Classroom Management

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

November 25, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Keeping your students engaged in your classroom during the busy holiday season can be tough. I put together a list of 5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season that I hope will help relieve some of the “craziness” that can occur in even the best students during the month of December.

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

Stick to your normal schedule as much as possible. I know, I know…December is CRAZY! Parties, programs, presents, etc. However, when you can, follow the same format that you would during a normal week of school. Children like routine. They know what to expect, and what is expected of them when they are following your normal schedule. However, you can definitely change it up a little to include some holiday themed activities. Throw in some holiday reading passages during reading time, holiday fact practice during math, and holiday themed science and social studies activities. Check out some of my favorite educational holiday themed activities for each subject area here:
- Reading
  - Christmas Comprehension and December Guided Reading
- Math
  - Christmas Color by Code
- Science/Social Studies
  - Interactive Fact Folders, December Nonfiction, and Print & Teach Winter Holidays
Pick a few things to try, but DO NOT try to do it all. It is not humanly possible to do every single holiday themed activity that you find on Pinterest. I pin WAY TOO MANY ideas, get overwhelmed, and don’t do ANY of them. It’s a vicious cycle 😉 Pick out 2-3 new things that you want to incorporate into your classroom this holiday season, and then stop looking. If you get overwhelmed, your students will get overwhelmed.
Reward Positive Behavior. This is important anytime of the year, but especially when you know that students will have an even more challenging time staying focused. Here are some ideas for rewarding positive behavior:
- Earning Snowballs – Students can earn a snowball (cotton ball) for positive behavior. I like to use this as a “whole class” reward system. When the students are doing what they should be doing, they earn a snowball into a jar. Once the jar is full, they earn some type of reward. (A hot chocolate party would be perfect!)
- Christmas Book Raffle – Order some extra Christmas books from your Scholastic Book Order. Place the books out with a bucket in front of each one. Students earn tickets for positive behavior. Once they earn a ticket, they write their name on the back and place it in the bucket in front of the book that they would like a chance to win. You can draw a name at the end of the week or right before Winter Break.
- Positive Notes and Phone Calls -Positive notes and phone calls are great anytime of the year, but during the busy holiday season, they become even more beneficial.
- Classroom Management Christmas Ornaments – I love this idea from Maria at Kindercraze. Her kindergarteners earned jewels to decorate their ornaments for good behavior.
Get Your Students Moving. We know that students need to get up move. We really cannot expect primary students to sit still all day. I love using GoNoodle for brain breaks. I also like to incorporate movement into our learning. My students like using these Christmas Reading on the Move Passages. I also make sure to get them moving around the classroom more often. We do more partner work, small group work, and flexible seating if my students can handle it. A good game of Santa Says (Simon Says) is always a great brain break as well.
Play Games. Who doesn’t love a good game? My students are obsessed with games. If I can teach or review a skill with a game, I’ll do it. Some of my favorites include:
- Pick a Spot – I do this throughout the year with a variety of skills. One that we have been doing a lot lately is short vowel sounds. I write each vowel on a Post-It note and hang them in different places around my classroom. Every student picks a vowel to stand next to. Then, I pull a short vowel word out of a cup. Anyone standing by the vowel that is in that word has to go and sit down. The students left get to choose a new vowel or stay where they are. This continues until only one student is left standing.
- Holiday Word Scramble – Write letters to spell out holiday words on index cards. Put each scrambled word in a bag. Pass out the bags to groups of students and have them race to unscramble their words. You could even give groups a couple of words. Ideas for words include: Christmas, Hanukkah, candy cane, snowman, ornament, stocking, gingerbread, etc.
- No Prep Printable Games – My Games Galore packs are a monthly must have in my classroom. I like to print these games to have on hand when we need to review a skill or we just need a change of pace.
- Spin and Color – This simple no prep game is perfect for students to do individually or with a partner.

What are some of your favorite ways to keep students engaged during the holiday season?

Behavior Management Strategies

September 17, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Over the course of my teaching career, I have collected and tried many different behavior management strategies. Some were successful, and some were not. What I have learned is that I need to always be collecting new behavior management strategies, because what works for one class, may not work the following year. Same goes for students. You may find something that is a miracle worker for one particular student, but does not work at all for another. I’m teaming up with Astrobrights® Papers to share a couple of strategies with you that have worked for some particular behaviors in my classroom over the past couple of years.

This is a sponsored post. Fun in First has received payment, trade and/or products from Astrobrights in exchange for promoting, however all opinions stated are my own. This post also contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links, which helps to support the blog.

One VERY common behavior issue that we see in classrooms every year is having students that do not complete their work due to talking too much or other distractions. Many times these students need some type of visual chart to help them work towards a goal of completing their assignments. I created these simple charts that can be placed on or in student’s desks.

I just print these simple charts on Lift-Off Lemon™ Astrobrights paper. I love using colored paper for these because they make them much more appealing to my students. You can use stickers on the charts, or laminate them and use permanent marker to draw a star or smiley face. *Quick tip: Did you know if you trace over permanent marker with a dry erase marker, you will be able to erase both the dry erase and permanent marker off of the surface?

These charts can also be used as a behavior chart where students can earn a sticker or smiley face if they make positive behavior choices for a given amount of time. After a student completes his or her chart, they can earn a small reward. This can be a tangible object or some type of activity reward.

I like to use these “I’ve earned a break” cards. I can hand one of these to a student after he or she has completed a goal. Then, they can use them to earn a break reward in the classroom.

The students can pick the short break that they would like to use after earning their reward. I print these Break cards onto Galaxy Gold™, Lunar Blue™, Gamma Green™, and Gravity Grape™ Astrobrights paper, but again, you can use any colored paper you choose. You can also use the different colors to differentiate the types of activities you would like for your students to choose from. If you have a child that is constantly picking the same types of activities, you can guide them by saying that they need to choose a “blue” activity.

Another idea for using these cards is to help control outbursts from emotional students. My original use when I created these a couple of years ago was as a way to help a former student control his behavioral outbursts. He usually knew when he was about to completely lose control of his temper and self control, but he could not express it with words. I would hang five of these “I Need a Break” cards on his desk every morning that he could use throughout the school day.

When he felt that he needed a break, he could take off one of his cards and hand it to me. He did not even have to express with words what he was feeling. It was our signal to know that it was time for him to take a break. Then, he could chose an activity that he thought would help him calm back down.

These cards are great to laminate and keep on a metal ring to allow students easy viewing of the activities. I have included a variety of activities to choose from, but you could easily make your own just by typing or writing some ideas onto Astrobrights paper. You can download this FREEBIE by clicking HERE.

Another item that I have used many times over the past two years, has been these Liquid Timers. I purchased these off of Amazon, and I love them.

They are great to use as a “calm down” tool or as a timer for students to beat as they finish their work.

What are some of your favorite behavior management strategies that you have found to be successful in your classroom?

Interactive Task Folder

August 24, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

“I’m done. What do I do now?” I know you’ve heard this. My go-to answer is almost always “Go read a book.” This is always a great choice, but I also wanted to come up with a way for my students to have some other options. This Interactive Task Folder was the perfect answer.

After creating a Solar Eclipse Lapbook to use with my students, I knew that I needed to make something else like this that we could use on a regular basis. My students took so much ownership in their work and commented over and over again how much fun they had while making it.

This Interactive Task Folder is great for my early finishers. They can pull out their folders and work on sight words, phonics skills, vocabulary words, math facts, and more. These are also great for students to use when you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes before lunch or at the end of the day.

You will need a file folder for each student. Open up each folder and fold the two sides in towards the middle of the folder. Then, print off the pages needed to create the folder. I used Astrobrights colored paper, but you could definitely use white paper and have your students color their pages if they’d like. The front of the task folder includes a cover sheet, a 120’s chart, and a writing idea list.

For the inside, I have included a BOGGLE board that can be edited. This way, you can change out the letters when needed and just have the students glue the new board right on top of the old one. I also had someone give me the idea to put this on with velcro to make it easy to change out.

Students will also be able to practice their math facts and sight words. These pockets are sized to fit a 3×5 index card, or I have included editable math fact and sight word cards. The Reading Response sheets are perfect comprehension practice for students if they read a book in their spare time. I have included 4 different response sheets in this file.

The Making Words activity is a great way to practice spelling and phonics skills. I have included templates to create your own Making Words cards. I have also included a template for you to make your own vocabulary word strips. These can be changed out each week to keep the items fresh. I like to include the vocabulary words from our reading selections for the week.

On the back, I have included a Word List that is helpful for students when they are writing. It makes a great resource for them to use throughout the day.

These folders can take a bit of time to make, but once they are done, they are such a helpful resource. I highly recommend having your students make these instead of you or a parent volunteer. The students really take ownership in their work and are much more likely to use these if they are the ones making them.

What are teachers saying about this product?
“Very helpful; It’s nice to have everything a student needs in one place.”
“A great way to review basics on a daily basis! I love that I can edit parts of it, and can differentiate for all my students!” – Jennifer
“I think this is my favorite lap book ever! Such a useful tool and easy to individualize in my resource room.”

You can check these Interactive Task Folders out by clicking on any of the pictures in this post.

Morning Tubs – Round 6

March 9, 2017 by Jodi 3 Comments

I just switched out our morning tubs again this week. Technically, I think this is our 7th round of morning tubs, but I repeated some of our items during the last round.

Read more about our full morning routine HERE.

What is in our Morning Tubs this time?

I purchased some new items from Amazon to add to my tubs this time around. I love searching for new things that I think my students will enjoy. It makes new tub day even more exciting.

This post contains affiliate links. Any purchase made through these links (at no additional cost to you) helps to support this little area of cyber space and keeps the blog up and running.

These Bristle Blocks are a huge hit this time around. They go together really easily and attach in so many different ways. My class also loves that this packet came with wheels.

They have been so creative with these blocks.

This iTrax Critical Thinking mind game is a fun little addition to our tubs. The students are supposed to look at the cards and find the path that connects the two blocks. Then, they race to build that path with their blocks. Many of them wanted to explore with building on these cards first. This one will take a little practice, but eventually they’ll get the hang of it.

These gears from Learning Resources have been fun for the students as well. I love seeing the ideas that they come up with to make all of the gears work together.

I purchased these Smartie Pants cards a couple of years ago, and I’ve had the Brain Quest Cards for ages. I placed both of these in one of our tubs. The students have had fun quizzing each other using these cards.

I bought this BOGGLE game at Walmart about a month ago and decided to put it in one of our morning tubs.

The students turn over the timer and write as many words as possible on their white boards before the time runs out.

I placed dominoes in our last morning tub. They can build with these, group them by numbers, put them into patterns, etc. Morning tubs are really just a time for them to explore and be creative.

Want to know what else we have done during Morning Tub time?

Here are the links to my other posts:

Morning Tubs – Round 1

Morning Tubs – Round 2

Morning Tubs – Round 3

Morning Tubs – Round 4

Morning Tubs – Round 5

5 Ways to Get Your Students Up and Moving

January 16, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

If you have any experience with children, you know that they need to get up and move throughout they day. Even as an adult, I do not sit still very well. I cannot stand when I have to sit through a meeting all day. I need to move around. Research has shown that movement can increase focus and retention. Brain researcher, John Medina, stated in Brain Rules (2008), that “physical activity is cognitive candy and exercise boosts brain power.” Did you know that in Finland, it is typical for students to get a 15 minute break for every 45 minutes of instruction? With our push for longer school days and more time on task, this seems almost impossible. But, we truly have to think about if our “time on task” involves the students giving 100% of their focus and attention to what we are teaching. So, how can we incorporate more movement into our classrooms?

1. Have Students Transition Around the Classroom Throughout the Day

We are constantly moving to different areas of our classroom during the day. We do not stay in one area for too long. As soon as I notice that my students are losing focus, we change it up. I do whole group instruction at our desks or on the carpet together. I do small group instruction at my reading table, while my students transition around the classroom doing learning stations.My students also love to find a spot in the classroom to work on their Morning Tubs in the morning.

The most important thing to remember, is to be very aware of when your students are starting to lose focus. As the year progresses, students will be able to stay in one spot for longer periods of time, but definitely switch it up often.

2. Integrate Movement into Learning

The easiest way to get your students up and moving is to find ways to integrate movement into your learning. Have students act out vocabulary words or play games that get them moving around the classroom.

One of my students favorite games is 4 corners. There are a couple different ways you can play this game. One that we played recently was Vowel Sound 4 Corners. (You could definitely do 5 areas instead of 4.) I hung signs up in each corner of my room labeled short a, short e, short i, and short o. Each student stood under a sign of their choice. Then, I drew a short vowel word from a jar. For example, “cat.” All of the students under the Short a sign, went and sat down. Then, the students picked a new sign to stand under. This continued until there was one winner. This can easily be adapted to many reading and math skills.

Another favorite game that gets students out of their seats is Splat. I group the students into 4 or 5 teams. I place skill cards on the board. In the example above, we were working with soft and hard c and g. I read a word, and the first person to “Splat” the correct answer scored a point for their team. (The Splat flyswatter were purchased at Walmart.)

An easy and fun way that I integrate academics and exercise is with my Reading on the Move and Math on the Move packets. The students roll the dice after reading to see what “movement” they are going to complete before rereading the passage. (The passage above is from my Reading on the Move – Winter Edition). You can check out all of my Reading on the Move packets HERE.

We also use my Math on the Move packets to integrate math and exercise. The students love getting up and moving after each section of work that they complete.

3. Allow Flexible Seating in your Classroom

This is something that is still evolving in my classroom. I have Wobble Chairs at my reading table that the students may use at their desks if they need them. I also allow the students to stand at their desks if they work better this way. A couple of my students also prefer to use clipboards on the floor. My only absolute “no” with seating is that students may not sit dangerously in their seats. (Leaning back on two legs, turned around backwards with their feet stuck in the back, shoes tied to their chair legs. I mean…not that I’ve learned those from previous experiences or anything.)

4. Take Brain Breaks

When you notice that students are losing focus, take a Brain Break. We absolutely love using GoNoodle for our Brain Breaks. There are so many great options to choose from depending on what the students need at that time. I love all of the KooKoo Kangaroo videos when I need my students to “wake up” and recharge. However, sometimes I need the opposite effect, and I want them to settle down. The Flow and Maximo videos are perfect for this.

Another great way to add a little bit of movement to your day is to use this movement dice.

This can be used as a whole group when you notice that students are starting to get off task. It also works great for students that may need to keep it at their desk to use when they need an extra break. You can download it for free HERE.

5. Head Outside

Weather permitting, I love to take learning outside. Living in Indiana, this is not always possible, but on nice spring and fall days, we love to head outside. You can take books outside and let students read. We have also taken our white boards and dry erase markers out to a picnic table to work on math. Sidewalk chalk is a great way to practice spelling words and math facts. Another idea is to have students use their senses while outside to enhance their writing. The possibility are endless.

How do you use movement in your classroom?

Morning Tubs – Round 5

January 8, 2017 by Jodi 6 Comments

We are on our 5th round of morning tubs, and my students still absolutely love this time in our day. It gives them a chance to socialize with other students in the morning, while being creative and using their imaginations.

What does my morning look like?

I get asked a lot about my schedule and how long all of this lasts. My students can start coming into the classroom at 8:00, but the tardy bell does not ring until 8:15. Some bring breakfast to the classroom as well. This makes it very difficult to do any type of whole group instruction first thing in the morning. Even if I could, I really think that the students need to come in and have some time to adjust to the day. After the students put their coats and backpacks away, they complete the Morning Work on their desks. Since the morning work follows the same type of format each morning, it really only takes them about 5-10 minutes to finish it. Then, they go to their tub for the morning. I post my Morning Tub rotation on the board, and we rotate each group every 3 days. This allows me to only have to switch out tubs every 18 school days. Around 8:30, we clean up our tubs and go over our morning work together. Then, we are ready to start our day with our Morning Meeting time.

What is in our Morning Tubs this time?

This post contains affiliate links. Any purchase made through these links (at no additional cost to you) helps to support this little area of cyber space and keeps the blog up and running.

I ordered these Quadpro Magnetic Blocks from Amazon. My own son also got a set for Christmas from my parents, and they are so much fun!

This set came with magnetic squares and triangles. The students have been so creative with these.

These will definitely come back out in another round of morning tubs.

In our next tub, I placed these winter themed coloring sheets from Creative Clips.

For our third tub, I purchased these Keva Brain Builder blocks.

The box came with these small wooden pieces and cards with items to make using the blocks.

My students are always thrilled when they get to build things. I do wish that these came with more wooden pieces, but the students are having to cooperate together to make the items.

Our fourth tub contains Rory’s Story Cubes. This is the original set, but they do have other sets of these cubes that I may look into purchasing.

I placed the Story Cubes along with a pad of writing paper in the tub. I gave them the option of deciding how many cubes to roll. I love that they have to be really creative in their writing to include each of the pictures that they rolled on the dice.