Schedule Spotlight Series #1 and #2

Oooh...what a great linky! I love "visiting" other classrooms and seeing how their schedule works. Kelli at Castles and Crayons is having a Schedule Spotlight Series this summer. I just stumbled upon it, so I'm going to "catch-up" and post about the first two topics at once (hope that is okay). Better than breaking the rule of more than one post a day, right? :-)

Okay, the first topic was Morning Work. I have taught for three years and done something different each year...searching for a good solution.

 

My first year, the students came in and found a worksheet of some kind waiting for them on their desk...such as Minute Math or Daily Language Review. I *hated* this! Too much grading--and my kiddos who struggled would potentially have 5 pages at the end of the week that they needed to correct. Ugh!

 

My second year, I used the Correct the Sentence daily journals. I liked these better than the worksheets, but they were a bit hard for the beginning of the year for my first graders. Then I noticed the kids started "guessing" more than thinking... They would turn them in to me after rewriting the incorrect sentence so I would make editing marks to help them figure out the problems. I felt like a mean teacher when I started just handing them back with a shake of my head...

 

Last year, I started the Daily 5. I decided to skip the "morning work" and instead started my first round of D5 immediately. I met with my high group first and left them an activity at the back table that they could start on while I did attendance and checked the agendas where they write in their homework. I loved not having any "busy work" to grade, but it was kind of weird not having my morning meeting until after one round of Daily 5.

 

Next year, I'll be changing it up again. At my new school, the kids will be coming in at different times due to busing and the timing of breakfast. I'll be reading up on this linky and forming a plan as we get closer to school starting.

 

This week's topic is Calendar.

 

The past few years, I have had a calendar helper who leads our calendar time. The calendar helper gets to have my stuffed dog, Duke, help him or her. We go through the normal calendar things...month, date, days of school, money, time, etc. At the end of calendar time, if the helper gets to choose someone to take care of Duke for the day. The kids love calendar time, but I get bored with it...

 

So, again, I'm changing it up for next year. My new school uses Saxon Math and "The Meeting" is an important part of it. I was so excited to find:

 

 

This is how Hope King (2nd Grade Shenanigans) makes "The Meeting" a not so typical morning meeting. Her post inspired me... It makes even me excited for calendar time! :-)

 

I'll be working on my Meeting bulletin board, but like Hope, I want to do some of the activities on the Smartboard to make it more engaging and free up space. I'll have to share more about that when I get it all organized.

 

Well, I don't know about you all, but all these great linkys are making it really hard for me to get anything done around here! Go link up and share your schedule with us!

 

I'm headed out for some pool time. Yeah!

 

Have a great day!

 

Crystal

 

P.S. If you use Saxon and have anymore tips and/or suggestions for me, I'd love to read them.