Goal setting is a great way to build student leadership. Learn more about student data notebooks, goal setting, & data tracking.

Happy Holidays! I'm still adjusting to the end of the Christmas season and the start of a New Year. All of our decorations are still up, but we've managed to start cleaning out the pantry, closets, and more in anticipation on getting 2015 off to a great start! As this year wraps up, I wanted to look back and highlight my most-viewed posts that I wrote this year! Hopefully these will jog your memory and/or give you some new ideas to get the second half of the year started right! Counting down from 10..... Working on Weekly Class SMART Goals Classroom Tour 2014 Making my Erin Condren Life Planner Work for Me! Morning Meeting: Updated Packet Ho-Ho-Holiday Gifts for Your Students {2014 Link-Up} Teachers Thanking Teachers & Magic 3 Smooth Sailing with My Erin Condren Teacher Planner Bright Ideas: Sticky Note Summaries Technology Resources: Earth Day Using Student Numbers to Keep Organized Have a wonderful time exploring these popular posts and I can't wait to ring in 2015 together soon! What kinds of things would you like to see me blog about in the new year? Leave a comment below and I'll add it to my list! Thank you for joining me on this journey for another year and here's wishing you a festive and fun New Year's celebration! Clip art from Scrappin' Doodles & Fonts from KG Fonts

Have you heard of the 7 Habits book? Megan’s new school is a “Leader in Me School”. Each year they pick one of the habits to be their focu...

Leader In Me classroom activities. Motivation BINGO for school staff.

A blog about educational resources and my classroom experiences! Get ideas to keep students engaged, useful technology and classroom organization.

I am always looking for new ways to dismiss my class. Whether we are going from the carpet area back to our desks or from our desks to th...

7 Habits (now 8!) Posters in color & b.w.

Jointly develop a class mission statement to promote student ownership of the classroom and their behavior using just 7 steps.

Hey everyone! It's Anna from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey! The school year is officially in full swing-- and my students are definitely feeling more comfortable with me and each other! One thing I've decided we need to focus on more is our classroom community! Here are some quick ideas to help you promote a positive climate in your classroom! Use Team Builders Team building activities are easy to implement! They don't take a lot of time, students find them to be engaging, and they are often FREE! Here is a quick list of some of my favorite student team building activities: Human Knot (Students stand in circle, reach for hands of people across the way, and then they must untangle themselves without letting go. This can also be done as a spiderweb using a ball of yarn) Tallest Tower (Divide students into groups and give them supplies like straws, tape, blocks, etc. The team that can make the tallest tower wins!) Minefield (Set up a "minefield" that students must navigate a blindfolded partner through) Hula Hoop Pass (Can be played whole class or in teams. Students hold hands and must pass through a hula hoop as quickly as possible) Switch Sides If... (Use a chalk line, rope, or tape line. Have students stand on one side of the line. Read off items like "switch sides if you like to bake", etc.) The internet provides an infinite source of team building activities! I've included a few links below: http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/team-building-activities/ http://www.momjunction.com/articles/team-building-activities-will-keep-kids-busy-summer_0074763/#gref http://mommieshobbies.blogspot.com/2014/01/switch-sides-if.html?m=1 Hold Morning Meetings Time is precious in my classroom because we departmentalize. It feels like we are always on the go. However, I feel that even something as small as a weekly morning meeting would help my students develop a more positive feeling toward one another. You can read more about morning meetings for older elementary students here! I also love this product from TPT! Write Daily White Board Messages I think this is a such a simple way to start the day off with a positive vibe! The night before (or morning of) write a simple prompt on the white board/chalkboard and have students respond on the board. This will foster another sense of ownership and community. You can find white board messages by searching google or Pinterest! Here are some quick ideas to get you started: 1 Thing Wednesday-- name one thing we've done this year that you'd like to do again! I Think I Can Thursday-- what is one goal you want to achieve this year? Flashback Friday-- what is one new thing you have learned this week? Write a compliment for a classmate by their name (no repeats!) Name 3 traits of a great friend What is your favorite book you've read this year? Thankful Thursday-- what is 1 thing you are thankful for? Make it Monday-- what is 1 thing you've always wanted to create?' Top 2 Tuesday-- write your top 2 favorite things about the school year so far Compliment Circles This activity would pair well with morning meetings! You and the students sit in a circle with everyone's legs out straight. Begin the compliment circle by giving a compliment to someone. Once someone has been complimented they cross their legs. Compliments continue until everyone has received 1. I think this is a great way to encourage students to see each other in different ways! Create a Kindness Board I created this one for the visual it would provide to my students. Plus, I wanted them to point out kindness when they see it in others! This one is easy to implement: 1. Print out the letters and hang on a wall or bulletin board. 2. Print the "caught being kind" strips on various colors of paper (I used Astrobright paper). 3. Cut the strips apart and keep on hand for when students catch others being kind. 4. When students experience a kindness or act of friendship, they come and ask you for a "caught being kind" strip. They write down their experience. 5. Start a paper chain and add a new link every time someone catches others being kind! You can find this HERE in my TPT store! Here is another type of board with a similar theme (kindness): You can find these fall themed board HERE in my store! I hope you found these ideas to be useful to implement in your classroom! If you have any questions-- feel free to leave them in the comment section!

One of the best ways I found to line up students is in number order. Each student is assigned a number at the beginning of the year. It's their order for lining up. Each week there is a line leader and caboose so there are 2 students who aren't in the correct order. This stops all of the "he's cutting in line" complaints that you normally hear. Initially students may complain about the order. Once they figure out that everyone will eventually be the line leader and everyone will eventually be the caboose, they don't complain about the fact that #2 is always closer to the front of the line than #18. It is much easier to see if you are missing students when you pick them up from recess using this system. Your students will have the line order memorized before you will, so they will quickly tell you who is missing. We don't line up in number order to walk to our spots for the fire drill. But, once we are outside, we get in our proper order so we can see if anyone is missing. You can use die cut numbers or numbers from a bulletin board set like the ones in the picture. The red and green set are from Dollar Tree. I use calendar numbers for many different things in the classroom. Calendar numbers are colorful and small. Use these to add to your theme or to add some seasonal fun. Label coat hooks Label cubbies Label students' spot to line up You can add a little math when you line up your students if you tape numbers on the floor. This shows students where they are going to stand. Add a seasonal touch by changing the number order each season. I like to change the color, too! In the fall I used orange / yellow, in the winter use red / green, in the spring use pink / red, and at the end of the year use orange / green. Sometimes I use one color for each number. Example: in December all of the odd numbers would be red and all of the even numbers would be green. When lining up ask students with an odd number to line up first. Your students will quickly learn odd and even numbers. Another example: in February, make all of the numbers in the ones place red and all the numbers in the tens place pink. When lining up you can give different problems like: When lining up you can give different problems like: •If your number has an odd number in the tens place, you may line up. •If your number in the ones place is equal to 3 + 4, you may line up. •If your number is odd you may line up. •If your number is even you may line up. •If the sum of 4 + 2 + 3 is your number you may line up. •If today’s day is your number you may line up. Your students will quickly become mental math wizards! How do you line up your class? Click HERE to try out this FREE system. Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

This spring is presenting new challenges for teachers all across the country. Some of us are getting ready to go back to the classroom for the first time this year. Some of us have been in person all year, but we are about to get new virtual kids. Some of you have been in the ... Read More about Classroom Management and Expectations

Massive list of classroom jobs for elementary students in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade - such great ideas for classroom jobs!

Hi all, my name is Emma Farrell and I blog over at Clever Classroom. I am so excited because this is my first time blogging here at the Pr...

Maybe you’ve been asked to lead a grade level team. Maybe you’re on a grade level team that has no appointed leadership and you’re ready to take the reins. No matter how you arrived at this moment and this blog post, you’re probably wondering where to start and what exactly your role should be. As y

Turn every recess into an adventure!

Help students develop goals and leadership traits with these banners. They support all leadership programs, leader training, character education, student council, and positive behavior programs. Make leadership skills a habit. These banners display students' personal and academic goals in a fun, engaging way. These banners work great with ANY leadership program; however, no program is necessary. You receive: 8 banners - students write a desired habit or quality of leadership on each banner 1 general goal banner - students write about how they will feel or what happens after they achieve their goals Thinking about becoming student leaders is a positive first step toward achieving those goals. Displaying goals in the classroom or in the hallway is an easy and attractive way to keep student principles, habits, and goals in mind. How do I use the banners? The easiest way to use the banners is to display them as single-page banners. But if you want, you can also connect the "front" and "back" to make a double-sided banner. They look great on bulletin boards in the classroom or hallway. These pages are NOT editable. They're meant to be written on by hand. See the PREVIEW to see samples of the banners and make sure that they're right for your students. This set can be used for ANY leadership program and is not specific to any leader or positive behavior program. Follow my store to be notified about new resources posted at 50% off for the first 48 hours. Copyright © Caffeine Queen Teacher, CQ Resources, LLC Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this resource.

The first week of school generally consists of getting to know one another, in addition to discussion and practice of classroom procedures and routines. We also got our creative juices flowing by creating summer reflection writing pieces, squiggle stories, and "All About Me" mini-posters. Students are getting to know one another and me, and we are learning to work together to build a successful and positive classroom environment. On Wednesday, I wrote out six questions, all having to do with how to make our classroom and ourselves function to the highest level, on six pieces of chart paper. Students, in groups of three, spent two minutes at each chart, collaborating and responding to each question on a sticky note. After all groups visited each chart paper station, I hung all of the charts up and we discussed each answer and noticed some very interesting trends. Here's the finished product, which you can click on to enlarge: Inspired by Life in 4B To tie into the previous activity, I was inspired by my wonderful teammates, Mrs. Fadden and Ms. Mattox, to develop at class pledge with my students. We reviewed our responses to the above questions, and then we put all of the ideas together to form a cohesive paragraph that we have all agreed will help us to remember why we are here at school and what our common goal is. Below is the rough draft of our class pledge (which I will type up, make pretty, and have all of my students sign): Since we were able to develop a class goal (to achieve success in third grade), I also had each student determine an individual goal after reading the story Matthew's Dream by Leo Lionni. I displayed our "Hopes and Dreams" for third grade near the classroom door, so that we can refer to, and revisit, them throughout the year. Lots of students are interested in learning how to sharpen their cursive skills, multiplication and division skills. I was very impressed by the number of students ready to take on our 40 book challenge! More on that later! Here's our class display of our hopes and dreams for third grade: Lastly, I read a book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The premise is that everyone carries an invisible bucket everywhere they go. When your bucket is "filled" you feel happy.When your bucket is "empty" you feel sad or upset. People can fill buckets by lending a helping hand, smiling, being kind, including others in games, and more. People can empty buckets by teasing, being ungrateful, acting disrespectfully, and more. I encourage my students to recognize the actions of bucket-fillers by writing them quick note and sticking it in their bucket display. This helps make everyone feel good. When we feel good, we want others to feel good. Therefore, kindess is passed from person to person. This is our bucket-filling display, complete with ways we can fill buckets and ways we can empty buckets: I look forward to more of these types of meaningful activities that promote teamwork, kindness, and achievement with your child!

Ready for liftoff!

Ensuring students know the value and power of their courage is crucial for upper elementary students’ social-emotional learning and growth. Get easy-to-implement ideas, courage activities, suggested titles for books on bravery, and courage lesson plans to help you create a classroom community where

This editable job set is low-prep and easy to implement in your classroom. It includes bright colors and a simple design to fit into many different classroom themes. This pack includes: - 18 pre-made jobs that are ready to laminate and cut - editable template to customize classroom jobs - leadership role descriptions - editable description template - classroom job application - leadership role application - bulletin board letters (outlined and solid) for both classroom jobs and leadership roles If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me!

Goal setting is a great way to build student leadership. Learn more about student data notebooks, goal setting, & data tracking.

Stop taking away recess and using other punishments to control your students. Find success with 10 powerful classroom management strategies!

In a self-paced classroom, each student is given an appropriate level of challenge and grows at a steady pace throughout the school year. Here's how it works.

Closing Circle in the classroom The end of the day used to be chaotic for my students and me. I would be teaching, and suddenly the bell would ring. We would rush to pack up all our belongings. Students would forget to stack their chairs, leave homework on top of their desk, and leave the […]

Image from Ashley singingtimeinfortworth.blogspot.com She's got some great ideas!! I needed a last minute singing time idea and found...

Learn how Project Pals make it easier for educators to find PBL projects that are just right for their classrooms. Upgrade project-based learning with this powerful platform.

Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!

Get helpful tips for how to manage data folders in the primary classroom. Download the free student data folders kit to get started!

What I've learned about quickly building relationships as a speaker has helped me better connect with students in my classroom—especially disengaged kids.

Need a fun way to get your students to line up and stay quiet while walking in the hall? This game is a big hit in my classroom. The line leader picks the categories from the poster (the kids like to make up new ones too). The kids line up and compete for the quietest group! The kids have fun an...

Fun, free, and engaging ideas to incorporate a class pet and take-home journal with your students. The perfect classroom management tool!

This is a poster for using "give me five" as an attention getter for classroom management. Use the poster to teach students that when you say "give me five" they need to be listening and following the rules. 1. Crisscross applesauce 2. hands in our lap 3. two ears listening 4. two eyes watching 5. o...

The Unfair Game is a totally unfair twist on Jeopardy that your students will LOVE to hate! Learn how to play and find sample game boards in this post.