Morning Routines.... Then and Now

So, I'm really trying to catch up on writing about my amazing job and accomplishments so far this year! First up, I'd like to say that I'm pretty proud of my morning routine. Especially when compared to last year. Last year, my self-contained class went to breakfast together, came back to the room, unpacked, and then we had a morning priming segment before beginning calendar and writing journal. Since I worked as a Pre-K teacher fresh out of college, I didn't know a better way to get the day started, besides a little M&M (music and movement). Ever heard of Greg & Steve? He's got some AMAZING sound tracks for little ones, if you didn't know. So we listened to Greg & Steve's Good Morning song EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Yup, no joke. We listened to it for exactly 180 days (minus furlough). Following the GM song, I always had one more song to hype them up for the day. After a while, I found the songs that they liked. And I shortly figured out that it was easiest to play one song for each day of the week. So here's the schedule.

The only song that is not by Greg & Steve is the Gummy Bear Song. And I have no clue where that song came from. How did I keep up with this song rotation, you ask? Well.... have you ever heard of grooveshark?

 No? Well, grooveshark lets you set up a free account (or at least it did for a while.. I'm not sure if it's still free for the way I used it last year) and save your favorite songs to playlists, so that they are readily available for you to listen whenever you like. FOR FREE! The catch? I think you could only listen to your songs on one device. I used it for a few months, and it was great, but then our school district blocked that site, and I wasn't able to use it anymore. Sometimes I was able to play it through my cell phone, and hook it up to the speakers, but I couldn't always get cell reception, so I wouldn't suggest that idea. (I never liked having my phone out anyways.)

SIDE NOTE: I tried for the life of me, to take a snapshot of my playlists, but I still haven't gotten the hang of this windows 8. Ever since I updated the system, I couldn't figure out how to get out of the GoogleChrome app, and it won't let me open any other programs (like the Snipping Tool) side by side to the internet window. UGH. That's good ole technology for ya! I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later, but if anyone has a solution for me, please let me know! Thanks :)

Anyways,

 I've moved on from that. When I was interviewing for my current position, my administrators told me how the teacher did Morning Priming last year, and I was blown away by the inspiration! Since my kids don't have breakfast at school, they come to me straight for morning work, news, and sensory activities. It took a lot of consulting with parapros, first grade teachers, our occupational therapists, an instructional coach, and a program coordinator, but it's really come together. So here's what it looks like now:

8:20 - 8:45 Morning Work:

8:50 - 9:00: Social Skills lesson

9:00 - 9:10: Fidgets & Sensory Activities:

So, there you have it! That's about the first hour of my day! It's a pretty great way to start the day, if you ask me! I hope to soon share more about my daily routine, especially some of the social skills strategies that I use! But that will come... :) One day...

~Sarah :)

FIRST FREEBIES EVER!

I LOVE three day weekends!! They're my favorite. So we had a furlough day on Friday, and they decided we can go to a professional learning to keep our money for that day - but I had already planned on having my nice day off! :) And Thursday was cool because we had a half day, and I spent the afternoon rearranging furniture and getting more organized. I can't WAIT to come back with pictures on Monday. Anyways, I've been working on some things to share all year, so here it is... MY VERY FIRST FREEBIES EVER!!! I'm so excited! I just hope you like them as much as I do!

 

Remember my fabulous clip chart? Well, I've finally just edited it to have pretty borders! 

Click [here] to download the file, including the THINK-O-METER sign. 

 

Well I got SO many compliments on my Reinforcements poster, I decided to finally post them for you here to print out for your own use. I mainly just listed the main reinforcement categories that would be available in my classroom, and I found clipart in Word, and google images. This is what I came up with. Let me know if you would like the word document to edit it yourself, and I would be happy to send it to you!

So, you're probably wondering how I use it. The truth is, I don't actually use it right now. But here was the idea.... I have these "I CAN DO IT!" token reinforcement boards, and the students are supposed to choose which item they want, get it from the pocket poster, and they can add that picture to their board. 

 

The token system came with little velcro stars, which was perfect, but they can be a little pricey. So I made some to share with you :) Click on the picture below to download your own reinforcement board and pictures.

 This year, I decided to create a strict morning routine checklist to help students get settled more quickly. I never actually used it, but here's a copy if you're interested. Let me know if you would like the editable version!

So I worked really hard to produce an effective calendar system this year. Well, this is how I set it up at the beginning of the year, but I actually have done some rearranging since then, so I need to update the picture... However, I'm going to tell you a little bit about our routine, and then you can get the last freebie at the end :D....

So the VERY first thing we do during Calendar time is... count the number of days we've been in school....

So we add the number card to the pocket chart (above), and then we add another craft stick to our ones cup (below). You can see we have a cup for hundreds, tens, and ones. Then we write how many tens and ones on our Place Value chart! (Notice- the students do all of it! I just ask the questions!)

So then we add another day to the month, and talk about the complete date:

 

 ...Then the kids take the purple days of the week cards and place them in the correct "today" "yesterday" and "tomorrow" pockets..

.... and we get rollin' with the rest of the routine. It goes by very quickly, because we add "one" for each "day" on each of the colored sheets...we correct the code date,  add another tally, add another coin, and then we check over all our work!

When all is done, we transfer everything to our calendar journals...

  

This is what it used to look like ^^^

 However, this is what it looks like now... it's alot less messier. And, it has TRACING pages! It's great for differentiation, because some pages are blank, but some have numbers to trace, so I am able to use BOTH sets in my classroom :). I got this template from Jennifer Tilton from www.kindertrips.blogspot.com. You NEED to check out her blog, and if you're interested in this awesome calendar packet, you can find it in her TPT store, here.

So, now for the FUN STUFF!! If you were at all interested in the signs that I had, I updated them to be a little more organized, and you can download them for yourself [here]

Well, I REALLY hope you enjoyed learning about some of our routines, and I hope you will able to use some of my freebies! Please leave me a comment with your email if you would like the editable version of any of these documents!

Happy Saturday!

<3 Sarah