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. :)

Name-O

I've started teaching first grade and can I just say how much I love it... The kids are so sweet. They want to hold my hand and hug me all day long. They are just adorable. One of the activities we have been working on is called Name-O. My kids love this activity. I did this activity with my second graders last year and they loved it too. I made a file folder with the words NAME-O written on the front and I cut a slit in the front of it. Every day I choose three students names. I have all my students stand up. I pick one of their names and I slide their strip through the hole. One letter at a time. When I show the first letter. I have all the students who's name doesn't start with that letter sit down. I pull the name out of the slit slowly to only show each letter at a time. If a child has the same first and second letter in their name they keep standing until my class is able to figure out who's name it is. Then I have that child come to the front and we sing the song together. Putting their name in the blanks.  I'm going to use the example Michael. The song goes like this:

There is a boy/girl in our Second grade Class and Michael is his name-o. M-i-c-h-a-e-l, M-i-c-h-a-e-l, M-i-c-h-a-e-l and Michael is his name-O. It's to the tune Of BINGO. How do you teach names in your class?

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If you would like a copy of the strips of papers I use. I put them in my TPT shop. You can just click on the picture above and it will take you . 

Freebie Friday!!!

   I'm so excited to share this birthday freebie with you. This is how I celebrate birthdays in my classroom. For this birthday activity, you have two options: first you could print page 2 and have the birthday child cut it out. Or option 2, you could have the birthday child cut out page 3 and color it to their liking. Page 4 are sparkle statements. I place one strip on each child’s desk. They have to write a sparkle statement to that child on their birthday. I tell the kids I don’t want them to write Suzy is nice. I want them to think of good qualities about that specific child. We usually have a lesson before. Then when they are finished with their sparkle statement they bring it to my back table. I usually do this first thing in the morning. I make the strips into a chain. I attach the chain to the picture of the cake. If your going to print this off. I would suggest using card stock because it's flimsy without. :). My students have always loved this activity. If you want  to grab a copy of this click on the picture!
 

If your looking for some more FREEBIES check out my TPT Store. I have a lot of them!!

                                My cutie N he didn't really like being the example but he was a good sport. 

Check out Falling Into First to link up with your birthday ideas.

Therapeutic Thursday

How do I unwind on a stressful day? Well first I am the type of person that has to talk it out. My mom and I are very close and I usually talk to her almost EVERY day! She is so supportive. I also have to say that my husband is such a great listener as well. He gets me. He just knows the right thing to say in any circumstance. I'm very lucky to have him.                                                                            

Have you ever eaten at Kneaders? I absolutely LOVE Kneaders. I don't think they're in every state but there are a lot of them here. They have the best food. I love their Turkey Cranberry  Salad. Plus it has tryptophan in it so it helps on those stressful days when I just need to go to bed. 

Plus you can't resist one of these. I always tell myself it's okay because I had a salad right?

My exercise of choice. It reminds me of the days of when I used to dance. I love dancing.

Who doesn't love to shop to unwind.  How do you unwind?

Where I teach Wednesday.

 My room is finally done for the most part. We came back from Summer Vacation and it took a lot of cleaning on our part to get things ready. My classroom is all bees. I love the black and yellow look. I'm so lucky to work part-time. I work on Thursdays and Fridays and rotate every Wednesday. My partner teacher is AMAZING!! I love her. This is her last year, she is retiring at the end of this year :(. So if anyone is looking to go part-time with me come apply. I really want to stay part-time at least until my two little ones are in school. 

You may be wondering WHAT FIRST GRADE???? Yeah me too. We found out we're teaching first grade. However. I will still be posting second grade stuff too. Because I LOVE SECOND and I really hope next year I might be able to go back. 

Don't you love vinyl lettering. It's so adorable. My teaching partner found these sayings.

Found these darling bee lights on Etsy. 

Front of the room. 

We handed these out at back to school night. I used my template below and wrote. We're pleased to pieces that you will (bee) in our classroom this year. They were a hit with the kiddos. I love me some REESES. 

Back of the room. Don't mind the mess on the back table. 

We call this area the hive. I love our kiva. My dad built it for us. I do a lot of teaching from this area. See that fan. Yeah we don't have air conditioning. So the next month is going to be HOT!! I feel so bad for the kiddos when it's HOT!
What's your favorite thing in your classroom?