October 17, 2014

For this week I thought I'd share some of our classroom routines so you can get to know how our class works a little better. 

This is our job chart.  Each student has a job that they do for two weeks and then they rotate.  The jobs help build student responsibility and empower them in the classroom to help make a difference in our learning community.

 

One of the jobs is the Homework Checker.  S/he keeps track of who has done and turned in the homework each day and keeps the paperwork all organized.  If a student has done the homework everyday for the week then s/he gets to play Homework for a chance to win prizes, and free homework passes!

 

 This is our weekly weather forecast.  The Morning Reporter is in charge of researching the weather on the internet and then presenting the forecast during Morning Meeting time.  The Morning Reporter also works on speaking and leadership skills by mediating the discussion time during the meeting. 

 This is our calendar where we practice our place value by keeping track of the number of days of school.  The Calendar Person can keep track of the weather and also make patterns using red or black numbers for the date. 

 

 These are our Essential Agreements that we all agreed upon as a class.

 This is our "Work in Progress".  They are the different learning outcomes that we are working on in the class at the time they are posted.

 After I feel all the students have mastered that outcome they go up on our "We Can Do It!" wall.  The students also check it off on their Scope and Sequence Learning Outcomes list that they keep in their portfolios.

 

 Each week the students practice their writing and communication by writing letters to other students and teachers. They develop attitudes like empathy and appreciation, and skills like being a communicator, caring and reflective.  Everyone looks forward to Friday when they send the letters and receive replies from their peers.  This is our list of types of letters you can write which helps them come up with different ideas for what to write each week. 

 Students keep track of when they express the positive attitudes and attributes that are promoted at our school by nominating either themselves or others to receive a sticker for that attitude or attribute. 

 Here are a few examples.

 

And it makes me really happy, thankful, and proud when I receive letters like this.  We still need to work a bit on spelling but the thoughts and importance put on positive attitudes (curious, tolerant, and confident) is excellent.