Monday Made It: Teacher Toolkit Times Two

Did you enjoy my alliteration? I just can't seem to be on time with my blog posts this summer :( Anyway, as the title states, I am linking up with Tara again for another Monday Made It. 

I was estatic at the end of the school year when a good teacher friend of mine surprised me with two different toolkits! She purchased this one, which is actually made to store nails/screws

source (Mine actually has 30 drawers but I can't find it online)

and this one!

source

I have great friends, right?? I saw these toolkits all last summer and didn't think I would need one. I changed my mind. I got really tired of running from my small group table all the way across the room to my desk every time I needed something. This little guy is going to live on a self behind my guided reading table so I will have supplies close by wherever I am! I am planning a superhero theme this year and here is what I came up with. A quick coat of black spray paint and it looks perfect!

 The next toolkit (the one meant for nails) is also going to live right by my guided reading table. It will hold letter tiles (like the ones below) so that I can easily hand out and put away letters for word work!

click on the picture to see them at Lakeshore

There you have it! I am loving seeing all the other ideas but like many of you, my to do list keeps getting longer and longer! See you next week.. I am already working so hopefully I can be on time! 

Optimum Organization : Reward Coupons

I am dropping by with a quick post about my reward coupon organization system! 

I simply print, cut out, and laminate my reward cards. Then I place one of each type inside a baseball card holder like the ones here (I bought mine at Wal-mart) and then I put the rest of those cards behind it in the same sleeve. Students could look through the 2 pages of rewards quickly and just pull out the card they were choosing! No more cards scattered everywhere! 

One more small tip. I would have the students write their name with a sharpie or Vis-A-Vis on the back of the laminated card so if they dropped it before using it, I could return it to them. Then, when students "cashed" in, I would erase their name by covering it with dry erase marker and wiping clean so that it could be reused (like this). Gotta save money on that colored ink!

Thanks for stopping by. Please head on over to Fun in Room 4B or Ladybug's Teacher Files and see all the other amazing ideas!

Tried it Tuesday: Sticky-note management

I am linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for this weeks Tried it Tuesday.  I have mentioned several times that I have a very challenging group this year. They are sweet (for the most part- wink, wink) but impulsive and chatty does not even begin to describe them.  I have tried lots of management techniques this year. I use a combination of Whole Brain Teaching and a clip chart system but after awhile it stopped being effective for this group. Getting everyone to move their clips up or down was starting to cause more problems. Kids would push, talk, move someone else's clip (seriously?)  Then I tried Class Dojo. Loved it but I wasn't consistent enough with it. I don't get cell service in my classroom so I couldn't use the app and it was unrealistic to have it up on the board all the time. Often, I would be teaching and need to give or take away a point so I would have to stop teaching, pull up the screen, etc. As you can imagine, that was tedious and lead to more off -task behavior. If I can ever find a way to use the app in my room, I will go back to it. Love the idea and the kids did too. That brings us to where I am now. Each day each student gets a sticky note to add to the top corner of their desk. They draw a line down the center and add a happy face to the left and a frown-y face on the right. Then, just the same as using the clip chart but without having to leave their seats, students can earn tally marks on either side. I like it because I can quickly look around the room and see who needs more positives and I can even save or transfer the data from the sticky for RTI data. 

At the end of the day, students either earn a ticket for our class drawing or have to pay me Cougar Bucks (school money). The kids love it and I find I give more positives than when using the clip chart because I don't have to worry about a "pile up" or worry about getting in and out of their seats over and over. At the beginning I had the kids bring it home each night for their parents to sign. Now, I only do that for a few friends! *side note* If we are at the carpet or away from their desks I just tell them to add a smiley and they add it when they get back to their seats... they don't forget, trust me!

Made It Monday - Lining up!

So sorry I have been MIA :( I am still in Ohio having a great time with family though! I felt sick about missing last week's Made it Monday and I was determined to not miss it again this week! Since I am far from home, I couldn't make any physical items for my classroom..BOO, but I was able to make some digital products. If you make it all the way to the bottom of the post, you can grab your freebie too!

Do you spend hours watching Teacher Tipster videos online, or is it just me? I love this guy! Anyway, as I was thinking about DAY 1, I knew I needed an effective way to line up my kids. I use several ideas already, but I wanted to add a few more to my teacher toolbox! I plan to print these, add a binder ring and hang them by my door so I don't have to try to remember the words to all the different songs!





Here are the ones I made for my classroom. I made these on my moms ancient less than ideal computer, and there was no option to save the document as a PDF. I saved them as JPEG's to Google Docs, I hope that it works!!! You should be able to click on any of the pictures to grab your copy. Then, head on over to Tara's to see what everyone else is making this week!

Finally Finished: Buttons!

It took me longer than I'd hoped, but I finally got the buttons finished. Just print these out and then place inside of a clear button (sold in the crafting section of Wal-mart) Allow your students to wear these when they've reached a goal or have shown good character. Students can't help but feel proud when teachers and other students all through the school acknowledge their success!! If you like these, please leave me a comment!! Thanks,

get them here

**update: my brain got to thinking that maybe I could take a picture of the student wearing the button and make a wall of fame. Or, simply send the picture home with the child so their parents can celebrate with them too!

*updated to link up with Manic Monday