Bright Ideas!

Wellll, I am not sure how bright these ideas are, but they are my favorite easy peasy lemon squeezy things I do in my room. This isn’t genius anything so don’t be prepared to be mind blown. Haha!

First, I don’t do classroom jobs. Gasp! I know. Deep breathes. You can keep reading. I have had ten jobs and even twenty-two jobs in the past but I was always forgetting who did what and when.  I felt like I was chasing my tail. Then, my I noticed how my genius teaching partner handled classroom jobs and it was like LAAAAA….(cue in angelic light and music). She had a Super Star of the day, as one ONE kid has ALL jobs. What?? How could this work? I would only have to remember one kid's name for jobs? She had star die cuts on a ring hanging on her calendar wall. She changed the star each day. So, I ran over to my room and dug in my die cut basket thingy. No stars. Bummer. At last…hearts. I can do that, right? Cue in the Sweetheart of the Day. Genius! 

 

At the very beginning of the day I give clues as to who the sweetheart is. Clues can be "this person is a boy", "this person's name has three syllables" "this person's name starts with the same beginning sound as fish", etc.  The Sweetheart of the Day takes the lunch count to the cafeteria, runs notes to the office, passes out papers, helps with calendar, picks our “special” song of the day, etc. The cool part is that the sweetheart gets to pick one friend that is obeying the rules at that moment to help them. They must alternate between boys and girls and no one can be picked twice in one day to help. The kids LOVE it!

My second favorite idea is my Birthday Box.  Birthdays can be a hassle sometimes. Let’s be honest. Birthdays are important though. Sometimes it is the only celebrating kids do, is the one at school.  I often don’t have brain power to be on top of birthdays AND teaching. Imagine. I know. So, I keep a birthday box. During the summer, I purchase certificates and sign all of them ahead of time. I put them in the box along with a birthday banner, birthday stickers, readers (ones I have gotten with scholastic points or found as a dollar deal), and “treasures”. Each student gets their own book, certificate, treasure, and sticker to wear. We sing the normal Happy Birthday song and then a special birthday song. Birthdays are no longer stressful in my room because all I have to do is pull down the box and wha la, everything is there and ready.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Now, I told you this wasn't rocket science but I hope you liked one of these Bright Ideas.  The ideas don’t stop there (aren't you relieved? Haha!). Hop on to the next person and see what tricks they have up their sleeves. Click the pic to take you to Whimsy Workshop Teaching!

I hope you come back and visit. You can follow me here or on Facebook. Love and virtual hugs.