Get your GO NOODLE on!

Singing is fun, playing is nice, but GO NOODLING takes it to a WHOLE other level!

I might even venture to say that it has made the SINGLE biggest difference in our classroom management success this year!

That's a pretty bold statement, huh!  That's how much we LOVE and believe in GO NOODLE!!!

You have probably heard of it, but if not...then this is the perfect place for you to positively change the way you manage your classroom!

GO NOODLE is a FREE (one of the sweetest words to a teacher's ear) website that offers a TON of brain break videos.  

And I don't just mean hop around and act like a hopped up ninja brain breaks! Although that may just be my classes FAVORITE one...among other cranked up breaks that may just involve some "Shakin' of the BOOTY!"

It also offers yoga brain breaks. Mind you...a purple monkey leads the poses and our kiddos are big fans of that COOL "Pete the Cat"ish kinda monkey!

There are Calming brain breaks (breath in, breathe out...watch the bouncing star...UMMM!  Maybe these particular brain breaks are more for the teachers!  Hee Hee!

And Olympian-Led Sports brain breaks are on the list too!  I'm pretty sure I am getting r-e-e-a-a-a-a-a-l  close to making the Olympic team with all this training I'm doing!

Basically...there is something here for EVERY kind of kiddo you teach.  The brain breaks are divided by categories...Energizing, Calming, or Time (1-5 minutes) so you can pick just the right one for your kiddos.  Or better yet, let them make the call and tell YOU what they need!

There are a couple of ways you can incorporate these AWESOME brain breaks into your day that will make your life 100 times happier!  TRULY!

Kiddos are HYPER and BOUNCING off the walls!
Time for a brain break!  You may think, "WHAT??? They are already on the bus to crazy town, why would I possibly want to buy them a ticker???"  But alas, they NEED to spend some of that energy any way, so why not give them a POSITIVE way to do it?  They get to kick, dance, shake it, yell like a ninja, and it's ALL APPROPRIATE!!!!  Can I get an AMEN???

Or maybe you choose the "Let's breathe and watch the star go uuuuup and down, uuuup and down" to get them to settle down without you having to stomp your feet, beg, plead, and curl up in a corner in defeat! ;)

Kiddos are FADING on you fast and may actually be slowly drifting off to sleepy town!
Now!  Now is the time to have another brain break.  Get them up and moving.  Get those juices flowing.  Get those kiddos back in the game!  We've got work to do people, and we want our kiddos to be ACTIVE and WILLING...even HAPPY and ready to tackle whatever we throw at them!

Kiddos are ROCKING it OUT and working SOOOOO hard!
Yep...it's still time for a brain break!  You gotta keep this momentum going.  You want to reward them for their brains working so hard.  You want to keep them in the game!  Go get your GO NOODLE on!

True story... our kiddos are TOTALLY in love with GO NOODLE.  They ask us for them when they know a difficult task is coming. Like say we are about to work on building our stamina for read to self and we are getting close to 13 minutes.  Well...they know that's a LONG time to be quiet and stay focused.  So they ask to get some wiggles out!  How awesome is that!!!

Sometimes we make them EARN a brain break and sometimes we REWARD them with a brain break and sometimes we GIVE them a brain break because we see that we they just plain need it!

We get the kiddos to find a spot in the room where they can spin their arms and NOT touch anyone else.  They have to stay in that spot for the brain breaks.  You move all over the room...you sit down.  It doesn't take long for them to learn to STAY in their SPOT!

We probably do 3-4 breaks a day for a TOTAL of 10 minutes!

Some teachers are afraid they will be WASTING 10 minutes of instructional time, but we say you'll be GETTING BACK 5 HOURS of POSITIVE INSTRUCTIONAL TIME!

Some teachers say "I don't have time to GO NOODLE."  We say "You don't have time to NOT GO NOODLE!

That's it!  HAPPY TIMES can be yours again!  So...Go Get Your GO NOODLE on!!!

And also hop over to GO NOODLE'S blog for a linky about how other teachers are SUCCESSFULLY incorporating it into their own classrooms!   It works!

Cooperation...NOT so much!

Cooperation!  It's a good thing.  It's a wonderful thing.  20 sweet little students all holding hands, singing Kumbaya, sharing materials with a smile, telling each other "Good job!", skipping together hand in hand...

I mean, really---isn't EVERY room just like this!  YEAH, RIGHT!

I had you fooled for a minute there.  You thought, "WOW! This woman must be perfect.  Her room sounds so great!  What perfect little kiddos!"

Now...let's flash to a REAL day in kindergarten---at least in the early days!

Cooperation!  It's a 4 letter word!  20 sweet little students refusing to hold hands cause well, "She's a giiiirrrrrl.", singing fart songs, snatching materials because "I had it FIRST!", telling each other "I am NOT your friend.  You CUT in line. That's MY pencil.", skipping along and crashing into others because well "They were in my way!"

Does that sound more like it?

Well---in steps the awesome counselor ready to help build that much needed skill of almost every 5 year old I know!

Today Mrs. R came in to help us learn about how to respect one another and work TOGETHER to get things done.  She had 3 really FUN activities planned for us.

First Up:  Parachute Toss (forgot to take pics of this one!)
I mean honestly, what kiddo doesn't LOVE parachute games?  They were all clapping and smiling and so stinkin' excited to get their hands on that thing!  She tossed about 6 bean bags on there and first they had to work together to POP those bad boys ALL over the place, but they had to keep them ON the parachute. Next they did the same thing, but they had to get them all OFF of it!

Next Up:  3 Legged Race
We paired off the kiddos and then used a scarf to tie their inside legs together.  Then Mrs. R found a spot in the room (it's a storage room so don't go thinking my class is all plain and boring and sad, so sad) and then the pairs played Red Light, Green Light.  (Just in case you don't know this game, when she says "green light" everyone can move.  When she says "red light" everyone has to stop.  If they are caught moving on a "red light" they have to go back and start over.)  She pumped it up a bit by moving her spot so that they never knew exactly which direction they needed to go and they had to change course often...thus making them really have to work together!

It was pretty easy to tell who wasn't really thinking about cooperation as soon as Mrs. R said GO!  One little whipper snapper was REEEVVVVING his engine and took off...leaving his partner in a tangled heap on the floor.  He joined her there pret-ty darn quickly!  Another 2 kiddos basically yelled and hollered and gave a few "love taps" when the other wouldn't listen and do what THEY said!  BUT...and this is a happy BUT...BUT some of them GOT IT!  They started linking hands, wrapping their arms around each other, helping one another up if they did get tangled up, and I swear---I think I may have even heard a couple of them singing Kumbaya!

Last But Not Least: The Ball Pass
The kiddos got in a single file line.  The front person starts with a ball in their hand and then passes it over their head to the next friend.  They keep passing until they don't drop it any.  Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG!  This was dang funny to watch.  That ball was on heads because apparently some of them forgot we were playing the game and they were TOTALLY not watching for their turn.  Some of them maybe forgot to PASS it and maybe THREW it a tiny bit and it crashed into people.  This game took some SERIOUS PRACTICE before they "got it".  Once they did, they got good enough that we added a 2nd ball and they had to make sure the 2 balls never caught up to each other.

ALL in ALL...really a great lesson to teach cooperation.  This can be a tough skill for littles to learn because, well let's face it, they are like Burger King "They want it their way!".  It's hard for them to always look outside of themselves and see the needs of others.  But alas, it was so AMAZING to watch their little hearts grow "2 sizes that day!".  Our little class community is bonding day by day and I don't think it will be long before we ARE holding hands, skipping, and singing Kumbaya!  Can I get an "AMEN!"

OK so maybe not ALL THAT, but we are finding our "happy place" little by little!  It will all come together!

Here's hoping you can use some of these great lessons on COOPERATION with your own littles!

Organized Transitions Rock!!

So, when your 21 kiddos transition from activity to activity or place to place in your room, is it complete CHAOS????

Well, that's what it used to look like in our rooms! Yep!! Imagine all our kiddos walking around,  talking with friends and hanging out while forgetting that we are even in the room!!! Well, the kiddos were supposed to be going from group time on the rug to an activity at the table, but that was not happening!

So, how did our kiddos transform from a PARTY TIME transition to an ORGANIZED transition???

Well, the lost art of memorizing nursery rhymes and poems was reborn!! Yes, People!! It was that simple.

We teach our kiddos a rhyme using the method MY TURN, YOUR TURN! (Teacher says a line then student repeat until they know the rhyme independently).

Then we say, "Ok FRIENDS, on your way to the table tell me about Jack Be Nimble".  The kids in unison recite the nursery rhyme on the way to the table.

It's awesome!! We teach a new rhyme or poem every couple of days and Voila!! New material for ORGANIZED transitions!!  Love it!!

Our Kiddos really love the new versions of Humpty Dumpty and Mary had a Little Lamb!
Below are the words! We will post the authors' names as soon as we can find where we learned them :).

Classroom Management- Give us a Name!

Hi Fabulous Friends!!! Well it's almost officially the first day of preplanning!! Yikes, we come back Thursday, August 1st!!

You know Cristy and I have been working at school already trying to get our rooms ready. Her room is going to be super beautiful and color coordinated! While mine is much cleaner than usual, it it not quite "Pinterest" ready as Cristy's is about to be!! Just wait!! Cristy will be posting gorgeous pictures of her room along with all the awesome, new Teacher Pay Teacher products she purchased to help with the cuteness factor!!

Anyway, we are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired of using that TRAFFIC LIGHT for classroom management. Don't laugh!! We know we have been using this system for a million years, but it is easy, mostly effective,  and so much fun to use!! Just kidding, it is easy, but that is about it! No offense, if you still use and love this method. For us, it is just not the right fit anymore.

Our basis for classroom management is Love and Logic and we love it!! However, we needed a way to keep parents abreast of behavior so we chose the "Old Faithful" traffic light!!!

What now!! Well, Natalie (my right hand woman) told me about Class Dojo. Then I told Cristy! Then we decided, why not???

 Class Dojo is an online platform for managing behavior that even sends email reports to parents. We have just been playing around on the site. It runs on the computer, ipad, or even iphone as well as some other digital devices. The teacher sets up a class and the kiddos can earn merits or demerits for how they behave in the room.

It is so cool. The teacher can keep the system up on the projector for everyone to see or keep minimized. With one click, a merit can pop up for a student for being helpful, working hard, or any other positive behavior you notice. Also, with one click, a demerit can pop up for a student who is performing a negative behavior.

There is also so much more to this program that we need to explore. Including emailing parents at the end of the day/week, keeping graphs about behaviors, etc...We are not sure we will love it, but are ready to try.

Almost forgot a very important thing!! It's FREE!! Teachers love FREE stuff!!

Here is the thing we need help with!! The program refers to adding merits and demerits. We would really love some other words to refer to getting a good point or a negative point.

What can we use in the room and in front of other adults that won't sound too silly?
We want the kiddos to know what we are talking about when we say, "Great job!! You just earned a .... for being helpful or Please get back to work or you will get ....".

Thanks a bunch!!
Good luck to all of our friends heading back to school soon!!!  To our friends who have more summer, ENJOY!!!