On the Second Day of School FREEBIE
All of the forms you sent home on the first day will start coming back to you. Also many of your students will bring in their school and classroom supplies, if they didn't bring them the first day. There will also be a few parents who will insist on walking their kiddos down for the second day in a row. They will want to ask you questions about the previous day. Then, students who were excited about the first day of school may start acting out on the second day because they have come to the realization that summer REALLY is over. They may have to be coaxed into your room and out of the hallway. Along with getting to know and taking care of 24 +/- new little people, this can make the second day of school particularly challenging.
That is why I always make sure that I have a morning work activity that is SUPER engaging, so that I have a little extra time to take care of "business."
Click here to download a free "Second Day of School Book" that you can use with your own class! (Recommended for grades 1-3).
Back to School Planning: Teaching with Themes Throughout the Year
Parent Input Freebie
It's Lisa from Growing Firsties dropping by today to talk a bit about getting Parent Input.
Over the last few years I've been pretty jazzed about Growth Mindset. You may have already seen this recent Primary Chalkboard post or this Growing Firsties post.
Smile if you like getting input from your students' parents at the beginning of the year about their child's learning style and personality. (Did ya smile? Hope so!)
Back in April, when I started thinking about my new crop of students, I started thinking about how I could get different input from parents...mindset-based input.
'Cuz, at the very beginning of the year, before I reallllly know my students, it's helpful to know which students may...
For some students, the above characteristics are pretty easy to see...but in others, the ones who stay under the radar a bit, not so much.
Sarah has a GREAT post about her parent input form - you can read it by clicking {right here}.
I like to hit the ground running as much as possible, so this is the Parent Input Form I developed.
Here's a bit of a closer look:
You can download it by clicking either of the above pictures. It's a zipped (compressed) file because one of the formats is EDITABLE. Yep...you can make it work for YOU and YOUR context. :) I hope you find it helpful!!!
Establishing Your Morning Routine and Classroom Jobs
Growth Mindset
Lisa here, from Growing Firsties & I'm going to share a little bit about Growth Mindset today, which is based on Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's work.
Heads up that I do have some Amazon Affiliate links in this post. Should you choose to use the links, I'll earn some "circle money" as my daughter calls coins. :-) Half of my affiliate proceeds are for paying it forward - each month I receive earnings I give to my local food pantry/outreach services organization. The other half is spent on books and items for my classroom.
With a growth mindset, people believe that through effort and practice, they can develop and improve their talents and abilities. In a fixed mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed...and that it's talent (not effort) that creates success. Woah.
Years ago, I first began to think about mindset in terms of working with struggling students...those students where the learning is hard. Students, who, if they don't have the mindset to keep trying, will give up. Then what will they learn?
My thinking expanded as I witnessed students labelled as gifted hitting a struggle academically and not knowing how to handle the struggle when they are unfamiliar with the resilience and effort needed.
Then I realized that mindset, resilience & perseverance are critical for all of us. Regardless of age. #helloIhatecardio #gottadoitanyways
You may have seen this Growing Firsties post from a few years ago, containing this freebie download.
Or maybe this post from last summer all about perseverance.
I am blessed to work at an amazing school! Some talented colleagues ran a book study on Dweck's Mindset book this year and it was such fun to re-read and discuss mindset with like-minded teachers! I also added Mindsets in the Classroom (by Mary Cay Ricci) to my collection.
We read aloud some great books and I expanded my collection beyond the wonderful texts from Peter H. Reynolds (Ish, The Dot, Going Places...)
One of my teammates asked me if I had a printable for our work on mindset and that gave me the motivation to put my swirling thoughts to work....Here's a little peek at the inside...
Scroll down to download this freebie! :)
You might be interested in reading an article by the always eloquently-thought-provoking Alfie Kohn "The Perils of Growth Mindset" education. You can get to it {right here}.
Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, has written this EXCELLENT article...you'll definitely want to check it out! You can get to it {right here}.
I have a Pinterest board called Mindset and I love pinning to it! You can check it out by clicking here or the screen shot below. You should really check out the Famous Failures video! It's amazing!
We'd love to hear what you do to help build a growth mindset with your learners!
Helping students keep track of their pencils!
I don’t know about you, but kids not having the supplies they need to do their work drives me CRAZY! Crazy, I tell you. The problem is that I GIVE them everything they need. EVERYTHING and they lose it, eat it, leave it on the floor, claim, “It’s not mine!” and let their neighbor take it. So one kid has 6 pencils and another has none.
Enter Vodka.
Actually enter this brilliant idea! I flag my pencils with masking tape, write the child’s name on the pencil flag, and reward the child for keeping track of their pencils until they are all used up.
So what are you waiting for? Grab some masking tape and let’s do this. Simply wrap tape around the pencil and fold the tape back in on itself. Trim the edge for a nice clean finish. This is a great job for a parent volunteer. I have used many kinds of tape to make the flags. I have found that masking tape works best. It’s easy to work with, write on, and though it can rip, it is pretty durable! I keep about 100 at the ready all the time.
You can hand out the awards in many ways. I like to give a child an award when they use up a pencil. You can also surprise the class with a pencil check. Anyone who still has their pencil gets a responsibility award.
Summertime Resources
Some of you may still be in the classroom and looking for some resources to finish up the year or even send home with your kids over the summer.
Courtesy of Discovery Education |