I move my kiddos seats around every month. If they stay in the same seat any longer it becomes a problem (talking/arguing too much with their neighbors). I needed primary name tags that I could move quickly and easily with my students. I decided to put name tags on my students' pencil boxes. The tags at the stores (even the smaller ones) were too big! That's when I created these primary name tags.
They come in different colors, have the alphabet, numbers to 20, flat and solid shapes, left and right direction labels, and spot to write students' names. When it is time to work in groups, change seats, and/or someone needs to go to time out, all my kiddos have to do is take their box with them. Now they have some valuable information with them at all times. The tags being on pencil boxes have made a world of difference in my very busy classroom.
I decided to update my behavior chart to include emotion clip art to help students identify what it means to be on each color. It is a great visual for all my students. I printed the pages onto cardstock and taped the pages together. Then, I laminated it at Lakeshore Learning (one of my favorite stores). I have left over clothes pins from Dollar Tree and will write my students' names on it. The pins will go on the "ready to learn" every morning and will move up for good behavior or down for not so good behavior.
My classroom number posters were in need of updating. Yes, they were colorful, had fun animals on them, and had some number correspondence but I needed more. I created a pack that showed numbers 1-20 using primary lines, written words, and the number shown in tens-frames, base ten rods, and tally marks. I love that my students will be able to see these everyday!
We are currently implementing Daily 5 in my school. With it being my first year at the school, my leveled books were not as organized as I would have liked. Don't get me wrong, all the "A" books were in the "A" bin. However, I am super organized and my students were not putting the books back in the correct bins when they shopped. We all have enough on our plate than to sit and go through all the books daily to ensure they are in their right spot.
I started to write the letter on the back on each book to indicate the level of the book. Sometimes I would cut up blank mailing address labels and use them too. This helped students (especially the in-between level readers) to put their books back in the correct bin. My next problem were the labels on my book bins. They looked sorry and needed updating. I made a pack of guided reading labels for your bins too. It made such a difference in my class.
The picture only shows 3 bins. I have several "A", "B", "C", and "D" bins that are all next to each other. I just grabbed these 3 when cleaning to show you a picture.
My Daily 5 time is an extra special time because my classroom becomes an inclusion classroom with a special education teacher coming in to work with us. I always have 5 centers or activities going on in the room. My classroom has different styles and sizes of tables which cause a problem for different size groups to work. So my centers are often in different locations depending on the activity and/or the number of students in the group. As you can imagine that is a lot to take on for a 5/6 year old. First, they need to remember what activity they are doing and where they are going to sit. If they forget, they have to remember who is in their group and find where they are sitting. If you think that is hard, remember group members are always being switched out due to the progress they are making. Now add a disability on top of that! Of course I created a solution.
These are my new signs for my centers. I saw something similar on Pinterest and dragged my husband to IKEA (they were only $0.99 each). That poor man is dragged to all these stores! So I couldn't just make signs that said "word work " because they may be working on more than just word work. I decided that each group will be called a color. I couldn't stop there. I had to add a shape to give that group a name, and the shape had to be one that students usually have trouble with. Now my kiddos will be reviewing their shapes and colors during Daily 5! They are super cute too. Click on the picture for your own copy. Make sure to print out two copies of each page so your frames have a back and front. I added a second white one to save paper.
