One Week Down...

quite a few left to go.... I'm not very good with dates and such but I figure about 34???  What day is it?  October??   Anyhoo, just a quick post.  I've been working hard at school (as all teachers do) every day until well past the last bell and then on the weekends too.  Although it's harder to get things done when there's a little person yelling at you every 2 1/2 to 3 hours that they want to be fed.  But Back to School Night is Wed. and I hope to come back with a vengeance and lots of pictures of the cool things I picked up from Pinterest for my class!  As my boy would say (while giving me the "stop in the name of love" hand)...

"be back".

Crafty Teachers

So Pinterest made me think about all the good ideas that other teachers have but never get to share or even create because we're soooo busy!!  So, I invited a couple Crafty Chicas (who also happen to be teachers) over to share good ideas and work on a project.  First, I had to get them all hooked on Pinterest... trust me, it's not hard to do.  Then, one of my fave crafty teachers, (my work wifey) JWade, and I worked on creating THIS PROJECT.  Here's how ours turned out....

JWade 

Me

Not too bad, right?   Actually, JWade changed hers up a bit in the end... I personally think she should've kept the Lima Bean nose and sassy eyebrows.  And I'm BUMMED because those were the only pictures I took!  But I promise there were more sassy ladies there and we had SO. MUCH. FUN.  Thanks girls for the great day!  Let's plan the next Crafty Teacher Chica Day soon!  =)

Math Warmup

Okay, so last night I apparently drowned myself in Coca Cola at dinner and paid the price with the inability to go to sleep (I saw 3am how about you?).  So this is the math warmup I made at 1:45am. My hope is that the kiddos will fill this out every day when they get started on math (ideally after recess or lunch so it's waiting on their desks for them). I'll give them like 5 minutes to complete, pick one or two of the things to go over whole group and then they will put it in their Bobcat Binders under the Math section to keep. When we start doing test prep, I plan on copying the math questions for the day onto the back of this paper so then the activity time would be more like 10 minutes so they can fill out both sides. What do you think?  I plan on changing up the calendar each month and the calendar question daily.  Also, I am totally freaking out and can't figure out FOR THE LIFE OF ME how to save this as a jpeg or how to embed in my blog... any help would be GREATLY appreciated!  So for now I tried just taking a screenshot and embedding the picture....  AMATEUR!  =)

Terrific Transitions

I originally heard about using a music box for behavior management from a friend when I was in the credential program.  The idea was to wind the music box every morning.  When you needed the kids' attention or they were being too loud you opened the box.  The music would play and children would magically pay attention... I'm only being half-sarcastic.  If there was music left in the box at the end of the day the kids would get a letter for a secret message (think Wheel of Fortune).  Once they solved the puzzle, they would get the prize that the puzzle spelled (extra recess, popsicle party...).  If they ran out of music during the day they lost their letter.  Also, I would rewind the box during the day if they ran out of music and that was their music for the rest of the day AND the next day!  Bummer for them...  I used it for a couple years and then it kind of went by the wayside when my music box bit the dust.  =(  sad day.

Since then, I've tried clapping patterns, counting down, "One, Two, Three, Eyes on me...", "Class, Class?", ... you name it, I've tried it.

Anyway, I'm thinking of bringing the whole thing back.  But I think I like how Kris at I {Heart} Teaching does it better....  At any rate, she does a much better job of explaining her way.  =)  What do you think?  What transition tactic works best for you?