the blue group.

At each center we have a basket of books, in case they get done early with their rotation. They can read books until it is time to rotate. We were having problems with scissors missing at the centers so we used shoelaces to tie the scissors to the basket. Now every center has a pair of scissors. (My colleague came up with this great idea).

Each center has a number so all of the students know where to go.

How do you organize your centers?

Tell Me Something Good!

I'm linking up with Rowdy In First. She is having a linky party on being positive. I need this right now in my life. Sometimes I feel like at the beginning of school I get so bogged down with all the hustle and bustle. That I forget to look at the positive. 

Something good at home:  My youngest brother just turned 24 and we celebrated his birthday tonight. It was so nice to spend time with him and actually talk to him in person. I don't see him much because he works swing shift and is in college. He's a hardworking guy. So it was nice to hang out with him. Also we have a church program tomorrow and my son has a speaking part (he's only 5). We worked all day on it and he has it memorized. I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to see him up in front of everyone speaking.                                                                                                                           Something good at school: I started teaching first grade this year. I have taught second grade for 8 years ( I LOVE LOVE LOVE Second grade). All summer I have been dreading going down. I was really worried about how I was going to manage kids even younger than second graders. But I'm going to admit it. I actually think I really like First Grade. I can't believe I said it. But they're so cute, kind, and just sponges. I think it's going to be a pretty great year.

A few giveaways you might want to know about The Teacher Idea Factory is having an awesome giveaway right now. Which I so need. I feel like writing is where I am lacking.

Rowdy in Room 300 and Sensational Seconds are both giving away a laminator that has my name on it. So pretend like you didn't see this post. :)