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School has been keeping me SUPER busy!!! I feel like I haven’t participated in Five for Friday for MONTHS!

Name Puzzles

We made name puzzles in kindergarten yesterday.  For the two groups of students that don’t know their letters, one activity we do during guided reading is to practice with the letters in their names.    The white envelope has their names written on it, so they can use it as a model.  Yesterday I cut their names in half, today each letter was a separate piece.

 I won these ABC posters at an afterschool meeting!  They have different icons than the ones I use in the classroom, but I figure they will be good practice to see if skills are transferring :)

 I love using Wikki Stix to make letters!

We’ve been getting lots of rain!!!  When I went to go running this week on my favorite trail, it was way more challenging than I’m used to!

I hope everyone has a GREAT relaxing weekend!!!!

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Literacy Without Worksheets

I love linking up with Farley!!!
I think I'm finally in the "back-to-school" routine!  It is nice that the weather is still summer like (90+)!  I'm hoping that we can still go swimming one last time this weekend!

I am not good about working out in the morning, and then after I eat dinner, I don't feel like running!  I've been walking 3-4 miles in the evenings, but I really need to run!!!

I need to help my husband with yard work this weekend.  We need to plant some grass seed and put new dirt down in an area that was washed away by a mega rainfall earlier in the summer!

My three goals are staying organized (so far so good), being thankful (because sometimes I forget how blessed I am), and being more patient!

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Literacy Without Worksheets

I am so excited to link up this month with other amazing bloggers sharing their Teacher Wisdom!  In my opinion, classroom management kind of makes or breaks a good school year.  I've kind of learned the hard way that even though I may be a little laid back, my classroom and students needs structure!

Something Old

My copy of this book is well worn, but it still has great classroom management advice.   There is also quite a bit about preventing and planning to help alleviate classroom management issues.

Something New

This is my Classroom Management Pinterest Board that I set up this summer.  There are lots of easy to implement ideas to help with classroom management issues.

One of my favorite new pins is from Melissa Mazur.  It is hand signals for sign language.

Something Borrowed

I love this freebie from D Conway!!!   The visuals are great and work perfect for a pre-k or kindergarten class!

Something True

I'm a huge fan of CHAMPS.  Here is a blog post I wrote that was featured on Rachel Lynette's Minds in Bloom blog.   You can download my CHAMPS posters here for free.

CHAMPS is part of Randy Sprick's Safe and Civil Schools and is a research based program with over thirty years of classroom research.

The CHAMPS acronym stands for:

Conversation: Can students talk to each other during this activity?

Help: How do students get the teacher's attention and their questions answered?

Activity: What is the task/objective? What is the end product?

Movement: Can students move about during this activity?

Participation: How do students show they are fully participating? What does work behavior look/sound like?

Success: When students meet CHAMPS expectations, they will be successful!

According to Save and Civil Schools, CHAMPS strategies are easy to implement and will:

•Reduce classroom disruptions and office referrals

•Improve classroom climate

•Increase student on-task behavior

•Establish respectful and civil interactions

An InLinkz Link-up

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Literacy Without Worksheets