Mrs. Broughton's Class

Organizing Sight Word Sticks

I don't know about you, but when I first saw Reagan Tunstall's sight word stick centers, I was immediately smitten. I knew this was something I wanted to add to my word work center. I love low maintenance activities that really help students master their sight words.

But what do you do with all the sticks? How to keep them? Where to put them? Here is my solution:

First go ahead and gather those sticks. My curriculum at this point of the year introduces 6 sight words a week. I write this week's sight words on one end of the sticks and the lesson (27) on the other.

I find that 4 students per daily 5 choice is about the max I can handle without going crazy! (so much NOISE) So I have 4 sets of sticks, and each have their own cup in the "Work on Words" tub.

I make sure to assign each set it's own color so that the students can easily know whose sticks are whose, no matter how many friends are at the center and how mixed up the sticks get. I can also easily pull out the sticks from weeks ago that the students hopefully have mastered already because I have the lesson number on the other end of the stick.

Now, how do I store all these sticks you ask? Well, each lesson gets its own snack sized baggie baggie with the lesson number on it. I find these are the perfect size for the sticks. Then I put all four sets of sticks from the lesson together. Even though they are mixed up, they are easy to separate by color and put into the correct cups.

Then all the snack sized baggies containing each lesson's words go together in a quart sized bag labeled with the unit on it. My units have 4 lessons that introduce new sight words and a review lesson. So each quart baggie just has 4 snack baggies. Easy to find what I need.

I can also easily fit all 6 unit bags into a gallon sized bag with the whole year's worth of sticks.

I simply keep this bag at the back of my file cabinet where I store all my other Journey's materials and pull what sticks I need or file away the old sticks as needed. Depending on your file system, you could even just put the baggies in a hanging file, but I'm a little tight on space and can't stand for things to fall out of the folders. So a baggie works best for me.

I easily finished the second half of my year's sight word sticks in one sitting. And I have WAY less during the first half of the year, so this was an easy project to complete in one planning period and a few minutes after school. And I feel SO good knowing I'm ready for next year. I don't know about you, but I'm all about easy and the more prepared I am, the easier my day goes.

Hopefully this helps you, or at least gives you an idea about how to go about getting together your sticks in order! I am hoping to get out another post about how I organize all the papers for this center soon! I highly recommend this product. My kids are loving it and so am I!!

9:26 AM
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Curing Tattle Tales

classroom management

Okay teachers. I have discovered something. Or rather, uncovered it. I'm not sure where this inspiration came from, but it has completely changed how I feel at the end of the school day. It has to do with the dreaded teacher issue of tattling.

When my children tattle, it makes me crazy. I can't stand it. It irritates me and frustrates me. It's my least favorite thing about teaching. I know and recognize that it is a natural part of childhood, and that because my students trust me and know that I support them, they want to naturally bring their problems to me so I can help them. But I strongly believe that it is more important to teach them how to get along WITHOUT teacher intervention or at least as little intervention as possible.

Which is where my discovery comes in. When students come to me tattling I reply with a simple response: "Why are you telling me? I didn't do that." This makes them think and realize that *I* cannot/should not solve their problem. When I tried this the first time, they tilted their little heads and looked at me with confusion. Then they thought about what I had said. This is when I encouraged them to go and talk it out with the person who was bothering them, and not me. After all, I didn't cause the problem. Their friend did. And to solve it they needed to talk with their friend, not me.

This is where it is important to get out of the way. Most often, they can simply talk it out together and figure out what to do together, which I sometimes think is the most important of kindergarten skills to learn. I often suggest my students step into the hallway to discuss and come back when a solution is found. If they can't come to conclusion, I help, but at little as possible. Often I sit between them and ask them to tell me their issue, and simply repeat what they said back to them. We go back and forth until things are smoothed out. A typical conversation goes like this:

Lucy: "Mrs. Broughton! Suzy put her ponytail in my face!"
Me: "Why are you telling me? I didn't put my ponytail in your face."
Lucy: **Looks quizzically at me**
Me: "Why don't you talk to Suzy about it?"
Lucy: **Goes to Suzy** "Suzy I don't like that you put your ponytail in my face"

Usually, this conversation continues on to solution on it's own. But in the case that it doesn't, here is how I would participate:

Me: "Suzy, Lucy doesn't like how you put your ponytail in her face."
Suzy: "I didn't mean to, I was just standing in line and scooted back and did it on accident."
Me: "Lucy, Suzy says it was an accident. How do you feel about that?"
Lucy: "I didn't like it."
Me: "Suzy, Lucy still wants you to know she didn't like it."
Suzy: "I really didn't mean to. I'm sorry, will you please forgive me?"
Lucy: "I guess it's okay. I forgive you."

Now obviously this is the ideal way this would go. But I hope that you'd be surprised that it goes this way more often than not. Especially if you really hammer home a clear and distinct way to apologize, which I do as often as possible. I only try to involve myself if the kids are really getting upset and can't quite get their emotions in check. They need practice discussing issues and brainstorming solutions. Obviously my little narrative above isn't one of those situations, but you get the idea of the technique I use. If it appears that a solution is not going to come, I will sometimes suggest a break until the emotions level out and then bring them together again to try to sort it out. But this rarely is the case. Usually they can and will sort it out themselves!

Try this. I dare you. You might find that they stop coming to you because they know what you are going to say, and skip that step altogether and start a conversation on their own. I found some kids doing it the first day! Good Luck!

Did you try this? Did it work for you? I'd love to hear your experience!

4:15 PM
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Kindergarten Classroom Tour: 2014-2015

2014-2015

Welcome to my classroom! Though it is now only, oh a month or two from the end of the school year, I am not any less proud of this classroom than I was the beginning of the year. I always love looking at different classrooms and hope you enjoy seeing mine.

Welcome to our Room! I have 15 little friends this year. I love to create a basic door and leave it for most of the year. I added a seasonal one at Christmas, but find I don't have much energy at any other point of the year!

This is the view from our door. As you can see we have 4 table groups for students with a paper fan above each group. In honor of full disclosure, one has fallen three times and now lives in my cabinet. ;)

This is the view to the immediate right of my door looking towards my teacher station. Things have moved a little from the beginning of the year, but this set up is basically the same.

This is my student drop station. Here they put their folders, get tissues, hand sanitizer, etc. I've since moved the pencil station and the sharpener, but it was here for a long portion of the year! The board above holds the envelope for ice cream money and a baggie with all of our boxtops for our PTO.

This is our job board as it stood for well over half the year. I like to assign a job at the beginning of the year that fits the personality/abilities of my students and let them get REALLY good at it. I might change a friend here and there. For example, I had bathroom monitors, but realized with my friends this year, it was best for ME to be the only monitor because of spats the rose up. This board has since been changed to an "Exemplary Work" board.

Behold the biggest eyesore of my classroom: the random lighter paint section. I assume a board was there at some point. I tried to distract from it with wall decor, but to no avail. Since these pictures, I have taken down the file folder hangers. I find with kindergarten they for some reason do not work as well as they did when I taught 2nd grade for how I organize.

Student tables complete with first day crayons, work and caddies. We've also since transitioned to pencil boxes instead of communal supplies because I know that's what they use in First Grade here at my school. But I still have a soft spot for communal supplies for the all-important concept of sharing!

My calendar board. Very simple this year, it has also had a little rearranging but not much.

This is the view from the back of the room to the front. I'm looking forward to installation of a smart board very soon in my classroom to replace the board on the right side!

This is our class library and manipulative. I made the curtains out of IKEA fabric to cover my teacher books, manuals, and extra student books. The student books will eventually go on the empty shelf and the table caddies are stored away on the shelf on top of their work books when they need to be put away.

Here is one of my favorite parts of the room: my alphabet wall. I got the idea from Maria Manore at KinderCraze. I spent A LOT of time on her blog when I found out I'd be moving to kindergarten. She is a great kinder teacher at a private Christian school! My rocking chair was a gift from a former parent, the pillow is from IKEA, and the blanket was a Goodwill find by my mom. The white caddy was from Target and all the book tubs are from the Dollar Tree. I've since reorganized and migrated many of these books, but this is the way that it looked the majority of the year.

Another view from near the windows that I LOVE. They flood the room with beautiful natural light. My only complaint is they can make nap time a little difficult at times!.

This area has our Work Work materials in the cubbies tubs, and other materials. This area has gone under the most rearrangements since the beginning of the year, but you live and you learn! I will be doing a second blog post later about how I changed my classroom after living in it for a whole year!

Here is our great view of the pre school playground and a small bit of our view of the huge evergreen right outside our window.

Here is our "CAFE" board and centers materials. I inherited a lot of these materials from previous occupants, so I wasn't sure at this point of the year how I would use them. This area will also be getting a serious overhaul now that I know what I want in my kindergarten classroom and what I DON'T want. All the stuffed animals are from the amazing collection that Kohl's puts out. I can't help but by one whenever I go. Lucky for my wallet Kohl's is not a regular stop for me.

Confession: I have not touched my CAFE board this year. New grade, new curriculum... I just haven't gotten everything in hand enough to not only learn the new curriculum, but then mold it to go along with CAFE strategies. This is something I plan on sitting down and really hammering out this summer. But it does look great doesn't it? Can't wait to see it actually full of reading strategies. Anyone else have anything fall through the cracks like that? So embarrassing...

Our awesome new listening centers our Head of School arranged for all K-3 classrooms to get this year. They play from an iPod that sets into the top of the dock. My kids are all very well versed in apple products so these are a breeze for them to use. Since the beginning of the year I also acquired three computers that actually sit in this spot now. The listening center needed to be a little closer to my teacher table to make sure students were on task and for technical support:)

Again these shelves are full of materials I am finding that I don't use quite as much as I thought I would. Most of these shelves are filled with books at the moment. The polka dot rugs are from IKEA- only $20! The edges do roll quite a bit. I currently have them rolled up trying to get them to flatten back out. They also move quite a bit on carpet. But I still LOVE them.

To the left is a sand table that needs a major love session. It's another item I inherited and thought I would love to use with my kinders, but just gives me a migraine. I plan to paint the whole thing and need to brainstorm another use that is less messy. I'm thinking dried beans, peas or something that isn't quite as invasive, but still allows some tactile play.

These shelves hold math manipulative and other teaching materials above, and below hold teacher supplies that are not exactly organized. The empty shelf perfectly fits 4 caddies (from the Dollar Store!) with our thin work books under them. The students who use that caddy put their books under it so they are all in the same place each time.

Our Word Wall! At this point of the year, it is almost full of sight words, color words, etc. I love using this space for word wall words. Last year I wrote directly on the cabinets with white board markers, and I think I may go back to that next year.

Here are my read-alouds for the first day of school and my rolling cart with my projector and document camera. I also keep my clipboards there so the students can easily access them during rug time. Soon my class will get to use our new projector and this cart will be no more- and I will do a happy dance!

I have also since covered my clear drawers with scrapbook paper! HUGE improvement. I also stole a black file cabinet from my husbands' office and changed this arrangement a bit. It is visually much neater and more functional.

Well that's it! I've made changes since the beginning of the year as I learn what Kindergarten is all about, but still love my space!

6:24 PM
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Checklist Update

You know that checklist you have rolling around in your head of all the things you want to get done this summer? Now that school has started, here is the update to mine. You can see which things made it to the DONE side and which fell through... the best laid plans right?

Buy another Red Rollie Chair- still need to make an IKEA trip. (Didn't happen. With my new classroom set up in KINDERGARTEN it wasn't necessary.

~~Add Bulletin Board Above Cubbies-~~ I did not add a bulletin board, but I glued/taped my large alphabet that we will use for our letter of the week there.

~~Deep Clean/Organization of Library-~~ Books were separated into those that I can use for my kinders this year, and those that need to stay home. Then my mom and brother and I spent an afternoon sorting many of them by level. Still need to sort the rest by topic.

~~Add Shelving to Cabinets~~ Done!

~~Trade Blue Table for Red~~- That handsome man I live with took care of this for me when he carted my books out. I was told by three different teachers that I have the sweetest husband. It's totally true.

~~Lower Tables-~~ Done! Now they are kinder sized!

Make Chair Pockets with polka dot ribbon edging- yeah... this ended up being a little too ambitious.

Add Poly Pellets to Bean Bags- Where do they all go?

~~Get another Polka Dot Rug~~- We made one trip at the beginning of the summer and will be back for a rollie chair and some of those $5 stools they have in my signature colors!

Low Shelves Across Back of the Room for Library Books- I didn't end up needing them with my smaller classroom library.

Print Pretty Labels for Banker Boxes- just because. But this is low on the list at this point of the year.

Secure Book Labels to Baskets- the tape method this year just didn't work out. They were falling off all the time! Time for an overhaul.

Teacher Toolbox- Pinterest Envy. I think it will really help my teacher area feel tidy since I don't have a desk. But still hasn't happened

Birthday Pixie Sticks- I'm terrible about being prepared for birthdays. I hope to prevent that this year!

~~Readjust Computer Station~~- DONE

~~Create Listening/Computer Station~~- Our Head of School bought K-3 all their own listening station! Hurrah!

Line Clear Sterilite Drawers with Patterned Paper- gotta hide all my crap!

Pretty pleased with how much I got done- yet you never get it all done do you? What got kicked off your summer to do list? What got added?

4:24 PM
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Stepping up the Tech

Last year, I am ashamed to say I did a terrible job implementing technology. In my defense, I was late to the game getting a job, and had a completely full classroom from a retiring teacher to sort out before I could move in. I didn't have any student computers and my listening center was tape players. (Just trying to keep it old-school you know...)

This year will be different! Here are some of the top ways I want to work to move back into THIS decade!

1. Yammer
My school recently joined up using this to share informal info amongst the staff. I hope to post something helpful to my colleagues once a week.

2. Class twitter
I hope to start a class twitter account and keep it updated regularly by my students. If you know of a great blog post from another teacher on how to do this effectively in the primary classroom, I'm all ears! This one will take some thought and time.

3. THIS blog!
I'm new to blogging. I'd love to churn our at least 1 post a week. I'm pretty chatty so I hope this is obtainable.

4. TPT
I want to create and post at least 10 items to my new TPT store in the fall.

5. QR Code listening center
These are awesome. I hope to raise money or get some iPods donated so that this can be a possibility. My principal already makes fun of my tape players :/ I told him he owes me two ipods before I relinquish my walkmans.

6. QR Code Tour
I will dedicate a whole blog post to this in the future. I hope to create a student led tour of my classroom to upload to youtube. I will then make a QR Code to post outside our classroom door for visitors to scan. Eventually I'd love to spearhead this being a possibility for every classroom and place of interest in our school. The end goal would be that visitors to our school could go on a self-guided tour using their mobile device or one they pick up at the front desk. Imagine the possibilities if you had your students help you design it! I hope to make this a beginning of the year activity.

7. MY Twitter
I hope to better use Social Media and Twitter to reach out to other educators.

8. Classhubz.com
I have set this up for next school year and hope to get my collegues to sign up too. I look forward to seeing how it works for me. I love that you can have signups for events and parties or for volunteers within your calendar. Great Resource. One more thing to blog about in the future. (Are you tired of me saying that yet?)

9. Classdojo.com
I plan to have my behavior management go completely paperless. Parents can sign up for emails from classdojo to track their student's behavior. Save the Trees!

10. Digital Newsletters
More paperless! No more printing! I will be attaching these to emails next year instead. Yay for the internets!

Are you planning on doing any of these things? Did one of these give you an idea? What are your tech goals for 2014-2015 school year?

8:14 AM
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My 2014 Summer Checklist

I love lists. I think most teachers do. I tend to scribble them onto everything. My husband likes lists too, but he is more digital. I tend to need to actually write it. It just doesn't stick with me if it is in my phone.

But for this particular list, it's so long and ongoing, that I tend to keep it on a digital post-it on my desktop.

I share it with you here so that you can see what kind of things I'm thinking of over the summer. Let's see what ACTUALLY gets done. I tend to want to do more things than I can actually do!

Buy another Red Rollie Chair- I bought a red chair from IKEA last fall and I LOVE it. I find myself dragging it from my group meeting table to the front of my room. I need another. Let's see if I a. make it to IKEA, b. convince Mr. B to let me buy one.

Spray Paint File Cabinets, rocking chair and mailboxes- All these are different colors. I would like to spray paint them all black so that everything is streamlined.

Add Bulletin Board Above Cubbies- I have a large blank wall that I would love to add a BB to. I have put this on my Need/Want/Dream list and hopefully it will happen this summer!

Deep Clean/Organization of Library- This is going to take forever. I have over 1000 books. I started with over 800 last year and inherited at least 100 from the previous teacher. I've probably acquired at least 50 through Scholastic and my addiction to buying books. I'm estimating 1000, but they desperately need to be sorted.

Add Shelving to Cabinets

Trade Blue Table for Red- I have two red tables and 1 blue. It's making me nuts. I have my eye on a matching one in the kindergarten room.

Lower Tables- my poor babies kept sitting on their feet all year.

Make Chair Pockets with polka dot ribbon edging- this probably won't happen but a girl can dream!

Add Poly Pellets to Bean Bags- Where do they all go?

Get another Polka Dot Rug- Another IKEA find. I want a matching on for my gathering spot.

Tall Bucket for Big Books- I'm keeping my eyes peeled at Target!

Low Shelves Across Back of the Room for Library Books- The main goal of my classroom at all times is corralling the books. Our librarian got these gorgeous shelves built. I'm hoping to get them to make me some too!

Print Pretty Labels for Banker Boxes- just because.

Secure Book Labels to Baskets- the tape method this year just didn't work out. They were falling off all the time! Time for an overhaul.

Math Journals & Reading Journals- want to overhaul how I do these for next year.

Magnets on Door Frame to Hold Bunting- One of those things you smack your head and say, Why didn't I think of that on my own?

Small Lamps for Classroom- Add a homey touch

Teacher Toolbox- Pinterest Envy. I think it will really help my teacher area feel tidy since I don't have a desk.

Birthday Pixie Sticks- I'm terrible about being prepared for birthdays. I hope to prevent that this year!

~~Readjust Computer Station~~- This is already done! I recently got a projector installed, but they left the cables unsecured and hanging. A quick trip to Target fixed this one!

Bring At-Home Computers to School- I have had an old computer in storage this entire school year. I found it and want it out of my home office and in my classroom where it can be of use!

Create Listening/Computer Station- My technology was really lacking last year. I plan to really jumpstart it for next year!

Our Class Data Bulletin Board- I'll be doing a blog post on this later.

Line Clear Sterilite Drawers with Patterned Paper- gotta hide all my crap!

Am I the only one with a to-do list this long? What's the number one thing on your to do list?

5:14 AM
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Clean Up- Clean Out!

I know this may be weird, but I LOVE the end of the year. I love cleaning out and organizing my classroom and dreaming/planning about NEXT year. Classroom organization and design are some of my favorite parts of being a teacher!

At my school, we don't have to COMPLETELY move out, or put everything away, but it is to our benefit to do a lot of de-cluttering and storage. Our school runs a fabulous summer camp during over vacation, and we share our space with the church weekly. Since we are not the ones using our rooms and may not visit them for weeks, it's better to be safe than sorry!

We have a week between the end of school and the beginning of camp. For this week I am taking advantage of the opportunity for my classroom to be WRECK. I pull EVERYTHING out of my cabinets and purge purge purge!

Here are some of my tips for getting organized before you head off to sunny beaches or your neighborhood pool!

1. Enlist the troops

Before school ends, I try to dedicate at least an afternoon to getting the kids to help with the time consuming jobs- sorting manipulatives, testing markers/glue sticks etc. However, I hope your declutter session doesn't end up like mine. The day I decided to do this started off well-enough, but then not one but TWO of my students got sick to their stomach. I had both of them over trash cans. My other kids did a great job letting me help out my invalids, but it was hard to keep them focused on the task at hand!

Moving on, I not only got my items sorted, but discovered that there were some manipulatives that I needed mixed in with my pattern blocks that I didn't even know I had! 1-inch square pieces were on my list of items I needed to ask for, and behold, I don't need them now!

2. Pull EVERYTHING out of your cabinets, drawers, etc.

When you pull everything out and take inventory, it's nice to see it all. For example, I realized I had two sets of base-10 blocks, over 50 mini clocks, and at least a million dollars worth of paper money. Who needs all that?? I was able to free up some serious real estate in the already crowded cabinets!

I also put all of my empty bins, baskets and tubs in one spot. This way I can see what is available, discard any broken items and have what I need at my finger tips.

I also drag the biggest trashcan I can find into my room. I tend to throw away A LOT. If this is a struggle for you, enlist a friend. You know who can help you with this.

3. Put all Your Papers in One Spot & Make a List

You know that long checklist of things you are supposed to do? Have you ever lost it in your quest to get better organized? I know I have!
Now I try to create a central location for the things I know I need to have handy. I like to use a pretty paper tray, or even clip it to a bright clipboard. The polka dot one I made 3 years ago is my favorite. I only have one so that my kids can help me find it when I'm losing my marbles!

As I am decluttering and cleaning, I am also making next year's to do list. I hope to share that with you in the next post. I also try to keep a spiral notebook with a few more ongoing lists. My principal likes to have a Need/Want/Dream list. Anytime I think of something while I'm cleaning, I have it available. I also have to turn in a work order list. I keep this in the notebook too.

4. Tunes & Caffeine

I plug in my favorite Pandora station to my computer speakers and always make sure to treat myself to a little Starbucks during teacher work week. I like to wallow in the fun stuff without having responsibility for the kids. Having these little luxuries helps me to stay focused and be efficient.

5. Take home your favorites

My husband always insists on me packing up my classroom library and storing it at home. We have a lot of money tied up in those books! It's a lot of work, but we take the whole lot home. It's over 1000 books!

I also take home a lot of my personal items. You never know when someone thinks they can help themselves, or if there is a water leak. I'm lucky that Mr. B comes and helps with the heavy lifting!

What is your process for the end of the year? Were any of these tips helpful for you?