Groovy Educator

Calendar is a very important part of the day.  In my first grade class a student leader "teachers" calendar and I guide him or her as needed. On my Teachers Pay Teachers page, I made a set of blank calendars! They have multiple uses! TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS The blank calendars can be used as citizenship documentation in which each child colors a square in corresponding to his or her behavior that day (e.g. green, yellow, or red). They can be used to track weather, teach calendar skills, document how the students are feeling that day. You can even use them to write down your instructional focus for the week and the daily objectives. The can be used as a testing schedule or to mark which days your students go to various pull out programs (such as speech or ESL). They are great for creating your own homework calendars.  These are useful if you have children that need more challenging work or extra reinforcement at home.  If you take the ti...

Even though we are busy, busy, busy teaching the curriculum, it is very important to help the children develop listening skills.  Being a good listener is a life skill.  Many children these days have difficulty focusing and attending.  Everyday I do many short activities to augment these skills.  Being able to focus is an essential attribute of a good listener. My theory is that if children can focus intensely on technology (e.g computer game, X-Box, etc.),  they have the capacity to focus on other things (e.g. people). With that said, this is what I do... I never assume a child knows HOW to listen.  During circle time, I explicitly go over what a good listener looks like what a good listener does .  We role play and practice at the beginning of the year. I read Listen Buddy by Helen Lester .  This book really helps in explaining WHY it is important to listen.  We make a chart listing other reasons why it is important to listen....

Several years ago when I taught Kindergarten, I made a nursery rhyme powerpoint presentation for my class.  As we learned each rhyme I would color/highlight the rhyming words or whatever focus skill or sound pattern we were learning.  After the children memorized the rhyme, I recorded them reciting it and added it to the presentation. Each day we would review the powerpoint and each week it would grow  a wee bit longer with each new rhyme.  The children were highly engaged in the activity and it helped build their reading fluency.  I especially liked how we were able to quickly review each focus skill.  The nursery rhymes became my transitions in class.  Whenever we moved from circle time to our desks or our desks to circle time, we would recite a rhyme.  We would recite a rhyme while distributing materials.  Everything had a flow... If I had time I would do this again with first grade poetry.  I have to have the time to find ...

Calendar is a great time to review math skills.  This year I am using a write and wipe calendar instead of the pocket chart that I have used for years.  So far I like its flexibility... Instead of having the calendar filled out completely before the students arrived, I left it blank and we discussed how to put the numbers on the chart.  Today was August 22nd.  I pretended not to know where to put the twenty-two on the calendar.  Jokingly, I said why don't we put it here (pointing to the square where one should go.  This caught the students attention and they were very interested in this part of the lesson.  I liked making them think and then modeling the problem solving strategy of trial and error. After I told them that today was Wednesday, we determined that the twenty-two had to go in one of the squares in the column under Wednesday.  This helped orient the children to how the calendar is set up.  We decided together, while comparin...

  clip art courtesy of mycutegraphics.com TeachersPayTeachers Store Every Monday I have a quick circle time share session.  This is when the children can choose one thing they want to share about after being away for the weekend.  It takes about fifteen minutes but it saves so much time later in the day.  It is also an inspiration for writing stories/journals and can be used for classroom management.  When you are having a lesson and a student wants to share something off topic you can simply say, "I can't wait to hear more about that at our next share session." Usually I have a cute object we pass around the circle as we share.  The rule is that we should only hear the person holding the object.  This exercise is excellent in developing listening skills.  It also allows me to review our 5 Star Listening rules briefly after every weekend. Some of the items I have had children pass around in the past are as follows an old microphone...

  This is another view of the circle time area.  You can see that there is also a big book stand and white board for lessons.  Above our computers I have the IPICK chart from the Daily 5 (see post Daily 5, Like Totally or "Must Have" Books)   I strategically placed the computers by my reading table so that I will be able to monitor them easily while I still work with a small group.  The open floor area from circle time will also be used for Daily 5 centers.  I made sure that the floor area is close to the reading table as well as part of my classroom management plan. It is hard to see but in the back corner I have my office nook.  I like having my desk close to the reading table so I have everything I need to teach small group right there.  It also helps with planning by having my resources right by my desk and table. Back to Home Page