Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tuesday Blues

Yesterday was a holiday- President's Day. It was a nice day off. Actually, we had 5 days off (including the weekend). As the parents came into the class room this morning to drop off their students, they kept telling me that they were ready for their children to come back to school. Apparently, the break was too long.

The students were tired today. You could see it in their eyes. We needed a break from our break. Chapel went really well this morning. The students were well behaved. We showed a video during chapel for Jump Rope for Heart. We are doing Jump Rope for Heart during Lutheran Schools Week. The students are getting really pumped and excited. If your school does not participate in jump rope for heat... I would encourage you to look into it and participate. It is really easy to plan. The American Heart Society does an amazing job of putting it together and planning activities with the school. GREAT CAUSE!

After chapel we were getting our quiet wiggles out before counting how many days we have been in school and all of a sudden a student starts crying. One of my students stabbed another student in the hand with his pencil. I am having trouble with this student and am trying to figure out how to create the best learning environment for him and for the rest of the class. He is very smart, but cannot seem to stay out of trouble. If you have any advice... I would love some!

The rest of the day went well. The students were good during Spanish and made it through share time without any tears. I think for the first day back after a long weekend was a success.

If any of you who read this has advice for projects and/ or learning centers or anything else... I would love to hear it!

2 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! It sounds like he may be causing trouble because he doesn't have anything to challenge him? I know when I was in a first grade classroom I had a student who consistently finished his work early and disrupted those around him. I set up a challenge work folder for him that built off of what he was learning in class, but took it to the next level and was something he was interested in. For instance, he really wanted to learn multiplication, so when he finished his math early, I had multiplication flashcards and a timer in his folder that he would sit quietly and time himself doing.

    As far as learning centers, I've seen a couple of great books that can be bought at teacher supply stores that have pages you can photo copy and create learning folders out of based off of certain themes. Check out "Take it to Your Seat" books on Amazon and you'll get the idea.

    Also, in special education we use a lot of file folder activities. These are reusable and just require set up and lamination on a file folder. We then put velcro on the file folder and each of the pieces so when the student places all the pieces in place, we can go back later and check their work and reset it for next time. www.filefolderfun.com has a lot of these games for free, but you can also usually find them in book form at a teaching store.

    I hope this all helps in some way! If all else fails you could set up a behavior contract with the student depending on how much his behavior interrupts instruction. I look forward to an update on him!

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  2. My Kinders had a hard time coming back after the long weekend, too. But lucky you that you got Friday off as well!

    I haven't heard of Jump for Heart before. That's something to look into!

    The challenge folder sounds like a great suggestion. I have only seen those meet with success :)

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