Kinder Ramblings

I think I've mentioned before that my room is small. I'm not exagerrating, it's really tiny . I'm going to have to measure it one day, but I'm a little scared to see the actual digits. Everyone is familiar with the "clip" behavior system. As with anything, I have to take a great idea and modify it to fit my needs and up the cuteness factor a little, Yes, it is posted on the back door of my classroom. I cut the tree trunk out of plain brown construction paper. The parts of the tree are just pieces of circular scrapbook paper. The wooden squirrels were purchased at Michael's. I had to travel to three different Michael's this past summer to get the number I needed. The squirrels are a seasonal item from Summer 2010. I just hot glued a magnet on the back of each. The yellow and red signs are car magnets that I made at VistaPrint. Another handy tip-I wanted to be able to reuse the squirrels if I tired of them on my behavior chart. I used my l...

Does anyone else have talkative groups during literacy centers? I do not mind at all if my students whisper, but my room is so small that I wouldn't be able to hear the students at my group reading if everyone else was talking in his/her normal speaking voice. This year I have quite the chatty group! All it takes is one to start talking and the rest follow suit. I've devised a new plan of action that kind of goes along with the "Mystery Person" I've read about out in blogland. I have been using this small magnetic white board that is divided into fourths. One section is for each of my groups. Every group starts with all four of their colors. If a group is too loud (after one warning) the group will lose their blue magnet. If more than one reminder, they may lose their green, then yellow, etc. Each magnet missing is minutes off of recess or free centers for the day for those group members. Today, I decided to up the ante. I took four index cards a...