Mystery Trash

Way back when, when I was in college, a professor told us that the two people in a school that you NEED to be your best friends are the secretary and the custodian. They are the ones to go to if you need anything (and they kind of run the school, right?). Well my custodian is A-MAZ-ING! Seriouly, this is one woman you want to keep happy because she does an awesome job.

So to help her out, I have my students look for "Mystery Trash" every day right before they go home. I choose a piece of trash (or just something that needs to be picked up / put away) and whoever finds it get's a penny (I use fake coins as my incentives).



The kids LOVE it! I had no idea they would be so into picking up trash, but they do it every day and I've been told that I have the cleanest floors in the school. Give it a try - you won't be sorry!

Syllabication

Since I stayed home sick today I don't have anything prepped for tomorrow. We do centers on Wednesday and I had planned on teaching a review on syllabication for my center. I'm still not feeling my best, and probably won't be tomorrow either, so I decided to take the easy way out and find some cute worksheets to help me (I'm not a huge worksheet fan, as you all know how ineffective they can be). I did find some cute ones those that I thought I'd pass along.

Click HERE to go to the TLS-books site and find these worksheets. There are three that review syllabication, starting with 'Skateboard Fun.'

How do you teach / review syllables?

Jealous

Remember my Flat Stanley post? Well, our Flat Stanleys are starting to come back and I've been so impressed with how cute my kiddo's family members are. One little guy's grandma made a whole book out of her adventure with his Flat Stanley. They're just so cute. I'll post a picture of my bulletin board when I get a few more back.

Here's a couple pictures of where my Flat Stanley was sent. I sent her off to visit my friend Lo and her darling baby. Can you guess where they live?

Hawaii! Ahhh I'm so jealous of my Flat Stanley (and my friend Lo who is also a teacher and get's to live in Hawaii)!!

Okay I should go back to bed since I'm taking a sick day because I was up all night with the flu. Blah!

Johnny Appleseed Day

Did you know that this Friday (March 11th) is Johnny Appleseed Day? This guy actually gets two days, one in September (for his birthday) and then the one in March (since it's during planting season). There's a great story in our HM reading basal, but it's not for another couple of weeks that we'll get to that.

We just learned our sums of 10 facts and the majority of my students are getting it, but there are those few that are still struggling. So I made this matching activity to review those math facts and include the apples to introduce the Johnny Appleseed story.

Hope you can use it! Click HERE for the download.

How do you celebrate Johnny Appleseed?

Restroom Passes

I have a little cutie in my classroom that has a medical issue that makes it necessary for her to use the restroom more often than my other students. I've noticed over the past few weeks that she was leaving the classroom around 4 times a day to use the restroom and she'd be gone each time for around 5 minutes. So after some suspicion I would watch her walk to the restroom and see that she was just roaming the hallway. After a stern talking to, I thought we had resolved this issue.

Nope. On Monday two of my students ran into my room to tell me that this student would stand on the stall and climb over the walls. What?!? First graders do the strangest things sometimes. The best part though, waswhen I asked her why in the world she would climb the walls in the bathroom she told me that she couldn't stop herself because it was too much fun. Love the honesty!

So after talking to her awesome mom I came up with this plan of using an Emergency Restroom Pass. She gets to use one a day and the days that she doesn't use the Emergency Pass (and just uses the restroom during recesses like the other students) she could get a prize. This form stays in my desk and I just cross out that day's pass if she needs it. Does that make sense? Check out the picture and see if that helps.

This system has only been in place for a week, but so far - so good!

Click HERE for the download.

How do you solve restroom issues in your class?

Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered our little giveway. Nicole and I are happy to say that we have a winner!

Congrats to Lindsey from the teacher wife!

Lindsey, please message me with your address and let me know which one of the three musicals you'd like!

Hope you all had a fun Dr. Seuss Day!

Giveaway!

One more day to enter the musical giveaway. I promise your students will love it and the parents will think you're extra fantastic. Click HERE for more info.

The musical Go Fish!

How fun does this look? Sorry it's so fuzzy. I did it so you couldn't see the kiddo's faces.

Best of luck!