Walking into the classroom, I see the teacher has put a question on the board. This is meant to be used for a journaling prompt for the kids. The question is “What do good leaders do?”. I thought that this was great, and a question that can be used to not only get children thinking about what a good leader does, but prompts them to then display it with their actions.
As the children file in they seem very relaxed and comfortable with their routine. This morning they were placing their library books in a purple milk crate, to be returned later that afternoon with their library time. Then they selected their lunch on the lunch chart, put their chair down and proceed to begin their journal.
I think the lunch chart is a great idea, and helps the teacher take attendance. You just use a wall pouch. Have a menu posted. Then there is a row for each lunch choice as well as a cold lunch row. The children’s names are on little cards on a table that is next to the chart. They pick up their name and place it on the lunch that they want. This teacher even has pictures of the food choices. GREAT!
As the day continued I was introduce to the word wall. Today they got to add new words; that they had been practicing on all week; onto their existing wall. They were so excited! The teacher used this time to review the words with the children.
After they were done, they got to play a game with fly swatters, where the teacher reviewed all of the words, as well as the classmate’s names, with the students. She chose to do boys verse girls, which ended up being quite competitive, but fun for all. Putting this into a game was a perfect way to engage the children and allow them more of a free time to help break up their long morning.
Work stations were next, and it was great to see how quickly the teacher had adapted what she was trying on day one of my visit. I remember on that day she stated she was not happy with how it was going, so to expect a change. I think I was just shocked to see how quickly she implemented it. The new system worked much better.
As the children file in they seem very relaxed and comfortable with their routine. This morning they were placing their library books in a purple milk crate, to be returned later that afternoon with their library time. Then they selected their lunch on the lunch chart, put their chair down and proceed to begin their journal.
I think the lunch chart is a great idea, and helps the teacher take attendance. You just use a wall pouch. Have a menu posted. Then there is a row for each lunch choice as well as a cold lunch row. The children’s names are on little cards on a table that is next to the chart. They pick up their name and place it on the lunch that they want. This teacher even has pictures of the food choices. GREAT!
As the day continued I was introduce to the word wall. Today they got to add new words; that they had been practicing on all week; onto their existing wall. They were so excited! The teacher used this time to review the words with the children.
After they were done, they got to play a game with fly swatters, where the teacher reviewed all of the words, as well as the classmate’s names, with the students. She chose to do boys verse girls, which ended up being quite competitive, but fun for all. Putting this into a game was a perfect way to engage the children and allow them more of a free time to help break up their long morning.
Work stations were next, and it was great to see how quickly the teacher had adapted what she was trying on day one of my visit. I remember on that day she stated she was not happy with how it was going, so to expect a change. I think I was just shocked to see how quickly she implemented it. The new system worked much better.