Incentive to Read!

I've been wanting to make an interactive bulletin board for a long time and I finally executed it this week! I'm not sure why I chose to make it during such a busy week! The goal is for students to read for at least 20 minutes at home each night. When you add up all those minutes, it ends up being a lot by the end of a school year! Why read at home? Here's an informational flyer that can bring insight to that:

I realize that for some families, this may be difficult to do because of how busy life can get. However, any amount of time is definitely helpful!

Here's the bulletin board I created:

Each little blue flag is worth 250 minutes. To make it to the finish line would require 10,000 minutes of reading at home! Wheew! Now that would be a goal to accomplish :) The great news is that I don't care what it is students read: books, comics, magazines, cereal boxes, basically anything works!

Halloween!

Our Halloween party was a blast! Students got to dress up and walk around the entire school in a school-wide serpentine parade! It was a lot to cram into one hour but It's something the kids will remember their whole lives! I still remember when I got to do that when I was little.

 Such a cute snack! 

 Let the Serpentine Commence! 

My attempt at Medusa! At least the hair piece looked good :)

Homework Club and Other Incentives

It's hard to believe we are already several weeks into the school year now. Generally, I have a hard time getting the entire class to turn in their homework, so this year I decided to try something new! I have two incentives for students to do/turn in their homework: Homework Bingo and Homework Club.

 

When students turn in their homework on time, they get to write their name on two squares. If they can return it by Friday they can write their name on one square. At the end of the week I will draw one space and whoever is in that space gets a special prize. So far it's working fantastically! 

To reward students who have turned in their homework every week in a month, they get to stay in the "Homework Club" and have lunch in the classroom on the last day of the month. All but 3 students were able to stay in the Homework Club for the month of September! 

As an incentive for students to make good choices, they can get a "Gotcha" for being safe, respectful, and responsible. So another fun thing I'm doing this year is offering a monthly prize for getting caught doing these things. When students get a "Gotcha" they put their name on it and place it in a special jar. At the end of the month, I pull 1-3 out to win the monthly prize. 

For the month of September I had three excited students who got to have one of these little magnetic bendy guys :) I would love to post a picture of their happy faces, but I need to get permission first. Stay tuned for an update :)

First Week Done! Wheeew!

We made it through the first week with flying colors! Students seemed to enjoy themselves and I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone. During the week we discussed what makes a good student. Here's what students had to say:

We used "David" from "David Goes to School" written by none other than David Shannon as our example. In "David Goes to School," he needs lots of help learning how to behave. Students brainstormed and listed all of the things David needed help with.

We also discussed what makes a good teacher. We ran short on time so our anchor chart isn't quite complete. Here's what they noted:

Someone wanted to butter me up by saying "We want Mrs. Pope as a teacher because she's perfect." I'll have to admit, it did make me blush! Looking forward to a great year!

A New Year, New Faces, and LOTS to Learn!

Welcome to my classroom blog. There are lots of great things in store for this school year! It was wonderful meeting students and families today and I look forward to our first day of school next Tuesday. It's hard to believe that the summer has passed by but I am ready to get back into a routine! My goal is to update the blog more often than I did last year which probably won't be difficult considering I only updated it 3 times. If you have any ideas on what you might like to see on the blog I would love recommendations! If you've found the blog already, thank you for stopping by!

~Mrs. Pope

Prize Day!

Yesterday I launched our classroom "store" where students were able use their "Pope" tickets and the top part of their Gotchas as money to purchase various things. The store will be open at the 9:00 a.m. recess every Friday. Many students bought prizes right away and others are saving theirs for an auction at the end of the school year! The auction may include left over prizes as well as some bigger prizes. I will be collecting donations for the auction, so keep your eyes out for things on clearance and/or things your child might want to donate from their old toy box.

 Prizes include items such as pictures and laminated four and five-leaf clovers.

Stickers, clips, and lots of "coupons" for things such as: wear your pj's to school, sit in the teachers chair for a day, sit at the teacher's desk for half a day, no homework for a week, etc. 

Pencils, erasers, sharpeners, journals, and bookmarks!

 I plan on paying students tickets (money) for the rest of the year for doing their work. For example, they will get paid for coming to school on time, turning their homework in, and for doing their classroom job! If you would like to donate small items for the store, those are definitely welcome!

Thank You All!

Hello Everyone! I sure hope you are all having a fantastic Thanksgiving week! I just want you all to know how truly blessed I am this year. I don't think I have ever had such a positive experience conferencing! As a teacher it is one of the most rewarding experiences to look at each child individually and to see growth after only a few short months! The feedback I got from all of you was also nice and it makes me feel like the work I put into this job is appreciated and noticed. It truly fills my heart with joy. One more thing, I need to give a HUGE shout out to Helen Reading (Elijah's mom) for helping me diagnose, fix, and figure out how to post pictures to the blog! I can now make it a more colorful, interactive, and interesting page to look at :)