Monday, August 5, 2013

I'm O-FISH-ALLY in 2nd Grade! FREEBIE

      Our Meet the Teacher night is coming up soon, and I can't wait to meet my new 2nd Graders!  It is  going to be weird seeing bigger kids! Haha. The last 5 years, teaching 1st Grade, it has been so different because the kids are so tiny coming up from Kindergarten!  I know being in a new place and meeting new people is hard for some kiddos, so I wanted to give my new 2nd Graders (I can't call them "firsties" anymore....geez! What do you call 2nd graders?  Secondies?? That just doesn't sound right!! haha) a little treat from me to welcome them, so I made these little gift tags to put onto a bag of goldfish for a snack!  These tags actually have a page for 1st Graders too... so one page says "I'm O-FISH-ally in 1st Grade" and one says "I'm O-FISH-ally in 2nd Grade."  Click the picture to download!  Enjoy!!
            - Beth

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Clip Chart Behavior Management System with Monthly Calendars FREEBIE

**** 7-30-18 Update!! The NEW 2018-2019 Clip Chart Management System & Calendars are available on my TPT Store at the following link ****  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Clipchart-Behavior-Management-System-with-Monthly-Behavior-Calendars-2018-2019-3957103

Hey ya'll!!!  Summer is almost over.... :( Boo hoo....I can't believe the school year is about to begin!! It's so bittersweet.  I'm super excited to start a new school year (I LOVE new beginnings and a fresh start!) but also sad to give up my days of sleeping in and being on my own schedule.  I'm pretty sure my husband does not feel bad for me though....haha.  I think he'll be glad for me to start back so I can't be home spending money! ;) 

    Anyway, I don't know about all of you, but with the start of a new school year, one of the first things I want to have firmly in place is a behavior management system...and a good one at that!  I have tried several different systems over the past several years, and the one that I used this past school year seemed to work the best out of all the ones I've tried, so I am going to do it again!  I did some tweaking to the clip chart system I used last year, though, and changed "Outstanding" to "Outstanding LEADER" since my school does The Leader in Me and focuses on developing the 7 Habits and Leadership skills in our students.  I also made monthly behavior calendars to go along with the clip chart system to help me communicate behavior daily to parents.  This is going to be a change for me since before I was using a weekly behavior communication sheet.  I liked the weekly sheet because I had more room to write in notes/comments, giving parents more detailed information about good things their child did that day and more info about poor choices they may have made too so the parents had some info to follow up with the child at home.  But it truly was getting difficult and time consuming to write notes.  So I came up with a behavior code with numbers that correspond to different behaviors, so I can refer to the numbers to let parents know what specific behaviors their child struggled with (I always feel that is important so the parents have some info to address things at home effectively).   I think I am going to like the monthly calendars because they are going to be more manageable and less paper to have to copy each week.  They are also very self explanatory, so I hope parents will find them user friendly and communicative.
   Along with this management pack is a parent letter to explain the system, student award certificates for when the students reach "Outstanding Leader" and a "Outstanding Leader Hall of Fame" poster for students to retire their clips when they have reached Outstanding Leader 5 times.  The first 3 teachers to comment on this post and leave their email get this pack for FREE!!!  Or if you would like to purchase this behavior management pack, click on the picture to go to my TPT store.  It's only $1.99!!
    Does anyone use monthly calendars in their classrooms now?  I'd love to know what you think about them, how they work for you, and any tips you have!!
    Happy Teaching!!

               Love, Beth