Classroom Tour

Here is a tour of my classroom this year:

 

The first set of pictures shows the whole room.  UGGHHHHH on the colors of my blinds .......Crystal did them (I am now in her room this year) and I love them except she used KU colors (they should have been purple)!!!  I am a KSTATE fan!  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the baskets that I have in the middle of their desks.  They have pencils, erasers, germ-x, white boards and markers with pom-poms on them as erasers.  I found the pom-poms idea at Fifth Grade Frenzy and they work great!

 

 

These are my frog theme birthday straws.

 

My frog behavior chart

This is my chart where students pick a prize after having 10 good days.  They just put their clothespin on what they want.

 

Our cool book boxes this year.  Last year we had cardboard book boxes and this year we have plastic ones.  Notice they are purple!!!  :-)  YAY!!

Our Daily 5 Board (not much on it yet), we are still in training to do it.

 

My reading group area with my cat litter container seats that I made this summer

 

Calendar Area

Math Manipulative area

 

Mountain Language area with worksheets in the baskets

 

Lunch and Milk Count area.  Students move his/her stick to take lunch and milk count.

 

Our Morning Routine Freebie on tpt that I use every morning.

 

Job Chart

 

Also my mystery walker sign that I found at What Happens in First Grade

 

My Secret Student sign that I got at What Happens in First Grade

 

Rules and points that I give the students throughout the day for doing good things

 

My whole brain teaching posters

 

 

Area where students turn in their work.  They highlight their name before they turn it in.  The one on the right is where they turn in their homework.  They find their clothespin and put it on their paper.  This makes it easy for me to quickly see who did and didn't get homework done.

 

 

Work Folder-this is where the students put any work that isn't done or needs corrected.  My co-teacher's mom sewed them for us and did a fantastic job.  I love them!

 

 

 

My gym shoe and water bottle holder.  I had seen baskets put under chairs at Kindertrips and loved the idea.  So, when looking at our student chairs, I decided to use containers I already had and bungee cord them under the chairs.  This has given the students a great place to keep their shoes for gym class.  I also decided that I didn't like having water bottles on the desks because they take up too much room.  So I found holders and attached them with zip ties. 

 

Hope you have a great and restful 3 day weekend! 

 

 

 

 

HELP! Classroom Behavior Chart

Well, I found one of our dogs playing with something out in our backyard the other day.  I couldn't tell what it was (my eyesight isn't the best-I should be wearing my glasses).  Anyways, I casually walked over to him, leaned over to see what it was.  It took me a minute and then I realized that it was a .........SNAKE!!!!!  YUCK!!  Thought, I'd share the pictures.  :-)

 

We live at the edge of town and there is a river just a little ways from our house.  So, we sometimes come across these lovely critters in our yard.  :-(

 

OK now on to school stuff.  In the past, I have had a frog theme in my classroom.  My behavior chart was frogs that hopped on leaves if they broke a rule.  Each leaf would have a consequence on it that they would have to do if they moved his/her frog.  Last year, I decided to go with the clip chart that many are now doing (in the picture below).  On this chart, students can move up for positive behaviors and move down for breaking rules.  I liked that it had a positive to it as well as the consequence.  I felt though that I wasn't as consistent with it as I was with my frogs hopping in the past.  With this chart, I also had a hard time with the moving up on it. I used it often, but I didn't like that I knew that some students may have been doing the same positive thing that I had another student move up for and I may have not seen them.  

 

 

I have seen some blogs where they were going to switch to this type of chart, but decided not to and they just added a positive to their existing behavior chart.  So, I need help from anyone who has used this type of behavior management or if you have added a positive to your behavior chart.   What have you done?  How do you use it?  If you use this type of chart, what things did you look for to have them move up on it?  How many steps do you have on it?  I would really love to have feedback on this because I'm trying to figure out if I will still use it next year and if so I need to determine how I will use it so that I am more consistent with it.   Thanks for all the ideas!