Freebie

My classroom had a lot of interruptions with their need to tell me every detail of their life. In order to cut that down, I introduced a couple of things.

- I created a Note Jar. Students who had to tell me something that was not VITALLY important would write me a note on a Dollar Tree notepad and slip it in the jar. I would check it two times a day. At first, they wrote me thirty notes a day, but after two weeks, it became used for what I intended.

- THINK poster - During whole group lectures, some students felt the need to tell me random stories. I found a wonderful quote online and created a printable. Whenever a student would begin with, "One time my mom...", I would glance over at the poster and they would go, "Oh yeah."  I am giving you this printable for free at my new Teacher Pay Teachers store. Please leave some feedback.


What do you do to cut down on interruptions in the classroom?

Happy Classroom Mix

We’re going to make a Happy Classroom mix today. What makes a class a happy class?What makes a class a sad class?

Ok, well, lets see what it takes to have a happy classroom.

1. The bowl is going to be our classroom. Discuss why it could be our classroom.
2. Pretzels. Are they hard or are they soft? HARD! We are going to put HARDWORKERS in our classroom because we like to have people who work hard. How can you work hard in our class?
3. Marshmallows. We like people who use soft words. Soft words are nice words. What are some nice things we can say to our friends?
4. Chocolate. We like people who are sweet and who do sweet and nice things for each other. What is something you can do that is sweet for someone else?
5. Cheerios. We like the kids who cheer on their friends and who help each other clean up. How can you cheer on a friend?
6. Happy Face Fruit Snacks. We love smiling faces in our class. Everyone show me your smiling face. What makes you smile?
7. Rotten banana. Ok, now we are going to put this rotten banana in. (Pause and wait for a moment. Act like you are putting it in.) Why do we NOT want a rotten banana in the happy classroom? What are some ways we have rotten bananas in the room?

Serve to children. Enjoy!