The first day of school for 2014 has come and gone and I
have survived! There were only a
few set backs such as no school internet, a huge water leak in the class
drowning some student books, no water at school with kids sent home at lunch
time and a lingering tummy bug from yesterday but we remained positive. Who
needs the internet in class anyway? The books can be replaced. A half day eased
us all into the school year and I am feeling 100% better this afternoon.
With my blog finished over the weekend thanks to the amazing
Rebekah Louise Designs (check out her wonderful work
here) I thought there was no better time to write my first
blog post than the first day of school.
This year I have Grade 1 and 2 and my goodness haven’t they
grown from last year. The year 2s in my class had me last year for year 1 and
are so proud to be the “big year 2 kids” and show the year 1s the ropes. The
year 1 students made the transition from prep (kindergarten) and loved to get
to know how things work in our class. They didn’t even seem to notice the lack
of playtime!
The half day meant that not everything in my planning got
done, but the rest of the week will now be even busier.
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| Success Wall |
I thought I’d share some pics of one of our class data walls
or as we like to call it our success wall. In our class we have four success
walls where we share our achievements and use them to set individual goals.
This year I decided to have:
* a beach/sea theme for our Superstars of the Sea classroom
behaviour management/points system
* a map of the
islands for our Sight Words wall where each student has a little boat
travelling around the islands
* a ladder for our reading levels with the students photo
moving up the ladder
* a monster maths race for number goals with monster characters
racing to the finish
These photos show our Success Wall with three of the four
data wall displays completed. The monster maths will be added and ready for
next week (yes once I get some time to finish it).
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| Superstars of the Sea Display Chart |
The kids loved the Superstars of the Sea display and I
wonder why? Rewards! Once each student gets 10 points for following the class
rules and displaying appropriate behaviour their sea character moves along the
wall and they get to choose a reward. I’ve decided this term to put all of my
reward cards into a bag and have the students select one at random. Most of
these rewards are free but some such as Prize or popcorn party obviously come
with a cost. I’m hoping the random selection might save me some of the money I
spent on prizes last year.
My Superstars of the Sea display and table points chart is
available from my Teachers Pay Teachers store
HERE.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the week and will be sure
to add some updates and share what we have done (if there is water at the
school!!!!)
Check out my Meet the Teacher page for more info about me
and the story behind Teacher Teacher. Don't forget to leave a comment or share your first day stories.
