Classroom Family

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamt of creating a classroom family with my students. Of course having 5th graders my first year, they laughed at me. However, by the end of the year they were calling games family times, having group hugs, and writing me letters that were signed "family forever". (that made me cry!) Throughout the summer I want to reflect on how I was successful in creating such an environment!

One HUGE contribution to the learning, social, and emotional environment to my classroom was the part of responsive classroom management style in which every morning we have a class morning meeting. This is an excellent way to start the day on a positive note and became my favorite part of the day!
*I will go on and on about how amazing responsive classroom is in later blog posts but click the link above if you want to learn more now.

Morning meeting consists of 4 parts:

• Greeting
• Sharing
• Activity
• Morning Message

Today I will be focusing on activities. These games/ activities can be used in ALL classrooms at any time of the day to build student bonding and trust. 

Three of My 5th Graders Favorite Activities 

When I first introduced Duckie Wuckie I thought that my students would think it was a little young for them or silly but they LOVED it. They would beg me everyday to play it if they got their work done early. The first day we played this game was the hardest I have ever laughed as a teacher. The quietest kids in my class came out of their shell to be goofy. The class embraced each other's "weirdness" and praised their creativity for silly actions. It was AMAZING to watch! By the end of the year we had a "Duckie Wuckie champ" and the "go-to laugher" who laughed when you even looked at him. It was a safe place where all kids could be their goofy funny selves! 

Unfortunately my class did not try Elimination until about April but it became a regular request after that! This is a very simple quick game that gets kids energy out moving around the room but in a very controlled way. My favorite was when I would roll "1" and the kids would hug themselves! Also, during the mingling time, some of my students wrote a mingle song that they sang while roaming around the room. This 5 minute game created fun memories and moments that the students talked about for months after it happened. 

      One note about this game which I encountered in 5th grade is that some boys and girls are uncomfortable with linking arms with each other so I allowed them to just stand next to each other if they wanted to. 

 What a creative game! This game is really great for teaching watching and being conscious of others movements. I did many trial runs of 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish discussing strategy after my students were discovering who grabbed the object too quickly. They picked up on it very quickly and LOVED being able to help hide each other in the group and "trick" the caller. This is more of a quiet, focus game but kept my students very actively engaged! 

I did not create these games, they are from various Morning Meeting Responsive Classroom books. It is fun sometimes to offer students to create games! 

These instruction cards are from my morning meeting activity cards pack! Click the link to purchase!

Head on over to my TpT store to purchase OVER 80 of these fabulous games!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Morning-Meeting-Activity-Cards-1773828

Have a terrific Tuesday! :) 

Fan Freebie!

Already planning for back to school time? Grab these fan freebies by clicking the image above! Follow me on TpT to see when my upcoming color by number sets are released. Happy Saturday!

I feel so honored to be part of such an amazing teacher community that has taught me so much over the past few days! :)

Mistakes Can Be Miracles

I am someone who gets discouraged easily when things go wrong in my classroom because I put my whole heart into everything involved with teaching. However, my wonderful co-workers quickly showed me how to use those mistakes to make myself stronger, better. We tell our kids all the time to keep trying and learn from what goes wrong, but why is it so hard to think of that ourselves?

My top 5 mistakes as a 1st year teacher
1. Worrying if the kids liked me- this REALLY inhibited my classroom management skills because I over analyzed what I knew I needed to do. I had read in many books that kids love structure and will like you more when you provide disciplined leadership yet it took be a while to believe that. I will post later about the wonders of responsive classroom management system but it will change your life, it sure changed mine!
2. Wanting everything to be perfect and go perfectly to plan- the kids will NOT know if you change the activity suddenly or if the cover page didn't print the way that you wanted it too. I am a perfectionist and want everything I give the kids to look pretty but our job is too important to get hung out on those types of details (but if we can make time for them- they're great!)
3. Knowing that you may not be able to give a child what they need- I care so deeply about all of my students that I always want to be the one of change their life and support them but sometimes there might be someone else in the school who can connect better or is trained in what the student needs and what is best for the student is to get them that help.
4. Questioning myself- I found that trusting my instinct on the fly when needed created some of the best lessons that I taught all year. I have wanted to teach for 23 years, I quickly realized that I was born to do this job and I should have confidence in myself! We all want to do this job for the reason of helping others and need to trust that our ideas are GREAT!
5. There is no one way to teach something- I was constantly comparing my lesson plans and activities with my co-workers thinking that I was doing something wrong but there are so many methods to teaching the same content. Every teacher needs to find their own personality in their lessons and create them based on their students and that could look different for EVERY teacher.

I am thankful for all of these realizations throughout the year because they are putting me on the road to being the best teacher I can be!

Write your mistakes down! I did and looking back at them now, I laugh and write down how I would change that situation applying everything I have learned since then.

Meet me~ from Minnesota to Maryland :)

     When I started this blog a year ago, I had just moved out of my parents house for the first time (besides college), moved across the country which for the girl who STILL cries when she leaves her mom for extended periods of time the move was shocking, and got my first teaching job! Most of what I thought I knew about being an adult and being a classroom teacher was wrong but I learned so much along the way. For example- first year of teaching doesn't leave much time for blogging! :/ Over the past year I have been on a roller coaster of adventures which has made me a completely different person, so I wanted to reintroduce myself!

     I love being creative and making something out of nothing. I have become so passionate about teachers pay teachers and creating resources that directly target needs that I am seeing in my classroom. I feel so fortunate to be part of such an incredible community of teachers and I learn so much from every one of you! I am so excited to share my ideas and experiences with you. :)

   My boyfriend and I just moved from Minnesota to Maryland. The midwest was an amazing experience but I am very excited to be back on the east coast! My goal this summer is to write on this blog OFTEN, between training my new puppy and finding a job in another new state (wish me luck!). I am loving living Maryland already and know that incredible things lie ahead!

Happy Summer!! 

Summer Lovin'

Wow! I survived my first year of teaching! I have so many new things I learned that I cannot wait to share with you throughout the summer.

 To kickoff my summer productivity I am going to participate in TpTsellerchallenge. However, when completing the beginning stats page I realized I am not on Bloglovin' so to start my revamping of my blog and store I am fixing that first. Follow me :)

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14202341/?claim=t9kg57swurz">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>