Classroom Jobs

I believe that every child in a class should have a job for the week. Keeping the jobs organized is another matter.
Here is how I do it:
1. I laminated book pockets.
2. I made labels stating the name of the jobs in my classroom and stuck them on the pockets.
3. I wrote the names of my students on craft sticks.
4. I paired a girl and boy, if possible, to be job partners for the year.
5. I put the paired name sticks in the job pockets.
6. On Monday mornings I rotate the sticks in a particular pattern so the children have turns doing every job.
It's simple and effective. Hooray!

Morning Meeting

Each morning the children come in and do morning work. After that is completed we hold our daily morning meeting. During morning meeting the star student of the week gets to run the meeting. The children have little notebooks they bring to the carpet and we go over the daily business.

Here is a sample agenda:
1. How many days have we been in first grade?
2. What is the date today?
3. Did anyone loose a tooth and/or are there any birthdays today?
4. What is the weather like outside today?
5. What was yesterday, what is today, and what will tomorrow be?
6. Review months of the year & days of the week.
7. Build a word for the day using the magnets and wall mounted cookie sheets.
8. Solve the daily math word problem using the magnets as well.
9. Add a new word to the monthly word list.
10. Review any other skills as needed.
11. News and schedule review for the day.

For each of the tasks on the agenda the star student picks a stick out the basket. Each stick has a student's name on it. When the star student picks a stick that child completes the task on the agenda. The morning meeting builds classroom community, instills public speaking skills in the children, and helps cement learned skills in the kids' bright brains. All this is accomplished in about 15 minutes...I love having a morning meeting!

Warm Fuzzies

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in case you didn't know. :) Every six months my church holds a meeting called General Conference up in Salt Lake City. This conference is broad casted worldwide. Today the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, gave a talk about service. He mentioned a great idea that a group of children carried out. The children were challenged to carry out acts of service that would give them "warm fuzzies" in their hearts. Every time the children accomplished this task they got to place a "warm fuzzy" ball (aka craft pom-pom) into a large jar. In no time the children had filled the large jar and became addicted to service. I think I'm going to try giving this ingenious idea a try in my home and classroom. After all, don't we all need more "warm fuzzies" in our lives?