Category Archives: Planning

Simple Classroom Activities for the First Day of School

June 6, 2013

The first few days of school set the tone for the entire year. Getting started with fun, informative and relationship-building activities is essential. Overpreparing for the first few days is also important since activities can move along more quickly than anticipated. Here is a list of simple to prepare activities that work well on the first day or days of school.

All About Teacher
Make a book about yourself. It can be done in a premade book or sheets in a three-ring binder slipped into page protectors. Read it to the students and leave it out so they can look at it. Include pictures of your family and pets which students find especially interesting.

Teacher in a Bag
Another way to introduce yourself to the class is to do the teacher in a bag. Assemble a group of items that tell about your life and put them in an opaque bag. Pull the items out one at a time and share a sentence or two about each one.

Q&A Time
Give the students the opportunity to ask questions. This is especially good to do at the end of the morning after you have covered a lot of ground, but haven’t covered everything. If a student has a burning question on his mind, he has the opportunity to have it answered. It is also wise to let the students know they can come to you privately with their question if they don’t want to ask it in front of the class.

Something Quiet
The first day is full of emotions and information. It is also the first day of getting back into the school groove. Give the students some down time to read, color, draw, etc. without any pressure. The introverts in your class will love you for it.

Decorate a Desk Nametag
Have names already written out on tags. Give students the opportunity to personalize it with crayons, markers, colored pencils or stickers. Use precut strips of clear shelf paper to attach them to the desks when the students are done.

Read Aloud
Choose an appropriate book to read aloud. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Voist is a great book for this at almost any grade level. Even though many students may already be familiar with the book, it makes a good discussion starter regarding the fact that everyone has a bad day at times. Tell the students that if they are having a bad day at some point during the year, they should tell you. And, likewise, tell the students that if you are ever having a bad day, you will tell them. It opens the doors of communication in the future and it also makes the teacher a real person.

Procedures, Procedures, Procedures
Procedures will make or break a classroom. The first hour of the first day of school is the time to let the students know that this is a classroom with procedures. They will find it comforting to know that the classroom functions in a predictable way.

Abbreviated Morning Meeting or Circle Time
Most classrooms have a morning time that consists of going through the same information each day such as the date, weather, counting, thematic information, etc. This can start the very first day of school, if only in an abbreviated fashion.

Room Rules
Let the students know what is expected and the consequences for not meeting those expectations. Show them where the room rules are clearly posted. Keep the rule list short and positive. Ask for questions to find out if any of the students need something clarified.

Pass the Paper Roll
Pass a roll of toilet paper around the classroom and instruct the students to take off however many pieces they would like for the next activity. When everyone has some, instruct them to pass their piece to the person on the left. And then pass it to the next person to the left. And then to the person on the right. And then two people to the left. When they are done passing, each student counts how many squares of toilet paper they have. They must tell that many facts about themselves. Since some students might be familiar with this activity and only take one piece, the passing element eliminates students trying to outwit the teacher and adds a bit of fun as they realize they’ve been had!

There are so many great ways to get the school year off on a positive note. Carefully preparing your classroom, thinking through your classroom management procedures, and carefully planning your first day of school will all make a big difference in feeling confident the first day. Use some or all of these easy activities to prepare for a great first day of school!

Posted in Back to School, Classroom, Early Elementary, Organization, Planning, Teacher Resources, Teaching, Upper Elementary | 1 Comment

Classroom Management Strategies for New Teachers and the New School Year

June 5, 2013

Many new teachers go into teaching because they love the subject matter, working with children and making a difference in the lives of others. But classroom management is also a significant part of being a successful teacher. Carefully planning classroom management strategies such as procedures and expectations makes the start of a new year easier for new teachers and students and helps ensure a smooth-running learning environment. A classroom functioning well means the teacher can focus on teaching and the students can focus on learning.

Effective Teachers Teach Classroom Procedures

Effective classroom management includes clear instructions of classroom procedures starting on the first day of school. Classroom procedures include times and transitions such as:

Morning arrival
Turning in homework
Morning meeting time
Morning seatwork
Turning in papers
What to do when finished early
Unfinished work
Passing out materials
Lining up
Afternoon dismissal
Indoor recess

Each procedure must be clearly explained and practiced. Although it might seem excessive to practice each procedure over and over again during the first few weeks of school, the practice will pay great dividends the rest of the year when the procedures become second nature to the students. It also makes it clear to the students from the start that you are a teacher with high expectations.

Determining Classroom Management Strategies

Classroom procedures will be dependent on the grade level, curriculum, classroom layout and the number of students in the classroom. Curriculum that requires a full group instruction time will necessitate a classroom arrangement that makes it possible. The younger the students, the simpler the procedures will need to be and the more the students will need to practice as they adjust to school.

A new teacher should think through the different aspects of the day and determine the best layout for the furniture. Sometimes the arrangement of the furniture may be adjusted as a teacher starts to think through the practical procedures and flow of the day. It is fine to adjust, but thinking through any potential pitfalls before school starts is best as it means avoiding teaching students a new procedure when they have already learned a different one.

Wise New Teachers Learn from Successful Veterans

One of the best ways to develop classroom management strategies is to seek the advice and insight of a veteran teacher, preferably at the same grade level. This teacher will already be familiar with the curriculum and any special accommodations necessary. She will be able to offer suggestions regarding how to effectively implement the school’s overall discipline and management policies at that particular grade level.

Spending just an hour with a really good veteran teacher can save a new teacher hours of planning and many mistakes. Offer to take the veteran teacher out for lunch or coffee in exchange for gleaning information. Most teachers are more than happy to help a new teacher succeed.

Thinking through classroom management strategies is essential for new teachers as they prepare the classroom for the start of school. By planning ahead and carefully teaching students the classroom procedures, a teacher has a much greater chance of being successful, especially if planning carefully for the first day of school and utilizing these simple activities for the first day of school.

Posted in Back to School, Classroom, Early Elementary, Fall/Autumn, Planning, Summer, Teacher Resources, Teaching, Upper Elementary | 3 Comments

CurrClick Teachable Moments for January 2013

December 29, 2012

CurrClick offers a Teachable Moments calendar for free each month. They highlight important birthdays, historical events, and fun days to celebrate.

Find the January 2013 calendar (PDF) right here!

Posted in Freebies, Planning | Leave a comment

Looking for schooling apps?

December 28, 2012

Marcy from Ben and Me (and fellow mom of a fabulous only!) did a week of education apps. She covered the following topics in her AppSchooling series:

Planning and Organization
History and Geography
Language Arts
Math
Science
Bible
Free ieducation for homeschoolers

Stop by for a wealth of information and ideas!

Posted in Apps, Bible, Freebies, History and Geography, Language Arts, Math, Organization, Planning, Science | Leave a comment

How I currently “teach” Caroline

October 25, 2009

Several days ago Kat left a comment asking if I would share how I organize Caroline’s day, what we are doing with her learning, etc. So, for what it is worth, here is where we are right now. And this is honesty at its finest.

I am motivated. Caroline is not ready.

I feel guilty for not doing more structured things with her. Caroline is not ready.

I am tempted to feel angst over the “lost” months this summer when I was too sick to do much of anything with her except watch Pride and Prejudice (A&E) more times than I will ever publicly admit. (She was obsessed with it for quite awhile and it worked for me.) Caroline hasn’t really suffered for it except in my overly conscientious mind.

The truth of the matter is that we are very unstructured right now. Part of it is that we are just getting somewhat back to normal after me being anything but normal physically since late February. Part of it is simply that Caroline is not ready.

I read these blogs of women who do all these amazing, planned things with their children who are a similar age and am tempted to feel guilty. But Caroline is just not ready. She isn’t ready for structured learning.

This is one of those areas where I just have to trust my gut. And I also have to trust my convictions. I’ve believed for a long time that children are too over structured too early. I believe strongly in the importance of open-ended play. I really appreciate the teachings of Charlotte Mason

We don’t read nearly as much as I would like to. For some reason, she just doesn’t respond to the idea right now. I’m not going to fight her on this so we don’t read as much as I thought we would.

So that is a little bit about what we aren’t doing. There is no structured learning going on in our house. That isn’t to say that there isn’t learning. We learn all the time. But it is much more situational and arises spur of the moment far more often than me planning that Caroline is going to work on “X” skill.

Truth be told, I am still trying to figure Caroline out. She is a mystery to me in many ways and it has been a challenge. In many ways I cannot figure out what makes her tick. It is hard for me as her mother to feel that way, especially since I am a very insightful person. But she has a complicated little personality and it has been one of the big challenges of parenting so far.

So what do we do?

We go places – Meijer Gardens, the zoo, Children’s Museum, stores, Starbucks, apple orchards, drives in the country… We have to literally drag her out of Starbucks. How great is it that she loves hanging out in a coffee shop?

We work together – loading laundry into dryer, putting things in shopping cart, cleaning the bathroom, putting laundry away, dusting, cleaning mirrors, working in the garden…

We read books and printed materials. She’s fascinated by catalogs.

We watch grown up DVDs – the exception is Baby Einstein and home DVDs. She has learned so much from Baby Einstein DVDs. We started watching those right before her second birthday and they have been wonderful. I plan on doing a post on that.

We listen to a lot of classical and instrumental music. When she hears something on the stereo that was in one of her Baby Einstein videos she will say, “That’s like Cow” or “That’s like on Horse!” or “That’s on Instruments!” (She identifies most of the BE videos by the animal on the cover.)

We dance.

We talk about things all the time.

A little bit of “school” stuff – When I find something online that I think she will like, we do it. Totbooks, cutting and pasting activities, etc. If a teachable moment arises related to letters or words, I use it.

We use Bing video searches – This started kind of by accident, but we look up videos on Bing and she loves it. (I think she is a highly visual learner.) Daddy actually does most of this with her and they’ve learned about windmills, waterfalls, trumpets, Celtic Women Christmas, Christmas trees, dogs… Lots of things. Here are her two favorites that she has watched over and over and over again…

Here is the first favorite – Wynton Marsalis playing a Haydn Trumpet Concerto. (No, I am not making this up.) She has probably watched it several dozen times over the recent months. That is saying something considering the picture quality is not all that great. But she loves the music on the trumpet.

This is the more recent favorite. She heard Celtic Women Christmas Celebration at my parents’ house a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with their version of Ding Dong Merrily On High. We found the video online and she loves it. When she hears it on CD, whatever she is doing immediately stops and she starts dancing around the room.

I’m sure there are other things that will come to mind, but this is a bit about where we are right now. I am guessing maybe this winter we will get into a little more structure. Maybe. Maybe not. I know there is no way she would be ready for preschool right now. We’ll just continue to do things here as they seem appropriate and have fun in the process.

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