classroom management Archives - Page 4 of 5

Calendar Time in Primary is a Beach!

June 11, 2021 teachersbrain Classroom Decor, Teaching Tips

I always loved calendar time when I was in the classroom. In fact, it was the most enjoyable time of the day! If you don’t do Calendar Time in your classroom, you may be wondering what exactly it is.

Calendar time is a time during the day to come together as a class by the calendar. It is a great way to start the day or transition from one activity to the other. It also helps students because it is part of the daily routine and they know what to expect.

Some of my favorite activities for Calendar Time include:

Singing a song or two. This is such a fun way to let your students show their personality and have some fun. Add in dancing for extra physical activity!
Listen to others. Sharing stories or other important information is a great time to practice our listening skills.
Reviewing days and months. Use your calendar to review the days of the week and the current month. Repetition will have your students reciting it on their own in no time.
Review math skills. Reviewing during Calendar Time feels more fun and less like work. Take this time to review some essential skills you have been working on.
Talk about the weather to help students understand the daily weather and what it means.
Read a story. Select a book that relates to what you are working on that week and read it during Calendar Time while students are gathered close and can easily see the pictures.

If you are wanting to get it set up for your classroom, I have you covered! My Beachy Calendar Time Resource has everything you need!

This beach-themed decor bundle comes with matching decorations for your set up. It has six resources bundled in one using Hawaii photographs and watercolor clip art. How amazing does that sound?

Included you’ll get welcome banners, tropical word wall decor, growth mindset posters, labels, table numbers, center posters, Hawaii photo alphabet lines, name tags, editable classroom jobs, number posters, Where Are We signs, How I Get Home sign, and your calendar set with watercolors and so much more!

Looking for tips for decorating your classroom? Check out my post here!

Kindergarten Morning Work Activities

May 28, 2021 teachersbrain Back to School, kindergarten survival, Teaching Tips

Kindergarten is a very big deal for young students. For many, it is the first time they are away from home regularly. While it can be scary, there are ways we can help ease the stress of the unknown for them and show them how fun school can be!

One way to do this is to establish a classroom routine early on so they learn what to expect. Setting a daily schedule and routine can be a huge relief because they know exactly what happens and when.

Morning work is a great way to ease students into the daily routine. As soon as students come in the door, have morning work on their desk ready to complete. They can work on their morning work independently while you work on other tasks. This is a great time to respond to parent emails, address student issues, and otherwise prepare for the day.

Here are some benefits of kindergarten morning work

It is great for review. While at the beginning of the year, kindergarten students won’t have much to review yet, as the year goes on, you can focus morning work on the crucial skills they need like sight words, letters, and numbers. Circling back time and time again will help increase retention of this vital knowledge.
It helps with classroom management. As mentioned above, having assignments ready to go when students come in for the day helps free up time for classroom management tasks. Having that time really does improve the flow of the day.
It teaches independence. As we all know, students learn so much more in kindergarten than just letters, numbers, and reading. They learn social skills and independence too. Kindergarten students are very young so they have likely not had much experience with doing tasks independently at home yet. Morning work is a great way to teach this.

Ready to try some morning work? Try my kindergarten morning work packets for August and September!

This no prep morning work resource includes 40 printable pages of meaningful morning work for your kinders! Model it once and then they should be able to work independently each month.

This packet covers handwriting, sight word practice, color recognition, number sense, tally marks, counting, number lines, and writing numbers.

Looking for more tips for kindergarten, check on my tips for the first day of kindergarten here!

Do you assign morning work? Let me know in the comments!

5 Awesome Classroom Management Strategies That Really Work

March 12, 2021 teachersbrain education, kindergarten survival, Teacher Problems, Teaching Tips

Going to school is very fun and exciting for the younger elementary students. They are experiencing new things and making new friends every day. It can be thrilling for them. However, it is important to set boundaries so that students know that while it is amazing for them to have new experiences, school is a place to learn. Their main job is to listen and learn, and the teacher’s job is to teach.

The best way to get your classroom running smoothly is by structuring it in a way that students know what is expected of them. To accomplish this, you can start by thinking about how you want your classroom to be run. Look around online or chat with other teachers for inspiration.

Here are some classroom management strategies you can incorporate into your classroom:

Build good relationships with your students

This one is the first and most basic management strategy. You want your students to trust you so that they turn to you when there is a problem. They are also more inclined to follow the rules with a teacher they are comfortable with.

Use a behavior chart for classroom management

This is a clear, visual way for students to understand the behavior that you expect of them. As the year goes on, they will grow to understand it better and strive to do well.

My editable behavior chart makes it easy for you to track your student’s behavior. It also comes with a data-collecting graph to chart data as well as a poster about Big Problems and Little Problems.

Assign classroom jobs

I love assigning jobs to my students. (You can read all about it here.) Giving jobs gives your students a sense of purpose and responsibility in the classroom. It also helps you because it keeps your classroom running smoothly when everyone completes their jobs. Ideas for jobs include line leader, paper passer, book monitor, homework checker, etc.

These editable classroom jobs help make it easy for you! There are 25 pre-made jobs in two different styles to choose from. You can also use the editable PowerPoint to personalize your own job chart! The chalkboard makes it easy to fit into any classroom.

Designate a calm down corner

Younger students are still learning how to regulate their emotions. Sometimes they get a little too worked up or upset about something and just need a place to breathe deeply. Assigning a certain area in your classroom as the “Calm Down Corner” will give your students a designated place to go when they need a few minutes of quiet to calm down.

This calm down corner resource comes with visual cue cards, calm down corner ideas, posters, and printables to collect data, identify triggers and calm down actions.

Offer Praise

One of the best ways to get students to behave is to praise good behavior. Doing this instead of only correcting bad behavior is a way of using positive reinforcement. Students love to hear that they are doing a good job and praising them when they are will give them a strong incentive to continue that behavior.

When your classroom management strategies are working and everything is running smoothly, it is magic! When you and your students have found your groove, you can focus more on fun and learning instead of focusing on rules and bad behavior.

I hope these strategies and resources help you out! If you have a classroom management strategy that you love, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Teaching Social Skills To Kids

October 16, 2020 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

Reading, writing, and arithmetic- that’s all you have to teach, right? Once you’ve wiped the tears from your face from laughing so hard, take a moment to think about the non-academic skills that you teach in your classroom. Students learn study skills, organization, public speaking, and many other important tasks. These skills are necessary and worth our time as teachers. Perhaps most importantly, students learn in our classrooms how to engage in appropriate social interactions.

Social skills help students succeed in the classroom, but also impact their success as adults entering the “real world”. Appropriate social behaviors help your classroom run smoothly and help students learn how to interact positively with their communities. Although you teach lots of social skills implicitly while running a classroom, students often need explicit instruction in managing their emotions and behaviors.

Why teach social skills?

It helps students manage their emotions
You can give your students support on how to handle certain emotions
It teaches self-regulation
Improves behavior
It creates better problem solvers
Can easily be incorporated into your lessons

Not to worry- I have developed some tools that will make social skills instruction painless!

First, the Daily Behavior Chart Resource is perfect for addressing specific ways students can control their behaviors throughout the day.

Teachers can target the behaviors that students need to develop social skills successfully. It includes editable charts to track students’ behaviors, which are great for parent feedback and data collection. There are several styles of charts to help you best meet your students’ needs.

Students will also love the included contracts for earning rewards. By recording and looking back on their choices, students will learn that they can control how their day develops.

Next, the Calm Down Corner Printables are perfect for helping students learn to control their emotions and reactions.

Learning about feelings and how to express them is key to developing strong social skills. The printables in this set will help you create a calm classroom space while assisting students in working through their feelings.

This resource includes visual cue cards, charts to track students behaviors, printables to help students identify triggers, and even posters for your Calm Down Corner.

Grab these resources today and watch your students develop amazing social skills!

If you are needing some tips for teaching while social distancing, check out my post here!