Bright Ideas?? We've Got 'Em!

Bright Ideas for those bright kiddos in your classroom… we've got 'em!

This is a HUGE blog hop I'm participating in (over 140 bloggers!) that is chalk full of different ideas to implement in the classroom environment. The ideas range from things with technology to how to utilize that hallway "lull" time to classroom management idea to bulletin board decor ideas and SO much more.

My specific post is going to deal with a variety of classroom management techniques. Below, I'm going to tell you about ways to get those brain breaks in (and where to find good ones), ways to use (positive) behavior markers in the classroom, and a variety of other things! After reading my post, there will be a link to the ENTIRE blog hop where you can scan through and check out other blogs for some bright ideas. Like I said, there are OVER 140 bloggers participating, so you're bound to find some fantastic ideas.

In our classroom, we work, work, work ALL day long. So, I like to break it up every once in a while and do a brain break! This is where you give your students' brains a literal break. You do some sort of fun, get-them-moving activity to help them rejuvenate themselves. You know when you're working on something and you just need a 15 minute break??? Yup, it's the same way with kiddos!

We use quite a few different things when it comes to brain breaks. Some incorporate technology while others do not.

Our favorite brain break right now is the website, Adventure to Fitness.

{Adventure to Fitness}

I have NEVER seen such an amazing website that encourages students to get up and MOVE. We do these every once in a while and MAN do my kiddos get into it. While we're on the second floor, the classroom below us probably doesn't enjoy when we complete these activities, but it gives my students that break that they need to encourage them to get back into the game once we have completed our brain break.

We also love to use the Cranium Brain Breaks set.

{Cranium Brain Breaks}

When I moved into my classroom, the teacher before me had left this behind. The kids LOVE the activities where they get to either A) act out the cards or B) draw out the cards. This group of kids I have absolutely LOVES drawing on my whiteboard. They want to be the teacher a lot of the time just so they simply can draw on the board. It's hilarious! So, I make sure to include the brain breaks where they ARE allowed to draw on the whiteboard or SMARTBoard. 

We also love to do the "old" activities… Simon Says, Charades, Heads Up 7 Up, and so forth. These require NO technology or tools… just your bodies & your brains. My children LOVE to play Simon Says. It's funny that when I was young, I loved to play that SAME game, and we're now in 2014 and it's still a popular game. I love how some games just carry on, regardless of the time.

What Brain Breaks do YOU like to do in your classroom with your children?

When you see the terms "Classroom Management," what do you think of? Positive things or negative things?? In our classroom, I like to do positive discipline more than I do negative discipline… although I DO have a method for the negative discipline in our classroom, too (behavior chart). My class this year is CHATTY. If you know me, you know I am the chattiest person alive… but I am NOTHING compared to my kids. They could talk all day long about anything if I would let them!

But, I try to give those who follow the directions, listen throughout the day, and so forth the positive reinforcement that they desire because they DID do what was required of them.

In third grade, we use a behavior chart. This behavior chart has cards for green, yellow, orange, and red. Every single child starts the day out on green. Our rules are posted in the back of the room. Students do know that if they don't follow the rules (no talking when someone else is talking, no talking during tests, stay seated unless directed otherwise, listening and following the directions given/written, etc), they have 3 warnings and then they move down to yellow. After yellow, they move to orange. After orange, they move to red. I've had to give out several reds this year for behavior during fire drills, but not because of behavior in the classroom - it's amazing! 

Each level has it's own discipline method that is assigned - for example, if moving to yellow, it's considered a warning. They lose 5 minutes at recess to reflect over what happened in the classroom. If moving to yellow, they lose 10 minutes of recess and they must fill out a discipline sheet stating what they did wrong and how they can fix it. This gives them ownership over their actions. Finally, if they move to red, a variety of things happen. Students must fill out discipline sheet, lose all of their recess (although I end up giving them a few minutes off the bench so they can get their energy out), a note is sent home, and they sit by themselves at lunch (cannot sit with group). 

This is our way to show students that everyone starts fresh each day, but based upon your actions, it can change or it can stay the same. Regardless of the color, though, students know that I must sign their behavior chart stating what happened in a few short words. The whole story is up to them to explain - it's that responsibility thing we're trying to reinforce like crazy this year!

Now that you've seen the negatives side, the positives are my favorite. We have a variety of positive reinforcement type things happening in our classroom. One of them is homework club.

Students are given the opportunity to be part of homework club at the beginning of every month. Depending upon whether or not they turn in their homework the next day is whether or not they stay in! For the ENTIRE month, if they turn in their homework on time and every day, they receive some sort of prize. In the past, I've given out homework passes, "no shoes day"where students can walk around without shoes on (yuck, but they love it!), extra recess, and in December, I gave the entire class a "board game day" where they could bring their own boardgames to play for about an hour the last week of school. They LOVED it! This homework club has been a HUGE motivator to my kiddos and I am so thankful for the idea from Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics. It has worked like a charm!

Besides homework club, we've also got our star chart! 

{Sorry for the blurry picture… clearly I'm not a photographer!}

This is new this quarter but it's working like a charm, too. If a student stays on green ALL day long, they get a star at the end of the day. Those with stars across the board by the end of the quarter (which is in 5 weeks), they receive a $5.00 gift card to ToysRUs from ME. How awesome of a prize is that?! They are LOVING the fact that I am the one that has to shell out the money, but it's a way to reward those who are doing well. Those who are not doing so well are realizing that they need to shape up in one way or another because they will not receive the gift card if they receive 5 or more yellows/oranges/reds throughout the quarter. My children that are typically chatty-Cathies or those that are always not following the directions are quickly realizing how serious I am about these gift cards and that those who ARE behaving and doing as they are asked will be rewarded for it. To make this star chart, I used a blue incentive chart and gold star stickers. The fact that they're GOLD stars is what gets my kiddos… who wouldn't want a gold star?!

Another positive reinforcement tool I use is homework passes. I made my homework passes on Vistaprint, which is quickly becoming one of my best friends for teacher supplies :)

I randomly pass these out and they're good for one sheet of homework - whether it be their reading log response, a math sheet, a religion activity, whatever they would like (except study guides/take home tests and projects). They LOVE getting these and they know that I randomly hand them out. The looks on their faces when I DO hand them out is priceless… it's like they had won the lottery for children! The homework passes can come in groups of 1 or I may pass out 5 at a time… they NEVER know. But, it's those who had behaved all day and followed all directions as given that receive them the most often. I do absolutely *LOVE* it when a student who typically doesn't follow directions decides to turn his/her act around and then they receive a pass - the look on THEIR faces is amazing and truly makes it worth it.

Finally, we have our Party Puff jar.

I did a post on this during the Monday Made It series throughout the summer, but I'm bringing it back into light. This is a simple, easy, and effective way to keep your kiddos engaged in your lessons with a reward at the end. This method is actually a whole class method. What the party puff jar is is when my students receive some sort of compliment from another teacher or myself, they receive 1 party puff. If someone that is "higher up" such as our Principal or Vice Principal gives a compliment, then each student gets to put a party puff in (so 22 party puffs).

When they fill the jar completely to the top (all 100 party puffs have been used), they receive some sort of party! This party can be a movie party, a board game party, a popcorn party… anything we want it to be because THEY earned it by behaving outside and inside the classroom.

My students do know if they receive a compliment that they need to come tell me, but they know that they cannot ask if they received party puffs for a compliment. They know that if they received a compliment, that equals party puffs and that I surely will NOT forget. This shows them that they are grateful for the compliments and that they should not expect a reward - but that a reward will be applied if they behave appropriately. Does that make sense??

My kids LOVE this and love telling their parents about it - I get e-mails often about receiving party puffs in class! Such a cool tool :)

So, what kind of classroom management things do YOU do in your classroom? I'd love to hear y'all sound off in the comments below - I'm always looking for new ideas!

Rae from Mindful Rambles is one to check out next! In my class, I've got two kiddos who use fidgets to keep them on track and they work WONDERS. I sometimes catch myself playing with the fidgets as I'm talking, too. Rae has made a post on how to use fidgets in your classroom. Click on her button below to head on over for some great fidget ideas!

To hop around to other blog posts, click on any of the links below. It's divided into bright ideas for LOWER GRADES and bright ideas for UPPER GRADES - so you can find what you need!

February Already?!

HOLY cannoli! Where did the month of January go??

I feel like the last five months have FLOWN by and I'm kind of actually sad about it… because that means my kiddos will be moving to 4th grade soon! And if y'all don't know… my first year started with the absolute BEST class possible. They are great kiddos - very bright, fun, and each have their own personalities that I love to death.

Regardless… it's now February!! Here's to another great month at home and at school :)

I'm linking up as usual with Ms. Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for her Currently linky!

Listening - I'm watching a movie I loooove on ABC Family - Holes! And listening to my puppies play tug in the kitchen. I'm so happy they get along so well… sometimes they don't but most of the time they do!

Loving - being in the South, I would not expect snow days. BUT we got that horrible ice storm and it paralyzed our city. We don't have the means down here to be able to "dig ourselves out" - no salt, no beet juice, nothing. So, when it hit, there wasn't much we could do about it but stay home and not venture out. Those that did realized how dangerous the ice was and turned right back around to go home. But we were given 3 snow days and MAN I couldn't have been more excited - nothing reminds me of home like snow days! :)

Thinking - we're going to a Mardi Gras Ball for the Coast Guard on the 21st and I FINALLY got my dress yesterday!! It's yellow and has jewels all throughout the upper bodice and on the straps. It's absolutely beautiful and will match Cody's uniform like no other! I'm SO excited.

Wanting - again, being in the South, we are SO not used to these freezing temps. We had lower 20s and upper teens throughout the week, yet this weekend, we're going to reach the 70s! I am SO excited because this is my favorite weather and I would love to stay in the 70s year round.

Needing - I have SO many different units started full of activities I've done in my own classroom… I just need to fine tune them and put them together… but I'm so lazy and when it comes to time after work, all I want to do is sleep! I just need to sit down and do it!!

2 Truths & a Fib - One of these is a fib and if y'all know me, y'all know which one it is! Read below to find out.

-My fav movie is The Lucky One - TRUTH! This is one of my favorite movies because it so hits home with me. I love the storyline and the fact that it deals with the military, it gets me every time. Love me some Zac Efron, too! Yummy!

-I strongly dislike elephants - FIB! If y'all know me, y'all know I absolutely LOVE elephants. If I could, I'd have an elephant living in my backyard. I've always dreamed of living on huge farm land where I could have my own elephant - while this dream would probably never come true, I imagine that the elephant would be BFFs with my puppy like Bubbles and Bella or Tarra and Bella.

-When I was little, I wanted to be a dentist - TRUTH! I loved the thought of being a "scientist" (I thought because it dealt with science that it was considered being a scientist) and being able to help people smile. I loved that my dentist was sooo friendly to me and it made an impression. But then, one day I went to shadow my dentist and man, I hated it. It was so much grossness and I honestly sucked at science. SO, that's when I decided to be an interior designer which turned into a teacher - my true calling :)

SO, what are you currently into? Link up over at Farley's blog & share it with the world! :)

A Day Our Way - A Schedule Linky!

Have you ever wondered what other teachers' days were like? How they divided up their day in order to maximize the amount of learning for our students? Well, this linky hosted by Amelia from Where the Wild Things Learn will tell you all about that - across a variety of grade levels and in different states!

I'll be honest, at our school… our schedule from day to day is NOT the same. Some days I do some stuff, other days, I don't. It's crazy how it all works itself out in the end, but I chose to show you my Wednesday schedule since it's similar to every other day… just a few differences. 

Every morning, we start with morning assembly. All students gather in the gym starting at 6:30 AM until 7:50 AM when that bell rings. We have morning assembly for about 10 minutes where we go over lunch for the day, announcements that the whole school needs to know about, and a few prayers. We also recite our mission statement as an entire school so that we all know what we represent DAILY at our school.

Morning Work - every morning, I have my kiddos start the day with some sort of morning work. It can be math aligned or ELA aligned… just something to get my kiddos started with the day academically. Some example activities are rhyming activities, multiplication activities, word searches that deal with our science topics, and so on.

Special (Gym) - we have gym every day of the week. The only day that it is not one of the first things in the morning is on Fridays… in which we have it after church around 10:30 AM. This is a nice wake up time because the kids get to run around and play for a half hour before we start our true day.

Mathematics - this is my math block I have set aside every day except for Fridays (it's after lunch on Fridays because of church in the morning). This hour block is great for our introduction of the lesson, the meat of the lesson which is doing, and then a wrap up. It's a great time because it allows students plenty of time to "implement" the lesson with manipulatives, whiteboards, and so forth. On Thursdays and Fridays, we have center time where students complete task cards, Scoot games, SmartBoard games, or games on the iPad. I'm going to also start implementing the computers as a station so that the kiddos can play games on a variety of mathematics websites. Giving this much time towards math allows my students the time to use the tools without being rushed. It also allows me the time to observe students and see who may need the extra help during that time or during the time the next day.

Snack time - we're required to have snack time so my kiddos get 15 minutes to eat a snack and have a quick restroom break.

Religion - since I teach at a Catholic school, I'm also the religion teacher for my kiddos. I spend this time going over our daily lesson and it allows for a review of the previous day if necessary.

Special (Spanish/Art) - my class is split into two groups… one group stays in Spanish for an hour this week and then switches to Art the next week for the full hour. This is also true of the other group who stays in Art for the hour this week and switches to Spanish for the next week for the full hour. It's a great time for students to unwind and it comes as a nice break for my kiddos after having done mathematics.

DEAR Time - I have it scheduled into our daily routine to have at LEAST 15 minutes of DEAR (drop everything and read) time. This is where students read independently - can be a chapter book, picture book, their science or social studies books, etc. As long as they are READING. I find great value in free reading, where students are not required to complete an activity, because it helps students develop interests in different types of books - genres, formats, etc.

Lunch/Recess - Students have 25 minutes to eat lunch by the time we make it through the line and then they have 25 minutes out at recess. The other 10 minutes is transitioning time. We, as teachers, do not have lunch duty so that we can eat our own lunches, but we do have recess duty.

Reading (Centers) - I do reading Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in our classroom as whole group/small groups. On Mondays, we read a basal story and then complete some sort of vocabulary activity. Outside of the reading on Mondays, we also do spelling and grammar, both separately, but make sure that students understand the grammar topic and the spelling pattern for the week. BUT, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we have reading centers. I have it set up to where I have 4 different reading groups based on ability. I meet with 2 groups on Tuesdays and the other 2 on Wednesdays. While I am working with specific groups, my other students are working on spelling activities, grammar activities, and writing activities. This allows us to cover 4 subjects in a small amount of time as well as allow students to work independently on their own work - a great time for myself to assess the learning of students!

Science - I am the Science teacher for both my class (3B) and the other 3rd grade class (3A). I teach Science on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. While it's a relatively short time, we manage to cover quite a bit of material in such a short time. I have grown to LOVE science and I think my students have, too. There are loads of resources out there to make science learning fun!

Pack Up/DEAR Time - At 2:30 every day, we pack up. We've shortened our pack up time from 15 minutes down to 5 minutes. It's great because then we have another DEAR session, but this time, I'm reading to them. We finished the book "Because of Winn Dixie" just after we came back from break and we are now reading "The BFG." OH. MY. GOODNESS. My students are in LOVE with the story. Every page captures their attention and they all have so many different questions that I cannot answer them all AND make sure we get a chapter read each day! Along with having my students independently read during our daily DEAR time, I also think that being read to has benefits, too! It's a great way to increase auditory skills as well as comprehension. Plus, I love being a model of fluency, too - what a great way to teach your kiddos without them realizing they're being taught!

While this is how our Wednesday goes, every day is relatively the same… just in different orders. I also have to figure out my schedule and the best way it works for my kiddos to learn the most that they can with a total of EIGHT specials. Yup, EIGHT.

Our specials are:

Gym (M-F)

Computers (M)

Science Lab (T)

Art (W)

Spanish (W)

Library (H)

Music (H)

Drama (H)

In all, my students see 10 teachers throughout the week - myself, my teaching partner (who teaches my kiddos Social Studies while I am teaching her class Science), and the 8 specials teachers. It's CRAZY that they can remember us all - but somehow, they do!

So, how do you manage to fit everything in?

Head over to Amelia's blog to link up, too! I'd love to read about your daily schedule and how you make it work for you and your students.

Grasslands, Mountains, Islands, and More!

Science is tough. It's tough to teach, it's tough to get across to my kiddos, BUT it's sooooo much fun! While Science is great, I think Social Studies is in the same boat. It can be a BLAST and can include plenty of hands-on activities just like science.

My favorite thing to teach in the Social Studies curriculum is landforms! In my second grade internship, we spent quite a bit of time teaching landforms and I fell in love. My students were so engaged, excited, and learned quite a bit from the activities we completed.

One of the activities we completed was my absolute FAVORITE activity and I would repeat it every year if possible. My 2nd grade kiddos LOVED making landform projects. The following pictures are examples I've found with their projects linked back to the websites. These are my favorite things to make because the students get so involved in trying to make the projects look perfect and just like real, true landforms.

{The Crafty Classroom: Landform Diorama Craft}

{Mrs. Kehrier's Class Blog: 3D Landform Maps}

These landforms allow students to put their knowledge to use - to show what they've learned in the entire unit. This could be a great culminating activity to see what your students have learned. The options are nearly endless - you can have students complete this project as a home project, complete it individually in class, or complete it as a group in class.

I created a pack called "Landform Poster Pack & Activities Unit." In this pack, I've included quite a variety of activities… color posters, black/white posters, matching game, fact or opinion game, flash cards, fill-in-the-blank sheets, matching sheets, I Have, Who Has? game, coloring book, dictionary of landform terms, writing assessments, word searches, graphic organizers, and final written assessments. At the end of the pack, you'll find several pages of resources - books, websites, and videos that all support the landform activities.

That brings me back to the landform unit we completed in my 2nd grade internship - I wish SO bad there had been a writing piece to allow students to reflect on the different landforms themselves. In my pack, I made sure to include a written piece to allow students to work on writing skills AND social studies skills at the same time. Some prompts are serious while others may be serious - but the awesome thing is making the connection between THREE subjects in ONE response - social studies, science, AND language arts!! Check out the example below.

I love the interactiveness that you can gain from this unit, but not only that, there are MANY other topics in Social Studies that can be interactive, fun, and engaging!

As I'm sure you know by my enthusiasm for the landforms unit (in both Social Studies and Science), I truly love teaching US history and geography. SO, I have teamed up with some friends for this amazing bundle with Educents! It has 21 instant downloads with over 1,000 pages of materials for your learners for a variety of Social Studies topics!  

My product included (the "Landform Poster Pack & Activities Unit") will surely be loved by your students! Again, refer to a few paragraphs above about my pack and all that is included - PLENTY of activities to make your landform unit last 20+ days, or roughly a month of school days - how awesome!

For a limited time, this bundle is $30.00 from Educents, which is over 77% off! Where else would you EVER get that big of a discount on the best activities by some great teacher-authors?!

It also includes these other great products below, so there is sure to be things you love! (Currently, Educents even has $10 off for first time customers… so it can be even cheaper if you have never bought anything from Educents!)

Okay, now you've seen the bundle and wonder what ELSE can you do with landforms besides all that's included in the pack offered by myself!? Well, what child does NOT enjoy being read to?? I know my kiddos this year LOVE being read to… they ask for me to read to them every day and we are currently reading The BFG by Roald Dahl.

But, in order to make the landform unit more REAL and to make that real-world connection with your students, pick up the following books:

{U.S. Landforms from Amazon}

{Introducing Landforms from Amazon}

What a better way to make TRUE real-world connections than read books about OUR landforms here in our own backyards? Students will enjoy the full color pictures and the true facts that accompany each page. These two books are just a SMALL glimpse into the different resources available out there to accompany your landform unit. But, that's not it - there are TONS of other activities to make your landform unit exceptional so that your students NEVER forget it - my goal is to hope my students don't and I'm positive that those involved in the bundle above… they have the same goal!

Learning & teaching is meant to be fun, inspiring, and engaging! Let's all work together to make sure this happens :)

Have a good day, y'all! 

The First Currently of the Year!

Helloooo all & Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a great New Years Eve & have a GREAT 2014.

It's time for currently! Farley posted her first currently for 2014.

I am LOVING the design by my friend Tanja from Journey of a Substitute Teacher :)

Anyways, here's my currently!

Listening - It's completely SILENT in my house. OH how I love it… so calming.

Loving - Cody gave me a watch for Christmas and I am in LOVE. It's beautiful - a tan color and it's got jewels for the 12, 3, 6, and 9. I LOVE IT!

Thinking - We go back to school TOMORROW. Yup, you read that right - tomorrow!! I have missed my kiddos though so I'm excited.

Wanting - I want to make sure 2014 is a great year. I know it's just a new day in a new numerical year (as I've said to Cody over and over again), but I want to finish off this school year strong and start the next school year off just as strong!

Needing - I need to get to my classroom to get things set up for tomorrow! Yet, I still haven't made it past the couch and it's almost 10:30 AM here… procrastination queen here.

Memory - My memory of Christmas this year was getting to go home. I hadn't been home in over a year, so it was definitely bittersweet! I loved seeing my family and Cody's family, but I was brought back through a bunch of memories of high school when I went home. Again, bittersweet!

So, what are you currently thinking? Loving? Wanting? Link up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!

Happy New Year!!

One Little Word: LIVE.

So, I guess I lied in my last post… sorry!! Life got busy again and I was back in my "rut" of work, sleep, work, sleep. I do intend to change that all around after I've had this winter break to rejuvenate and realize some things!

So, Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade has been doing a linky called "My Truth Monday." I haven't participated up until this point, but I LOVED the idea of the linky and read each week recently. You find out a lot about your blogging buddies in linkies like this!!

Anyways, although it's Tuesday, I'm going to still participate in the "My Truth Monday" from yesterday.

The topic for this "My Truth Monday" was called One Little Word. With the new year coming up, many people set resolutions.. myself included. But, the idea behind it is to come up with just ONE word that is going to define your entire year. Yup, just one little word for all 365 days. Welp, my One Little Word is…

My One Little Word is to "live." I haven't been living my life recently as I'd like to. I put a lot into work and not a lot into myself and my relationships. I've given up a lot of my hobbies because I "don't have time." I'm continuously getting sick because I'm not taking care of myself. I don't talk to as many friends as I used to. I come home and lay down on the couch and fall asleep. Well, this upcoming year & second half of the school year, I'm MAKING time for my hobbies and my relationships and for just ME in general! I'm going to find time to read every night. I'm going to find time to hang out with my family and friends near me. I'm going to find time to watch that TV show I've been wanting to watch. I'm going to spend LESS time on Facebook and more time in "real life."

I'm going to LIVE.

What is your One Little Word??

Head on over and link up with Sunny Days in Second Grade. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to know your word! Leave a comment below or on Denise's blog.

See y'all soon!