Interactive Bulletin Boards

So I have become pretty much obsessed with the idea of interactive bulletin boards.  While I was decorating my classroom, I had big gaping holes on each of my bulletin boards.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, and I don't have a lot of anchor charts yet since its my first year.  I figure, what better way to make a bulletin board count than to have my kids help me decorate.  I put up sheets of paper on each bulletin board that will have a question for students to answer. 

Right now, my reading board has "Books We Love."  It's pretty self-explanatory, the kids just write the name of some of the great books they are reading.  I want to start simple so they feel comfortable putting their ideas and thoughts up for everyone to see. 

 

My math board has "Write an addition problem that equals 20.  _ + _ = 20."  My goal is that there are multiple answers and they keep looking for new answers, including using multiple addends (i.e. 3 + 3 + 14). Once they get comfortable, I definitely want to increase the level of the question and keep it on track with what we are talking about in the classroom.

The writing board question is, "What do writers write about?"  The goal is to get students thinking early about the different topics and connect that to all the topics that they can write about too.  I'm going to introduce it by having students discuss what the author is writing about in everything we read (including textbooks) so they have a huge variation.

I've also got a "Fun Facts" paper where they will be able to write down facts from the non-fiction book they read.  My requirement will also be that they write down the book name and the page number.

Finally there will be a class question board.  Right now it is asking what they enjoy about coming back to school.

Of course, each of these will be introduced whole group and we will add to them as a class. Then, the students should be able to interact with them as partners or individually.  My favorite part of this is that it can be a great tool for my fast finishers.  Instead of saying, "Ms. Birrer, I'm done," all I have to do is point to an interactive board and say, "Get to it!"  I know.  It's a dream. When do kids ever stop announcing they're done and they need something to do? ;)

Clipping Up Behavior

 

Last year, my first graders responded really well to a clip chart.  I'm sure you've seen the basic idea by now.  Students start in the middle and then they clip up for good behavior and clip down for bad behavior.  I had a couple students that were great in class because they would do anything just to clip up.  I'm not just talking about the "good" students.  The students that constantly got in trouble were the ones that got really excited and motivated to clip up.  I wouldn't even have to say anything to get my class quiet.  All I had to do was point to a student and point to the chart and they knew to clip up.  A couple students would see and start doing what they needed to and it was a domino effect.  I love it when managing the classroom takes minimal work from me.

I'm not sure how my third graders are going to respond to the clip chart, but I figure it can't hurt to give it a spin.  Plus I'm revamping a little.  This is all a theory, but I'm crossing my fingers and my toes and pretty much anything else I can cross that this will work.  My biggest issue with incorporating this was that I was bored with the plain old rectangular clip chart.  I like pretty and fun.  It was not.  Then I ran across something on Pinterest (imagine that).  It was a pin chart made from frogs.   Check it out here.

Well, I am not using frogs anymore, but I loved the idea of using a different shape.  Since I'm using polka dots as a classroom theme, the logical idea is to use circles.  My next problem was how to get the clips to fit.  So I'm putting it together with ribbon so I can clip all the way around the circle.



I'm not sure my third graders are going to be quite so excited about clipping up for their good behavior, so I'm also implementing a new reward system.  Last year, my kids only got something when they clipped all the way to the top of the chart.  That rarely happened, but they were usually just excited I noticed their great behavior so it was no big deal.  This year, I want to make every clip count and I want to focus on moving up, not down.  The plan is to use behavior cards that the students are in charge of keeping up with.  Once again, Pinterest was my friend and provided me with a punch card that has only ten punches.  This is what I am going to use for my kids and you can find it here. 

For every time they clip up, students will receive one punch on their card.  If they clip up to the top of the chart, that means three punches in one day.  After they fill up their card, they can use the card to redeem things from the classroom store. What I'm really excited about is that I'm going to offer some different choices.  For ten punches they can get a prize out of a traditional prize box (candy, pencils, toys, etc).  They can also save cards.  For two cards (twenty punches) they get to choose an individual coupon like a homework pass, assignment pass, help from a friend, sit where they want for a day, etc. They can also save three cards.  For three cards, they can get a coupon for the class. These include a dance party, movie time, extra recess, popcorn during work time, etc.  I'm hoping some of my students will be encouraged to work hard for more than just the regular prize box and go for coupons which are pretty much free for me.  Plus it means they learn delayed gratification.  We will see how the theory holds up to reality.  If it doesn't work "Monitor and Adjust." :)

My Tree

Like a lot of teachers I know, I'm slightly obsessed with Pinterest.  I found a wall decal tree that I fell in love with here.  Of course I saw polka dots and swirls and it was perfect.  I decided to get crafty and make something similar, because I didn't think that would A) fit on my wall and B) stay on my wall.

My first problem is that I am not a crafty person, so I started by cutting swirls out of circles.

It was going pretty well until I got through about 50 swirls and realized I had no idea how I was going to attach them to the wall. It was going to take infinite amounts of glue or tape and was going to look incredibly messy.

So I decided to do what I really didn't want to, paint.  I made a tree, which was the easy part.

I also made my own swirl stencil because I couldn't find one I liked.  I'm picky.  After some tentative trial and error, I found out that painting is actually therapeutic for me.  I'm really not an artist, so it takes a lot of concentration and effort on my part.  It's a huge excitement when the paint actually looks great too.  Here is about an hour into my paint job:

I'm pretty impressed since it is all coming together and looks pretty good.  I'm pretty sure the tree is never moving from my wall.  It's not quite done yet, but it's a good start for the year.

Introduction

I guess the best way to start this blog is to tell you guys about myself.  I am about to start my second year of teaching in an elementary school.  Before this, I taught preschool. In two years, I have managed to go from preschool to first grade and now to third grade.  This is definitely a whole new world for me.  

Thankfully, I'm a Pinterest addict and I work with some incredible colleagues that have already gotten me rolling. Another point in my favor is that my mother also teaches and she just happens to teach third grade. Guess who gets lost of frantic phone calls from me? ;) One of the most beneficial things a teacher can have is someone with lots of ideas, experience, and plenty of patience for all the things you want to talk about.  Luckily, my mom has plenty of all of those. 

So, as I start out on the third grade journey/escapade/adventure/possible nightmare, I figured I'd start blogging about ideas I have, things I have implemented, and anything else I can think of.  Let's get this year started and see how it goes!