Class Dojo

So I used the famous clip chart for my behavior management system last year, but this year I was told about something a little different and my kiddos LOVE it. It is called Class Dojo and it is all online. Each student gets to select a little "monster" as my class calls them and their name is beside their monster all day. We have Elmos at my school so I can project this up on the screen for them to see.

You can enter whatever behavior you want. You get to enter positive and negative behavior and choose icons for them. I am using whole brain teaching this year so I use those behaviors plus some others such as helping others, no homework, etc.

Well, whenever you have a student do something good or not so good you give them a point. When you have started giving points during the day the screen will look more like this:

 

Some of the great things about this is it is FREE. If you have internet access on your phone you can take it in the hallway with your class or over to the carpet if you go there as a class to read. AND when you give them a point it makes a neat chiming sound and when you take a point away it makes a sad sound.

 

My students have a daily calendar in their take home folder and at the end of the day they either put + or - and their number of points. BUT you can also email the reports to the parents so they can see specifically what their child lost or earned points for that day. At the end of the week I let my kids add their + points and subtract their - points and that is the number of points they get to spend in the treasure chest, so we don't have to mess with the whole ticket system. Another idea I use with this is my kids each get 2 pencils per day at the end of the day if they cannot show me those 2 pencils they have to "buy" new ones with their points. This has really helped them take responsibility for keeping up with their belongings.

 

Hope this is something you can use. Let me know if you try it out and if you like it or not. It has been a lifesaver for me!

Poetry, Fall Centers, and a MUCH BETTER WEEK!!!

First of all I have to say a HUGE thank you to everyone single person that posted a comment on my previous post. You all mean so much to me and I was overwhelmed to hear all of your positive words. I have been so happy knowing that you all do enjoy my posts and I am absolutely not giving up blogging.

As for school news does anyone else have to give the SAT-10 test this year?? It is similar to T-CAP (for the upper grades) and is a 3-day 2 hour test. Poor babies! I feel so bad giving my little ones this test. The bad thing is that this is only the pretest and we have to take it again in May. Because of this I have been taking it light with classwork this week and we have focused on poetry. A great idea I got from Pinterest was the OUCH poems. We came up with what makes us say ouch and wrote them on our "Band-Aids." Here are how they came out.

 

Next, we studied acrostic poems. I decided to use the word fall and the word autumn for my more advanced students. Then we used the scarecrow template to "cutesy" it up. I adore these and my kids did such an amazing job. Click here to get the template. There is a color version and black and white.

 

 

 

And speaking of fall don't forget to check out my Happy Fall To All Math and Literacy Centers. It is on sale 15% off until Friday. Click on the picture to pick yours up! Happy Wednesday!!

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Week : (

I have to admit I have been a little bummed out this past week. I had a giveaway where I was giving away 4 of my best selling items and I only had 3 people enter all week long. I decided since only 3 ladies entered they were all winners and I sent them each all 4 of my packets. Congrats girls!

I was wondering if you do follow my blog would you mind leaving me a little comment and letting me know. I have started feeling like I write these posts and post freebies and nobody is actually ever seeing them but me. I would feel so much better if I knew someone out there was able to use what I am offering.

I am not at all trying to sound like a complainer, but we all know how busy teachers are, and I LOVE to post my ideas and freebies but I am almost thinking it's about time to hang up the blogging hat with the turn out from my past giveaway. If you do follow my blog, I truly appreciate you and hope my posts have helped you as a teacher in some way.

Main Idea and Supporting Details With The Little Red Hen

We are doing main idea and supporting details in my room this week. It is such a hard skill for them to grasp. Today we read The Little Red Hen and then made a cute little hen craftivity with the main idea and supporting details. I made a template for the hen and the kids wrote the main idea and 3 supporting details on the wings. You can get the template by clicking on the picture below. If you don't have the Little Red Hen book you can actually listen to it online here. Don't forget to enter my giveaway from my last post. Hope you enjoy!!

Labor Day Giveaway

I LOVE the labor day holiday. It is so refreshing after being back in school for a month to get a day off. If you are like me you have went nonstop since school started back. It's nice to have a day to relax.

In honor of having a day off I want to have a giveaway. I will be giving away my best selling products. Yep, that's right products with an "s." I want to giveaway all 4 of my common core math packets. These packets cover all math standards and will have you set all year long. Click on any of the pictures to see a preview.

Here is how you can enter. You must be a follower of my blog and my TPT store and since this is my biggest giveaway there is one more thing that is required to enter. You must also either pin my giveaway to Pintrest OR you can blog about my giveaway. Leave one comment only telling me that you are a follower of both and the link to your pin or blog. That's it! If you want more than one entry you can pin my giveaway AND blog about it. Just leave a second comment that you did both and make sure you leave the link for both. The giveaway starts today and will go through Friday of this week.

Good Luck!

Story Element Poster Freebie

Quick post today. Just had some story element posters that I used last week with my kiddos on our reading focus wall that I wanted to share with you. Click on the picture to download yours for free. Have a great weekend!!

Unkas The Reading Dog and Tasty Tuesday

I discovered the neatest thing in my county. A lady has a dog named Unkas that she takes to the schools in our county and the kids go out in the hall one at a time and get to read to it. My kiddos LOVED this today. Here are some pictures.

 

 

We also started Tasty Tuesday this week. If you haven't heard of this you HAVE to check it out. The kids get to "cook" something one Tuesday every month and then write a review. I even bought aprons for mine and had Mrs. Perkins' Chef put on them. They looked too cute. We made Carmel apples this time. The kids thought it was just the neatest thing. Click here to get the Tasty Tuesday directions from Sunny Days in Second Grade. Check out some of our apples.

 

I have parents volunteer to pick up the pictures each month so I don't put the kids face. That's their number so we know who is who. You keep their pictures and recipes and make a book at the end of the year to show their writing progress.

 

 

This kid went crazy with the sprinkles.

 



First Week Back Linky

Well we have been back at it for a whole week now. I LOVE my new class of little second graders. I have some cuties! I wanted to share what we did our first week back to school. Here are some pics of our finished products. Link up below to show what you did for your first week back.

First we used Hope King's Going for the Gold packet and made the adorable little glyph athletes. I wanted to use something with the Olympics since they were just finishing up, but I was shocked that half of my class didn't even know what the Olympics were.

We also made Olympic torches and wrote about what made us shine.

Here is our work in the hallway.

Then we used Babbling Abby's Super in Second packet to make these little backpacks. They wrote about what a second grader needs to be successful and put crayons in their pocket. So stinkin' cute!

Next, we read First Day Jitters, read Abby's poem, and made Jitter Juice. Oh My Goodness, the kids LOVED making this juice. They thought it was the neatest thing when we mixed the ingredients together.

I asked everyone to write a letter to a friend telling them about their new teacher. I went around reading them when they were at lunch and they were so sweet. This one if from my Korean girl. Love it!