Poetry in Our Classroom

I love using poetry in the classroom, but sometimes it feels like there isn't enough time!  I started by giving each student a poetry journal for their book bag:

Each week we cut out our poem, color it in and then glue it in our notebooks.

We would practice the poem when I handed it out and that would be it.  The students could read the poems during Independent Reading.

This year, I decided that wasn't enough.  I am going to create a poster for each poem and we now recite the poem together during Morning Meeting. 

 On a random note,  I decided to clean out underneath my kids cubbies.  They haven't been cleaned since I moved into the classroom 4 1/2 years ago.  Talk about wasted space!  And talk about your dusty materials - eww!

Here's the before picture:

And the after:

I was prompted to do this when my students were trying to put away their Fun Friday materials above the cubbies (and wayy above their heads).  I was so impressed and proud of them for taking care of their materials!  But I was a little nervous that the game boxes were going to pop open and rain down on their heads.  Right then, I decided I wanted to dedicate the bottom of these cubbies to materials that they can use during this free time:

So much better!  Way cleaner and much easier for my students to reach.

Behavior Management

First, I want to tell you that I have something BIG planned for you all tomorrow. BUT you need to be a follower of my Facebook, Twitter or TpT store to hear the announcement.

Seriously you don't want to miss it!! {And I am so excited about it!}

Now, onto behavior management.  Since I started teaching (a whopping 3 years ago), I have used a clip chart to track students behavior.  Here is an awful picture of it:

Each student has a clothespin with their class number on it.  All the students begin their day on the color green.  If a student shows positive behavior, they move their clip down to blue.  If they show more positive behavior, they move it down to the superstar.  The same goes for the other direction.  If a student is showing behavior that is not so positive, they move their clip to yellow, then orange, then red if the behavior continues.  

The students only move their clips one block at a time.  For example, if they are on green and do something good, I'll say "move your clip down" and they move it to blue.  However, if they then show a negative behavior, I will say move your clip up and their clip only goes to green.  The clips move a lot during the day, which show the students that their behavior is important all day long.

At the end of the day, the students fill out their behavior charts.  They have a weekly or monthly calendar with smiley faces.  Each student must color in their smiley face for the day that corresponds to where their clip is at the end of the day.

As you can tell from the picture, I use a lot of positive reinforcement in my class.  It is a rare day when a student moves past yellow.  If I see a child behaving incorrectly, I will praise the students around him/her for doing the correct thing.  It usually gets their attention!

At the end of the year this year, I decided to toss my clip chart.  It was falling apart and completely faded.  I wanted to stick with the same concept though.  The only thing I wanted to change was to move their clip up for positive behavior and down for negative behavior instead of vice versa.  I also wanted to add some word reminders on the posters.

Here is the brand new clip chart:

Yes, on my kitchen table.  I don't go into school much during the summer.  And, yes, it's polka dots!

You can grab it in my stores: 

{TpT}

{TN}

Phew, that was a lot of information.  Are you still with me?  Don't forget to check my Twitter, FB or TpT Store tomorrow for a BIG announcement!

Morning Routine

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the Morning Routine in my classroom.  One of the tools that I use for our morning routine are the posters below:

I use words and pictures as I have some students who have difficulty reading, especially in the beginning of the year.  I had a few people ask for the posters and...well...apparently I didn't save them on my computer!  Silly, silly me.  So I created some newer (nicer) ones to share.  They are on sale until Sunday night so check them out!

{TpT}

{TN}