2011 New Classroom Ideas

Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is the year 2011! I am looking forward to a happy and healthy year. I have worked most of the Christmas break organizing and getting ready for the remainder of the school year. I was very fortunate to be able to attend a Dr. Jean seminar http://drjean.org/ in December. Unfortunately, all those wonderful ideas had to just sit in my head because I was way to busy at school (and my second job and Christmas shopping and Christmas decorating, etc.) to implement any of the ideas. HOWEVER, I have worked so hard these last couple of weeks and I must admit, I am very excited about starting school. Let me share a few things with you that I am going to do. . . .

One of the challenges that I have faced this year is during my "Circle Time". I usually try to divide my large group sessions into two or even three separate times. This way the children (and I) don't have to sit still for too long. Even though it is only just a short time it seems like everyone wants to talk at once. Even though I enjoy the enthusiasm, some of my students are getting left out. I hopefully will solve this with an idea from Dr. Jean - my new microphone! Our new rule will be "you can only speak when you are holding the microphone" and of course everyone will get an opportunity to speak. By the way, the microphone was made with left over wrapping paper (that's the blue part) wrapped around a paper towel tube. (note: my husband suggested that I stuff the paper towel tube to keep it from collapsing. Great idea! I used old plastic grocery sacks.) The top is an old plastic Christmas ball that was on it's way to the garbage, covered in aluminum foil. The entire base was wrapped in clear packing tape to keep in from falling apart. This cost almost nothing!

My next dilemma has been walking from our classroom down the hall. It seems a have one or two that love running and yelling! My solution . . . .

The front of the bottle.

The back!

Mrs. Karen's "Quiet Spray"! It is an old spray bottle (completely cleaned and dried out!). There is nothing in the bottle but it does make a little "squirt" sound when you pull the spray trigger. Everyone will get a squirt of "Quiet Spray" as we walk down the hallway.

The next little item I decided to try is "Brain Sprinkles"! I borrowed this from Dr. Jean. It is an old coffee creamer bottle with the label removed. First I filled the bottle with about two tablespoons of rice. Then I put a piece of plastic wrap under the lid and glued the lid with my handy-dandy E-6000 glue. (If you don't have this glue - go get some!!! It will glue anything together.) The plastic wrap allows me to actually open the lid. Everyone will get a little sprinkle before our "Circle Time" begins! Very low tech, but I am hoping it will be effective!

The last thing (for today) is another new game. Does this look familiar??? It's the little lid that comes off the top of baby wipes! I asked my fellow teachers to save them for me. I laid 15 of them on a piece of poster board and wrote our numbers on the top.
On the inside there are coordinating "dots"! I believe this will be a fun way to help my students count and review our numbers.

Again, this is virtually free and very, very low-tech!

Thanks for checking in with me. See you soon!