The Seven Days of Christmas

We are only 7 days away from winter break (if you count today).  As always around this time of year, my learners were starting to get a little restless and to treat each other not so nicely all the time.  While I tried to stress again and again global citizenship and with freedom comes responsibility I decided it was time to break out a behavior chart in order to earn some holiday classroom cheer.

After scouring Pinterest, I realized there was nothing quite what I needed, so I decided to create something of my own. Here is our '5C Christmas Tree of Goodness and Kindness':

Each morning we talk about how our actions impact others.  Sometimes it's reflecting on a short reading, other times its sharing something positive we have done for others.  Starting our day off thinking about our actions has really helped guide my learners in making better choices.

Our christmas tree has 5 main layers (the top is for the star that we are going to make as a class) and we will use the two sides of the door as decoration space as well.  Each day, the students have the opportunity to earn an ornament for completing their homework on time, helping their classmates, and practicing goodness and kindness.  At the end of the day, the students are given an ornament which they take home to color and then add to our tree the next day.

Our goal is that each student will have at least 5 ornaments on the tree (out of 7 possible days) which will earn them a movie morning of 'Elf' and hot chocolate. The students who haven't earned that right are going to work with another teacher either tutoring younger students or helping around the schools o they can practice goodness and kindness.

So far the kids love it!  Our classroom is getting decorated, spirits are lifting, and it feels great to work towards a common goal.

I've hung this sign by the tree, please feel free to use it in your own classroom.

Happy Holidays!

~Michelle Louise

A New Day A New Year

WOW!
I can't believe the first day of school has already come and gone!  I have 14 bright and eager learners in my room from all different countries around the world.  I apologize for the drop off in blogging, but I moved into a new classroom and it took a solid week of sorting, organizing, throwing away, and decorating before it felt like it was mine. Take a look:

Before--

I'm a VERY organized teacher and I had to know every supply, book, and manipulative had a home before I could even begin thinking about my curriculum!  1 week of coming in 8-5pm and I couldn't be happier!   Check it out!

After--

I love my writing center and the fact that my window area has so much shelving! Thank you so much to Karen Cox at www.prekinders.com for providing the FREE polka dot labels that I was able to turn into my library and supply labels.

After a hard end of the year I feel so energized to have such a bright, and calm classroom!  I used the "Dots on Turquoise," "Paisley Turquoise," "Stripes and Stitches," and a polka dot and stripes flag banner borders from The Learning Shop to make my classroom feel like an extension of my personality.  I found a really cute white picket fence border that I put along the bottom of all of my windows and will use for our unit on plants.

Ahhhh....I love a beautiful classroom!

Here's to a new day and a new year!!!

~Michelle Louise

A Beautiful Bunch!

Since the hubby is hard at work finalizing an accounting cost management paper and it is 98 degrees outside with 60% (!!!) humidity I decided to do some easy quiet teacher projects.

For a few years now I have been admiring flower pens and pots, yet I never seemed to have the time or energy to create my own. Enough is enough! Here is my finished 20 min project:

~Michelle Louise