Halloween Craft: Paper Bag Pumpkins for Younger Grades

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

Pumpkins are so iconic of Halloween that you can’t help trying to squeeze them into your lessons whenever you can. This kindergarten teacher had the students sponge paint paper bags orange, stuff them with newspaper and make a pumpkin patch on their bulletin board. For older (yet still young) kids, you could write adjectives that describe pumpkins on the bag after it’s painted to integrate some language study.

Green Table, Blue Table: Labeling Student Desks

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

When teachers arrange their desks in groups, they need an easy way to label each group. Many teachers number them, or gang things from the ceiling using string, but the following idea was the easiest to set up and most easily recognizable table identification system I’ve ever seen. It’s so easy that it blows everything else out of the water. Take a solid piece of construction paper or cardstock and fold it in half. Then tuck one end in the metal bar between ceiling tiles. Done. Anyone with half a brain who walks into the room will know what color goes with each group of desks and it’ll take you 2 minutes flat to put up all the papers. Just make sure your school doesn’t have any fire codes you’d be violating if you attach anything to the ceiling…

Displaying Student Work… The Easy Way!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

One thing I found challenging as a teacher was to constantly change the student work on display in my classroom and on the bulletin board in the hallway. The trick is to make your system quick to swap out work.

There are a variety of ways to do this, but one popular way is to staple laminated construction paper to the bulletin board and clip a clothes pin to the top of the paper. This makes it super quick, and you don’t have to keep poking holes in your bulletin board with push pins. In addition, attaching names to the papers (or on the clothes pin if you’re not going to reuse them) is an easy more permanent way of identifying the creator of the displayed project.

Another way I’ve seen also starts with stapling laminated construction paper to your bulletin board. However, instead of using a clothes pin to attach work, you use paper fasteners (like you see inside manila folders). Obviously, it would be easiest to attach the fasteners before you put up the paper. Again, labeling the paper with a student’s name makes it easier for you to show which projects belong to each student. In addition, at the end of the year, all you have to do is detach the entire construction paper packet and you’ve got a nice collection of student work to present to the student! (just make sure you don’t let the packets get too heavy or they might fall off the bulletin board).

There are many other ways to display student work. Click here to see a simple system in which your students manage their own display!

Classroom Jobs

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

There are many jobs teachers choose for the students in their classroom (depending on the needs of your room). I always make sure to post a list of jobs with their description to help students remember that their job entails. I made sure to have a system for rotating them, so no student was stuck with the same job for weeks on end and everyone had a chance to contribute. Here are some I’ve used and found helpful (teacher notes in red):

Courier – Carries messages to other teachers, office, etc. At the end of the day, help Floor Crew.

Desk Inspector – Checks for dirty desks (and gives students Clorox wipes if needed); assists in cleaning desks. The Desk Inspector was in charge of reminding me to do a random desk inspection. If a student passed an inspection by the Desk Inspector, they got something from the prize box. Sometimes I would do my own inspection at the same time. If a student didn’t pass my inspection, they had to stay in at recess to clean out their desk.

Equipment Manager – Checks in and out equipment (by writing name, date and equipment) it in the spiral notebook at the back of the room; At the end of the day, help Floor Crew.

Floor Crew – Pick up trash off the floor at the end of the day. Push in all chairs before leaving the room.

Food Dude– Reports the lunch count to the teacher in the morning and carries the lunch pouch to the office. Also makes sure all lunchboxes are returned to students each afternoon (no lunchboxes left behind!)

Librarian – In charge of the class library, makes sure books are organized books (all facing the right direction). Helps students check out books (at the end of the day, call for book checkout. Students who have would like to check out a book will come tell you and you’ll write it down on the clipboard).

Line Monitor – Waits for the line to be ready (1, 2, 3 fingers in the air as the class progresses to be ready). When the class is silent, still and facing forward, the line monitor holds the door for class and turns out the lights. Join the line at the end of the line. At the end of the day, help Floor Crew. This was especially awesome because I could do last minute things while the monitor was watching the line. They were encouraged to give compliments to students who were behaving (I’d let the first 2 students complimented go to the first line stopping point ahead of everyone else, so they ended up getting to go first to lunch or whatever).

Mailman – Passes papers (from the plastic box) back to students’ mailboxes in the back of the room (when done with an assignment or during after-lunch read aloud); makes sure all students empty mailboxes every afternoon. Call students names to remind them if they haven’t emptied their boxes.

Pencil Sharpener – Makes sure the class supply of sharpened pencils is full every afternoon. When it’s time for jobs, sharpen as many pencils from the “broken” box until it’s time to go.

Pocket Master –Reports to the teacher in the morning which students are absent. Make sure all popsicle sticks from the lunch count are moved back to each student’s pocket at end of day.

Secretary – Fills out a “While You Were Out” form and collects worksheets, etc. for each student absent that day. At the end of the day, put form in student’s mailbox.

Time Keeper – Calls time for jobs at the end of the day then reports to the teacher for any special jobs. If no special jobs, help Floor Crew. I had a special set of bells they rang to signal time for jobs.

Whiteboard Wiz– Erases whiteboards at end of the day. Ask the teacher if there’s anything that should not be erased before you start erasing.

Here are some other ideas I’ve seen for classroom jobs:

This is how one teacher keeps track of who does what each week…

That same teacher also does job applications…

Have other good classroom jobs ideas? What have you tried that works (or doesn’t!)? Please comment!

Start of School Classroom Tour

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

When I was a brand new teacher, I was a bit overwhelmed with everything I had to cover in the first few days of school. There were tons of procedures, campus features (office, library, etc.) and expectations to go over. Here were a few notes (not an inclusive list by any means) I made to myself to help me remember some of what to cover:

Teacher’s space– 5 places off limits to students: teacher’s desk, any drawers (plastic or filing cabinets), behind the back table, front desk/podium storage on the back wall near the window. These are for storage and teacher use. Nothing interesting there anyway!

Line up– the line starts at the door, and ends by the computer desk. The line will only leave the room when the Line Monitor determines the class is ready to leave.

Turn in table– under the red sign labeled “when you’re finished”. Each turn in slot is labeled according to the type of thing that should go there. Make sure your papers have the correct heading before you turn them in or you will lose points.

Paper– lined paper, plain paper and scratch paper are in trays in 2 places in the room: 1) on the turn in table under the red sign labeled “when you’re finished”. 2) on the back shelf near the reading books

Computers and Library– Computers are only for use when directed by the teacher. Classroom library books may not leave this room unless you talk to Miss W. first. The librarian will ask for names of people wanting to check out books at the end of the day. Please be respectful with Miss W’s books. She purchased them with her own money.

Desks: Each desk has the same materials. Math book, 2 spirals (1 for math and one for writing), a clipboard and a set of classroom folders. Each student has 5 folders: 1 for each subject and 1 to take home and bring back each day. Only the Orange folder labeled “Take Home” should ever leave school.