Donuts with Dad

We celebrated Donuts with Dad yesterday and it went really well.  We had a great turn-out!!! It really means a lot to our little ones to have their dads in the classroom.  This is a super quick post to share a little of what they did.  They colored these signs to leave on their desks for dad.

My 4 year old wanted to make one for daddy, so here is his cute little sign.

They also had a chance to interview their dads and then complete a fill-in-the blank writing piece about their dads.  They had a blast interviewing their dads and their writing turned out super cute!!!

There is a girl and boy version of the page above.

All the pages above are freebies, so you can click the any of the images above to download. 

Have a great weekend!!!

 

Mon-Star Behavior

The school year has gotten off to a great start and I love my sweet class, but right from the start I noticed something else about my little lovelies...they are extremely CHATTY!!! My usual systems of behavior management just weren't doing the trick for this group.  I really don't like whole group consequences. It's fine if they sit out from recess a min. or 2, but this group would have been sitting out far longer than that, and it's really not fair to the ones that are quiet. I mentioned my dilemma to my bloggy buddy Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers, and she shared this blog post from last year.   I loved her ideas and it really got my brain gears turning!

My classroom theme is monsters, so my chart definitely had to have a monster or 2 (or 4) on it.  I really liked Tonya's tally chart, and went with a very similar idea.  I decided to go with check marks and added the amount of recess they would lose at the top.  The recess time at the top is really just  a reminder for me during recess.  During the day, I simply put a check mark every time I have to redirect them for talking.  I keep it on a clip board, so it's handy during the day.   I like that the chart also provides me with an additional form of documentation. I also like that it's more private than a clip chart in the classroom.  The chart really seems to be doing the trick.   We also keep a citizenship chart in our Daily Folders, so this makes it easy to mark folders accordingly at the end of the day.  I simply write in how many check marks they received during the day.  If they manage to turn their behavior around, I do cross out checks on my chart.

Here is a pic of the chart.  It is editable, so you can add your students' names and even change or remove the recess time from the top. The blue portions show the editable fields.

I started with just the chart last week.  This week I knew I wanted to reward my students that didn't receive any check marks.  I decided to go with a mon-star punch card.  I will simply initial a monster at the end of the day if they have no check marks, Once the entire punch card is filled, they will receive a NO Homework pass.  I will probably give them a color changing pencil when they get 5 monsters complete.  The star counts as the 10th spot.

 

If you are in the same boat as me and want to give this a shot, they are both freebies.  You can click either image above to grab the documents. 

 

Early Finisher Calendars

This year is off to a great start, although I must admit it's hard for me to believe I'm already getting ready to start week 3!!!  Time just seems to fly by.  This year, I seem to have several students that finish before the rest of the class.  They do a fantastic job of getting a book from my Book Nook to read, but I believe my class is ready for me to introduce my Early Finisher Calendars.  I created these calendars this summer with exactly these students in mind.  I have already created August, September, and October.  They are already packaged together in my TPT store.  But, with time flying by as fast as it is, I better get a move on creating the next 3 in the set!  By the end of the year, I will have the entire year complete.

I'd love to give these away for free to the first 3 people that leave a comment.  PLEASE do not forget to leave your e-mail.  Now, off to grade a few papers before bed.