Among Friends

[lolakimono]

Calling all teachers!  Have you found anything you would like to share?  I'm thinking specifically about:

• words of wisdom
• games
• activities
• organization ideas
• classroom management
• brain breaks

I will share a few that I've found while helping a first year teacher get ready for school.

Please share what you can!

Thanks in advance!

[lolakimono]

Magnetic spice tins on a magnet board for storage/easy access- 

This would be good for centers, small groups, or those who finish early.

[lolakimono]

A way to control dice from rolling all over the place (or getting thrown).  This is one of my favorites that I've seen.

[lolakimono]

Paint chips for random grouping- by color, number, sticker, or craft punch.

I just made a set of these for my classes!

[lolakimono]

Using hand signals to communicate needs, without interrupting the rest of the class-

[lolakimono]

[lolakimono]

[lolakimono]

Brain breaks-

[KaliaMonet]

I always like having students sit in circle so we're all facing each other. I find this eliminates the fear of talking and makes the classroom environment more friendly. 

This past summer, I took an educational psychology course so I can finish earning my teaching degree (I'm tired of being an accountant). My instructor also teaches creative writing. On Fridays, he had us sit in a circle and he would give the first sentence of a story (made up one), then he would toss a squishy ball to someone, and that person would add another line before tossing the ball to someone else, and so on. It was so much fun.  He recorded the story we all created together, type it up over the weekend, then he would give us a copy on Monday.

We used this as an exercise for team building, and seeing different points-of-view to help us see how different students think and develop ideas and it all comes together. This might be fun to do with middle and high school kids.

[lolakimono]