June 24, 2012

What do you celebrate?

What sorts of things do you celebrate with your school friends? In third grade, we celebrated 100's on tests and fact proficiency. I would send a note home, have their name read over the announcements in the afternoon, and they would wear a button all day to let everyone in the building know about their success. I got the button idea from reading this book.


I loved reading Ron Clark's book. He has so many amazing ideas on how to really celebrate and connect with students. However, I couldn't help but wonder how his ideas could ever really work in a public school setting. So much of what he is able to do seems to be based off of the incredible parent support and the ability to hold the students and parents in the school accountable for any of their actions that don't mesh with the school's philosphy. However, I really enjoyed reading this book and there were several takeaways. He talks about students wearing a button around the school all day that reads, "Ask me what I got on my test" Think about how powerful that is. Like, literally wearing a badge of honor. For a lot of my friends, that simply don't get enough attention at home, this might be just the motivator to study a little harder!

I came up with some buttons to wear for my new kindergarten friends. Trouble is, since I haven't ever taught Kinder yet, I am not sure what all we should celebrate! If you will leave me a comment on the types of things you celebrate in your classroom, along with your email, I will send you a copy of the buttons for free when I finish them!

While I was blog surffing this weekend, I came across Tonya's Treats for Teachers who just happened to be posting about the same thing! I couldn't believe it.. but as she reminded me, great minds think alike! So head on over to her blog to see the precious buttons she came up with.

Here is a sneak peak at what I'll be giving away to those of you that leave me a comment!
Celebrate a lost tooth!
Celebrate counting to 100!



11 comments:

  1. These are so cute! I've requested this book from subtext, hopefully I'll get it soon!

    Katie
    Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans

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  2. I guess the obvious ones are: Birthday, 100th day, I can tie my own shoes, I know when my Birthday is..ask me, I can spell my first name, I can spell my last name, I know my address, I was caught being a good friend, I am a child of good character (respect, responsibility, Trustworthiness, fairness, caring, citizenship), I know my numbers to 10, I know my numbers to 20, I can count to 100, I know all our sight words so far…and then list them, I lost a tooth, My family has a new brother or sister, I can say the pledge to the flag all by myself, I have great respect for the books in our room, the computer is my friend…ask me why?
    I am sure there are loads more…hope I thought of a few you didn’t already think of..hehehhe.
    Have a great day:)
    Barbara

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  3. WOW Barbara, thanks for all the great ideas... I better get busy!!

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  4. Hi Heather! Welcome to the wonderful world of kindergarten! In addition to Barbara's fantastic list, I have the kiddos wear our "words of the week" in a slipped name badge - this prompts other teachers {and big buddies} to stop them and ask them to read and spell the words. They get sooooo excited when they are stopped in the hallway.

    ❤Tanya
    Ms. Solano's Kindergarten

    PS - I'm your newest follower!

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  5. YEAH! Great minds do think alike:) Love your other buttons! Super cute! I featured you today in my Sunday Spotlight! Come check it out:)

    Tonya
    Tonya’s Treats for Teachers

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  6. These are so cute! Between you and Tonya I can't get enough of these. They will be on my next week's Monday-Made it for sure...

    Courtney
    3rd Grade Sprinkles
    courtneyice1@gmail.com
    P.s. following you now!

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  7. Your buttons are so cute!
    lraines78@gmail.com

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  8. Hi! You won my giveaway and I need to grab your email to send you your goodies. :)

    Erica

    Sprinkles to Kindergarten

    erica_crowder0612@yahoo.com

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  9. What a GREAT idea! I am definitely going to make some of these. Thanks for sharing.

    Kristi
    Learning's a Hoot

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  10. One of the things we really celebrate is when someone knows all of the high frequency words they are supposed to know for the year. So I think "I know all of my high frequency words" would be great. I LOVE "I can tie my shoes" because they are always asking me to do it and I am always telling them that their homework is to learn to tie their shoes. And sometimes they come in a few days later able to do it. Their parents just need a reminder to work on that skill. Also love the birthday and address ones. My kids had a hard time with that. Another one would be "I can write my first and last name".

    I love the owls. I'm doing owls this year. They are so stinking cute.

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  11. Heather, I love the button idea. You have a geat list of celebrations. I teach first, but I was thinking having a button saying they were in your class would be helpful. My kids wear name tags forever just so they have that info on them. At first they can't remember who their teacher is or what room they are in. When they wear that info, then anyone can help them find their way back to class. I was thinking just having a button they can wear that says Mrs. Mathis' shining star would keep them from having to wear a name tag. They get tired of that hanging around their neck all the time. Thanks for sharing.
    Pattie
    pdmathis@satx.rr.com

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