Sunday, September 27, 2015

End Your Day in a Special Way!

 
This year I decided to create a special ending to my day.  I wanted us to come together, reflect on what we have learned and build our classroom community. I am going to share with you all of the components that make the ending of our day special and help us to create a great community together.

Celebrity Status
Each day a new celebrity is announced in the morning.  This student demonstrated some kind of outstanding behavior from the day before.  The celebrity has two important roles for the day, they are the line leader and they run the end of the day routines.  
To make it fun, I took pictures of the children dressed up with fun glasses, boas, hats etc. and I post their picture up if they are chosen.


Thankful Tree
It all began with a sign.  I saw the sign at Hobby Lobby and wanted to incorporate into my room in some way.  It was the inspiration for the thankful tree.  
If you have ever had anyone close to you taken away or sick you realize how fragile life can be.  In my case my mother had cancer.  It was a horrible time in our lives but she survived.  Ever since that event in my life, I have been grateful for each and every day.  Why not try to teach my "firsties" the same thing.  So this is part of our end of the day routines.  Here is a photo of my tree when the year started.  

Here is a picture of our tree now.  Each day the "Celebrity of the Day" gets to say what they are thankful for.
This little binder is kept to record what we are thankful for and why.  We haven't used it yet but this will be added the second half of the year.  My first graders are still learning how to write!


Fact vs. Opinion

Next up is our fact and opinion board.  An amazing parent made me this as an end of the year gift.  It is a picture frame with fabric inside.  You can write on it with dry-erase markers.  I made two sticks that you can see below the board.  (They are usually upside down!). The celebrity draws a stick and writes either a fact or an opinion about the day!  It is so fun and the children are really grasping the concept.


Here is an example from Monday!


My sticks!   


End of the Day Chant
I have to be honest, I do not know where this chant came from but I have been using it for years.  (If you know, comment below and I will give them credit!) We all say the chant and review 4 questions of things we learned from the day!  It is super fun and a great way to see who was really paying attention that day!




Clip Chart/Celebrations
Yes I am a huge fan of the clip chart but I have added to the concept.  Each day we celebrate any child that is above Ready to Learn.  We celebrate Good Choices, Star Students, and Role Models separately.  Each group stands up and we do one of Dr. Jean's celebrations.  It is so fun and they love cheering for one another.  I snagged these cute tags from TPT.  Dr. Jean gave her permission to make these cute cards!  We also pay the children if they are above ready to learn.  At the end of each quarter they shop at the Mitchell Store.




Community Name
We end the whole routine with our team huddle.  We voted on a name which was originally 
the Learning Unicorns!!!
I found this sweatshirt at Meijers and had to take a picture!! Maybe we should have kept the name!!!


That lasted one day because we just couldn't handle it!  We are now the Mitchell's Monkeys which the kids love and it goes with our jungle classroom!  This is my student teacher Austin Schmidt!  The kids just love him!





So that's it.... We cheer, we review, we celebrate, we give thanks, and we have a wonderful time!   If you have any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them!


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