Meet Lily (and an ABC Center Idea)!

At the beginning of the year I knew I wanted to have classroom jobs.  I decided on the jobs before my kiddos started.  My jobs include: Line Leader, Door Holder, Caboose, Teacher's Helper, Messenger, Center Inspector, Scrap Monster, Supply Star, Librarian, and Gardener.

For the longest time, I didn't have a gardener because I was too lazy to get a plant!  I finally went to Kroger and bought a mini rose plant on sale.  I have a serious brown thumb and kill EVERY house plant I own.  I have much more luck with my gardens outside which is nice for my neighbors. :) 

Today I introduced the plant to my kinder friends and we brainstormed a list of names.  In the end, we decided on Lily.  Here are some of the other ideas my friends came up with.  Just for entertainment!
Rosie, Plant-Plant, R2D2, Beyblade, Plantie, and C3P0.  (Can you tell I have a lot of boys in my class?)  So without further ado, here is LILY!

Please cross your fingers for us that Lily survives and thrives in Room 24!

In other news, I've been trying to think of some multisensory center ideas and saw this pattern block activity on Pinterest. 

Source: makinglearningfun.com via Emily on Pinterest

I printed out the sheets and mounted on red construction paper.  I also added ABC flashcards that I printed free from ABCTeach.com.  My students will use pattern blocks to "build" the letters and then practice their phonics chant for each letter.  For example, "R, /r/, rabbit!"  Here is what I ended up with for this ABC center:

I'm sorry they are sideways.  I've tried a million (aka 4) times to rotate them and they are rotated everywhere except when uploaded to blogger!  As you can see, I have some cutting to do since I just laminated them.  Any volunteers?! ;)

Classroom Management Monday!

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!  I spent the weekend at a cabin in the woods and it was wonderful!  We hiked, played games, visited, made s'mores, and had fun with family.  It felt good to get away from the "city" life for a weekend and just RELAX.  I didn't have ANY cell phone service and it was kind of nice.


I thought for Monday I could share a few of the management techniques I use with my kindergartners.  I teach kindergarten intervention so most of my students are behind....emotionally, socially, academically, behaviorally, etc.  I want to have a system for individual students as well as a whole group system.  This is what I decided on and it has been working great!


My clip chart.  I know there are mixed opinions on these, but my kids love it and it works very well for us.  Each student starts the day "good on green" and has the chance to move up to blue for making good choices, and can move up even higher to purple for having an outstanding day.  If a student is making poor choices, they move down to yellow as a warning.  I always remind students on yellow that they have the ability to "change their ways" and go back up to green.  However, if they continue to make bad choices, they move down to red and I send a note home about their day.  (I also send a note home when a student moves up to purple.)  The kids get very motivated by seeing other students move up.  I've also found that when a student is on yellow, the rest of the class does a good job of reminding that student to make better choices.  (So cute!!)  Here is a picture of my chart.  Click the picture to download the file.  I just printed each page on colored paper, mounted on matching construction paper, and laminated the whole thing.

For whole group management, I wanted to come up with a strategy that  allowed students to work as a group to earn something.  I decided to use the "marbles" technique because it is simple, cheap, and effective.  To go along with our star theme, I call our marbles "star stones".  Every time I catch the class working hard and following directions, I add a star stone.  When we fill up the jar, the entire class will get a reward (I haven't decided what yet)!  I usually give the students an idea of when I'm thinking I might add a star stone if they aren't all on task.  This is another time when they work well together and remind each other to do a good job to earn star stones.

What classroom management strategies work for your kids?  What have you tried that didn't work?