These classroom agreements posters are perfect for any grade level and focus on agreed upon norms for students in lieu of rules.
Light the candles and cut the cake!
Elementary students will love these ESL bulletin board ideas and displays. Even mainstream students will love the visuals. When it comes to displaying bulletins, I always try to be sure that they are relevant for my learners.
This time conversions poster will look GREAT on your wall and will help your kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students learn converting units of time!
Back to school season is officially upon us. I think one of the hardest things about teaching is completely starting over each year. You have to teach expectations and rules, create a community with a new group, and begin teaching grade level content. It's so important during that first month to explicitly teach the skills necessary to meet those expectations to be successful in the classroom, as well as teach the skills to get along with a new set of friends in a new environment. In this post, I have narrowed down five topics that you can cover in an engaging way that also encompasses your classroom rules and expectations. Finding the time to fit these vital topics into your day is always a struggle. I know that sometimes admin doesn't allow you a lot of time to do so, because they're ready for you to quickly dive into the content. But if your students do not have these skills and strategies in their tool belts, learning new content will be even more difficult. I always fit my SEL instruction into mini lessons during morning meeting. I do not do the traditional morning meeting; I have kind of made it my own to fit my teaching style and student needs. I use the time to not only build relationships with my students, I build in mini lessons that incorporate an SEL topic that we need to focus on. It is also just a great way to have a fresh start to your day, no matter how things went the day before. Listening and Following Directions Listening and following directions is the first topic we dive into. If they aren't listening to you and each other, it's going to be difficult to teach those rules and expectations. The story, The Worst Day of my Life Ever by Julia Cook, is a good story to introduce why it's important to listen. You get to see the consequences of not listening and how it can affect your day, as well as reward of listening to others and the impact it can have. We talk about strategies that we can use to help us listen, such a how to sit on the carpet. You can make this whole body listening anchor chart with your students. These are strategies that your students can use to get their bodies ready to listen. I know what this does not work for all students, so be mindful of that and their needs when teaching this. Make accommodations as needed. One fun game you can play with your students is called Listen, Draw, Check. It's similar to Battleship, and one that my students always loved. You can read more about it HERE. I also have a song that we sing to get our minds ready to listen. Having this cue in place will help your students be ready when it's time to listen without you having to say anything. If you want to read about more LISTENING STRATEGIES, you can read more in this BLOGPOST. Kindness Kindness might be one of the most important topics we teach all year to our students. Building a culture of kindness in your room can have a huge impact on your classroom environment. Teaching students compassion and empathy will help lead to stronger relationships between the students, as well as between the teacher and students. With these tightly knit relationships comes trust and leads students to feel comfortable and loved in your classroom, which in turn fosters a culture of learning. Be Kind by Pat Ziellow Miller is a sweet story to use to spark conversations about how to treat others. A simple way to practice showing kindness is to write compliment notes to one another. Acts of Kindness BINGO is a fun little game you can quickly play with your class. This game just gets them to thinking about some different acts of kindness they can incorporate into their day. Have your students set goals for how they are going to apply what they learned. They can come up with four ways they will show kindness around the school that day. You can read about more ways to teach KINDNESS in the classroom HERE. Classroom and School Rules Teaching your classroom rules is a necessity. Students must be explicitly instructed on what they are, why they are important, and how to follow those rules. But it isn't always the most exciting thing to cover, whether you are teaching them at the beginning of the year, or are revisiting them at the beginning of the semester. Teaching your classroom rules doesn't have to be boring; I will show you how to make it engaging and fun! Using songs, a game, a read aloud, and more, you can make learning classroom rules fun and exciting! In my classroom, we always created a Classroom Promise together. I have created an anchor chart that already has the statements for the promise, or you can create your own on a blank anchor chart. I printed these little handprints on different colors of paper and you can let students cut them out. They can then write their name on the handprint to attach to the anchor chart to symbolize their promise to the class. You can play this fun classroom rules game with your class. You divide the students into two teams to play Classroom Rules Charades! The team draws a card and one member from the team has to act out the rule or situation. The team then has to decide on which rule that it would fall under. Display them on the board with the rule for a visual reminder for students. If the team gets both correct, they get a point. The team with the most points wins. When you go over the classroom or school rules with your students, have them write them down, too. It would also be helpful for them to attach an illustration to each rule. You can have read about more ways to teach your CLASSROOM RULES in this BLOGPOST. Making Good Choices Often times, students can be impulsive and make choices without stopping to think. We want to provide students with the strategies they need to stop, think, and make a good choice. By teaching them these skills, students will begin to develop self control and self discipline. Any of the books from the What Should Danny Do? series by Ganit and Adir Levy are perfect for practicing making choices. The School Day book has the most applicable scenarios for the school day, so I would use this one first if you have it. If not, the others will work, too. The THIS OR THAT game gets students up and moving during your lesson. Divide your carpet or an open area in your room to have two sides. Hang the THIS or THAT signs up on each side so students can see which side to stand on. Read one of the questions and have students move to the side that they believe is the right choice. It can be either side, so they will be moving and making choices! The important thing is that you provide your students with lots of practice making choices. Have discussions about those choices and if they are the right or wrong choice in that situation. You might do so during independent work time by discussing how different choices could extend that time or not help us focus. During centers, you can provide them with choice in choosing the best activity to fit their current needs. It's also important to point out that we don't always make the best choice, and that's okay. We all make mistakes and can move forward and learn from those mistakes. You can read more about how to teach MAKING GOOD CHOICES HERE. Empathy We want to create an environment in our classroom that encourages and teaches empathy. Children tend to be egocentric and need to be explicitly taught to recognize others' feelings and how to respond to those feelings. This will build classroom community and foster an environment of kindness in your elementary classroom. Empathy is Your Super Power by Cori Bussolari provides students with different scenarios in which they can apply empathy. You can then model using empathy in different situations throughout your day. When you see students modeling empathy, be sure to point it out to the class. The more you do this, the more these behaviors will be embedded into your classroom community. If you see a situation in which a student could have used empathy, address that with that student. Let them have a do over so that they can build that into their muscle memory! We want to teach students what empathy is, the understanding of the feelings and experiences of another. I like to tell them that it's like putting yourself in someone else's shoes. You can make this anchor chart together, and teach students four questions to ask themselves when they are in a situation in which they can apply sympathy. 1. What emotions is that friend feeling? 2. Why do they feel this way? 3. How would I feel if I were in that situation? 4. What can I say or do to help? Students can make these empathy glasses to help them see a situation through someone else's eyes. You can then have them discuss reasons why someone might have these feelings from the cards you will show them with different feelings and emotions. The In Your Shoes Empathy Game provides students with different classroom scenarios. They have to describe how they would show empathy in the situation to move forward. This could be played in teams as a class or in small groups. You can ready more about EMPATHY in this POST. I hope you have a great year! Teaching is really hard, and it takes lots of practice and experience to really get comfortable and confident with teaching your expectations and rules. Last year, I thought I was going to have a meltdown at the beginning of the year! It was really tough but it got better the more I stuck with my expectations. Be patient, calm, and consistent, and it will all come together! You can save BIG on the Social Emotional Mini Lessons Bundle by clicking below.
The moment students step foot in a classroom they get an idea of what that class is all about. Let’s try to get them excited about math with some meaningful classroom decorations. I’ve gathered some ideas for bulletin boards, signs, and useful decorations that are perfect for middle and high school
Here is a bulletin board set ready to go! Print in black and white on colorful card stock or choose the watercolor version to print on white paper. Cut and hang! These positive words will remind your students of character traits that they can aspire to. Included is: Letters to form the heading: "CHOOSE TO BE..." or "BE YOU!" ---watercolor versions and black & white versions of all words/letters. 29 Positive Character Traits: 1. expressive 2. creative 3. responsible 4. respectful 5. courageous 6. honest 7. fair 8. friendly 9. helpful 10. caring 11. imaginative 12. dedicated 13. optimistic 14. thankful 15. passionate 16. determined 17. reliable 18. patient 19. hard-working 20. considerate 21. polite 22. positive 23. thoughtful 24. curious 25. strong 26. humble 27. open-minded 28. calm 29. unique
This eye-catching bulletin board poster is perfect for any math classroom! Help your students memorize square roots and perfect squares and add to your cute classroom decor!
Classroom bulletin board displays and ideas for teachers from Unique Teaching Resources
When you encourage positive behavior supports in school, you get positive results. These posters will motivate any student to do the right thing.
Share your school values from the moment your students enter the front door.
