Monday Made It - Reading Records, Bathroom Passes, and Organization!

The last Monday of summer.  Next Monday kicks off our school year (no students until Wednesday).  Of course, I'll be in my classroom all day today and at training for most of this week.  But, I'll pretend it's still summer.

The rapidly approaching school year has kicked my butt into productive mode though, so I've got a few Monday Made-Its to share!

First up, Bathroom Passes:

At the beginning of each month, I give each student a bathroom pass with the word "bathroom" on it.  Each letter is a pass.  When they need to go, I cross out a letter (of course, we still have the talk and expectations about when appropriate times to go are).  At the end of the month, unused letters become tickets for our raffle.  This is the system that all 4th grade has used at my school the past two years.

I like to have the name of the month on the bathroom passes.  Some of my teammates just rotate through the colored paper we have, but I could never remember which color I was on.  So I made one for each month.  I'm going to copy them all as soon as our copy machines are up and running so I am ready!

Next, Reading Records:

I gray out the days that they do not have to get their log signed (weekends, including Fridays, and days off of school).

Parent signed reading logs are expected at my school. My first year and a half, I used a half sheet of paper each week that students had to write how many minutes they read each night and have a parent sign.  I HATED collecting them each week and would often forget to make sure I had copies each Monday.  So, part way through last year, I switched to monthly logs.  It's still just minutes and parent signatures, but I only have to collect it once per month.  Most of the kids really liked the calendar aspect of it! I made the fonts match the bathroom passes and I'll copy them on the same colored paper (one of those cute, but doesn't matter things, I know).

Would you like to use these too?

Click HERE for the link to the bathroom passes and reading records.  All days are white on this reading log since I don't know your schedule :)

And last, some cute organization:

Label shape from Ladybug's Teacher Files; Font: Oh {Photo} Shoot
I used lots of Mod Podge to stick those cute papers on!
They match my turn-in boxes nicely (though I wish I had found this paper before I made those!)

I decided to do Copy, File, Laminate instead of Copy, File, Grade for a couple of reasons:

1. It's just not realistic to think that my grading will all fit in that drawer :(
2. I feel like I always have some small little thing that needs laminating but doesn't seem worth turning on the laminator, so I save it for later, when I have a bigger job.  BUT, then I forget or misplace that small thing.

Alright, I'm off to my classroom now to see if I can get it ready enough to show you all tomorrow for Teacher Week '13!

Monday Made It - Clips Galore!

After a summer of slacking on school things (and just organizing when I wasn't), I finally took on the biggest and most important crafty project of my summer - making all of my behavior clips!  I've posted about my behavior chart before here and here, but here's the quick run down:  When a student ends the day on "Excellent Effort" (side note: I'm thinking about switching the order of Role Model and Excellent Effort - what do you think?), he/she gets to put a sticker on his/her clip.  When there are 6 stickers on the clip, he/she gets a new clip.  The new clip is a new color.  My kiddos last year loved it!

And ... now I am all set for this year, even if every single student gets all the way to the elusive GOLD GLITTER CLIP!!!

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made-It to show off my work and give you some tips if you are planning to color and glitter any clips!

First, I dyed the clips using Rit dye.  If you're using warm water, it takes 15 minutes to an hour to get good color (depending on how much dye you put in and how deep you want your color to be).  If you're using room-temperature water, it takes a LONG time (overnight worked well).  I used warm water from the tap for the first batch of each color (so the dye would dissolve) and then reused the same dye-water for the rest of the batches.

Note: Wood floats.  Don't be like me and think that if you make it deeper, it will cover the whole clip.  

It won't. You've just got to turn then every once in a while.

Then, they had to dry.

Next up, GLITTER (for those superstar students who get to their 5th or beyond new clip).  

Because of the glitter I had, I used two different methods.  Here are my pros/cons of three methods (one I did last year as I scrambled to make clips mid-year):

Hot Glue and Loose Glitter:
Pros: Fast
Cons:  Doesn't look as great, some glitter falls off

White Glue, Loose Glitter, and Sealant:
Pros: Pretty
Cons: Count the steps and supplies needed (put on glue, spread it around, put on glitter, shake off glitter, let dry while you painstakingly try to clean up the glitter, spray with sealant, let dry)

                   

 
 

And ... maybe it is the sealant I chose or my spraying technique 

... but my fingers were still covered in glitter after handling these.

Glitter Glue:
Pros: It looks pretty and there's no glitter to clean up.

GLITTER GLUE FOR THE WIN!

Seriously, I don't think I will ever do 

any more clips with loose glitter.

The loose glitter and glitter glue ones drying in peace (and some plain black ones sneakily preparing for the next step).
Side note: It seems like the poor red ones always got left out of the pictures :(

Last, glue on numbers so they are good and ready for your Behavior Superstars (I actually did this before the sealant on the loose glitter ones and it worked just fine).

And, without further ado, the finished product:

Each color is in number order on a scrap of cardboard.  I think this will keep them nice and tidy.
Students get a plain clip on the first day of school (upper left), then black, blue, green, red,
red glitter, green glitter, blue glitter, silver glitter, and finally gold glitter.

I have at least two extras of each color (I guess I wasn't so hot at counting on this ... but extra extras can't hurt!), so I'm clear for at least two new students to come mid-year.  Being prepared will make it not happen, right?!?!

What have you made lately?  

Head over to 4th Grade Frolics and link up!

P.S.  Really, do you think I should switch Excellent Effort and Role Model?  I'm torn!

An Apple A Day - Behavior Management

Back in September, I posted about my behavior management plans for this year.  The Applicious Teacher's linky is giving me the perfect opportunity to look back on how those systems worked!

The Clip Chart

Unfortunately, I never took another picture of the clip chart later in the year.  It was so colorful as the year progressed.  Students were so excited each time they got a new clip!  Some were on their third glitter clip by the end, and all but one student got a new clip at least once during the year.  (That student with from the clip down/clip up anecdote from my previous post got his black clip during the last week of school.  He was beaming with pride).  I will most certainly be using my chart again next year.

However, there were two problems:

1. Numbers - their numbers were taped on (so they could easily be switched to a new clip).  After the first couple of months, about half of the clips didn't have a number because they fell off.
2. Clips - I made 32 black clips, 32 purple clips, 32 blue clips, 16 green clips, and 16 red clips before school started.  This hardly lasted me the first trimester.  After that, I never did another huge batch of clips.  I'm sad to say that some students had to wait a week before I got their new clip ready.  It was stressful for me and not really fair for them!

So, this summer ...

I am going to make 34 (to be prepared for new students - that was another wrench in the plan) of ALL of the colors.  I am going to glue numbers 1-32 (and just have two extra of each) on to them.  I know not every student will use all of the clips, but that will just mean I have a head start for the next year, right?

Raffle

Having clips and raffle were just too much.  I had a hard time being consistent with both.  Next year, I think I will still do a math raffle (since I can't use clips then) and will probably still do a raffle from unused bathroom passes at the end of each month.  Not too long after my last post, the allure of the raffle diminished and it wasn't a good Afternoon Routine motivator (I have another idea for that - it will probably be a Monday Made It sometime this summer).

Class Chain

I never started it!  I think I will try doing something whole class next year, though.  My kiddos were jealous when other fourth graders got their marble/button jar parties!

What's your behavior management?  How do you balance the different aspects of it?

Behavior Management

Natalie and Rachelle at What The Teacher Wants are hosting a behavior management linky.  I am so excited to link up because What the Teacher Wants was the first blog I started reading.  It is what introduced me to the wonderful world of teacher blogging! 

Last year, I felt like behavior management was my weakest link.

This year, I've put lots in place to make sure that doesn't happen again!

First, foremost, and number one is my clip chart:

Do you see the black clips?  Those two kiddos have already gotten to  Excellent Effort six times, so they got to take their old clip (now covered in six stickers) home and now have a black clip.  Next time, it will be a blue clip!  They are working toward the elusive glitter clip.  I know I got the colored clip idea from someone, but I'm not sure who. Let me know if it was you!

I didn't do a clip chart last year because I thought 4th graders were too old for it.  WRONG!  They love it, and it makes such a great impact.  The third day of school was first time I had a kiddo clip down.  Later that day, I told him he could clip up.  "Even though I clipped down before?" he asked.  "Yes!  You are making better choices now.  You're showing me you're ready to learn," I responded.  He happily clipped up and we had quite a while before our next issue (which is quite a feat with this kiddo).

I also have a class raffle, so sometimes I hand out raffle tickets.  I like to do this when kiddos are going above and beyond in some way, when a kiddo is already on Excellent Effort, but deserves another clip up, and with my math class (a partially different group of kiddos, so I don't have clips for everyone).  We pull raffle tickets any day that we are ready to go home before the bell rings.  It's a great way to make our afternoon routine go smoothly.

I am also going to start a class paper chain, but I haven't yet.  We don't seem to need it yet.  The paper chain will start at the ceiling and they will get a link when the whole class deserves a reward.  When it reaches the floor, we'll have a little celebration.

What do you use for behavior management?  Link up with Natalie and Rachelle to share!

Tell Me Something Good

I'm linking up with Rowdy in First Grade for her Tell Me Something Good Linky.  What a great reminder to focus on the positives, both at school and at home!

At School:
Well, just about everything about this class!  Their behavior is fantastic and when it starts to slip, I remind them that they can do better, and they do!  I think part of this is just the group of kiddos, part of it is better management on my part, and part of it is the classroom community we're building.  We have read and talked about being a Bucket Filler and have "Sunshine Notes" they can write to each other that we read on Fridays.  We're really starting to work as a team!

At Home:
I am making time for myself to read.  I stop working at least 20 minutes before bed and spend that time reading a book or magazine that is in no way, shape, or form school related.  Even this small amount of me-time is so much more than I did last year!

What's going good for you? 
 Link up with Rowdy in First Grade to share with us all!

Heads Down and Planning Difficulties

A quick positive and struggle from yesterday:

On the positive side ...
My students' behavior started slipping yesterday.  I had the whole class put their heads down and talked about how I know how respectful and responsible they can be.  I talked for about a minute about all the great things they usually do to help us learn.  When they lifted their heads, they were great again for the rest of the day!

And a struggle:
I'm really trying to plan earlier this year so that I don't spend my whole weekend planning.  I posted earlier this week about my plan.  I've been ok about following it so far.  Then we had a grade level meeting today and I found out a BUNCH of changes for next week.  Like, to the point that I might throw away the plan pages I started and start over.  I'm really disappointed because I was ahead of things and it just turns out I wasted time making those plans.  I know it won't happen every week, but it's really discouraging during my first week of trying to get ahead!

How far ahead do you get in planning?  What do you do to deal with those changes?

Monday (Thursday) Made It Time Again

I can't believe I forgot about Tara's Monday Made It!  When I logged onto blogger Monday morning for my short burst of wake-up blog reading,  I was excited to see everyone's made its.  Ah, too bad I don't have a made it to post about my 5am brain said.

WHAT?

I have made so much in the first week of school!  It seems like every time I have a moment to breathe I'm making something!  I realized this after I got home.  My brain was apparently working better last night.

BUT ...

I didn't have any pictures.  So I'll take pictures tomorrow and post tomorrow night.

Tuesday night:  I forgot to take pictures.

Wednesday night: Took pictures but just too tired (didn't get home until 9:30!!!!).

So here I am now, somewhat awake, knowing that I have made things, and armed with pictures to prove it.

My Math Board

I'm trying Math Workshop this year.  My district is starting to heavily heavily suggest we do a Daily 5 type structure for math.  Since I'm just dipping into Daily 5 for reading this year, I don't feel ready to do it for math too.  When I read about the Math Workshop Rotations on Clutter-Free Classroom, I realized that would fit perfect!  I just changed my M from Math Facts to Mental Math.  Because of that change, I made my own board items instead of buying Clutter Free Classroom's.  Once I have a  few days of workshop under my belt, I'll post about that, but for now, here is my board:

The whole board.  The student's names are listed under their group in the blurred out area.

Close up of assignment part of board.

Close up of rotation schedule

Behavior Clip Chart

I'm trying out the ever-popular clip chart this year.  I'm not sure where I first heard this idea from (let me know if you know!), but here's my incentives:  Get to Excellent Effort, get a sticker on your clip.  Get 6 stickers on your clip, get a new, prettier clip.  Repeat until you get the gold sparkly clip.  They're into it, and it's been working great so far ... until today when I basically forgot it existed so the entire class was still on Ready to Learn at the end of the day, even though they were fantastic.  Oops!

I just printed black letters on white paper and then used scrapbook paper to make it colorful.  I laminated each one with a thin piece of cardboard behind it.

I'm excited the monthly Made-Its start next week.  With back to school night next Thursday, I know I'll be busy this weekend making more!