Classroom Management – Play Ball!

A great way to keep students in check is to have a tangible scoring system of their behavior. Here is one of our favorites called Classroom Baseball.

Classroom Baseball is a great choice for any classroom. Start by creating a poster that includes a pocket for each student. Each pocket will have three craft sticks in it to represent strikes. Throughout the day, you can give students that are misbehaving a strike. That student will then need to remove one of their sticks from their pocket. Those who strike out get a note or phone call home to Mom or Dad. Students who complete the day, or even the week, without any strikes will get the chance to “play ball’.

 

You will need to reserve just a few minutes at the end of the day, or the end of the week, for this portion. The well behaved students can line up for a chance to toss the ball for a prize. You can simply use a ball or a bean bag and a small trash can or even have four different boxes to represent the bases.

Tip! Try using four different sized boxes or baskets. They will get smaller as the bases go on making first base the largest and home plate the smallest. The prizes will be better when they choose a more challenging base.

Now you have a fun game for students to look forward to. It will give them incentive to be on their best behavior each day and not strike out. Now let’s play ball!

Classroom Management – Take a Brain Break

We all have those days when the work becomes too much or we just can’t quite seem to keep still. The perfect solution is to take a quick Brain Break. Give your students a few minutes to get their wiggles out and focus on something different.

You can use this time to sing a song, take a walk outside or around your hallway, play a quick game, or even have a little snack. Taking this time will help you to avoid outbursts from antsy students and frustration for those who just need a brain break.

 

Try this! Have students write their favorite Brain Break activity on a craft stick. Put the sticks in a cup and draw one when it is time for a Brain Break. Your students will love seeing what their surprise Brain Break will be.

 

 

Want more classroom management ideas? Check back in at http://purefunsupply.blogspot.com.

Classroom Management – Rules and Goals

A great way to get students involved in creating your classroom management plan is to have them help you decide what the rules and goals of your classroom should be. Have students spend some time brain storming ideas and write them on the board as they come up with them. They can also create consequences and rewards for when goals are met and rules are broken.

Once completed create a visual to hang in the room. This might be one poster with everything on it, one poster for rules and consequences and one for goals and rewards, or even a poster for each rule and each goal. Have your students split into groups to create and decorate the posters or allow them to decorate the one large poster with everything on it.

      

Now students are guaranteed to know what the rules are since they helped to create them! This gives them a visual reminder of each rule and what happens when they disobey them. They also have a positive visual of goals and what rewards they will receive when goals are met.

Check out our Incentives and Motivators to use as rewards for good work and good behavior!

Classroom Management

For every teacher, having a solid Classroom Management Plan is key! Sadly, there isn’t one magic plan that works for every classroom or student, but by sharing a few ideas we hope to help you create a plan that works for your classroom! In this series, you will find a few basic tips and ideas that will help you keep a positive and manageable environment for your students.

Our first tip is simple; Love your students. There is typically a student in every classroom that stirs up a bit of trouble. This can cause tension in the room and even between teacher and student. The difference in positive reinforcement and a negative reaction is loving each student first. Think of them as your own and strive to make sure they know they are loved and believed in while in your classroom. Look for the best in each student and help them to always bring their best to class with them every day. By letting them know you believe in their best you are encouraging them to believe in their best as well.

Along those same lines, tip two is to Set the Tone of your Classroom. Leave room for humor and take the time to recognize the personalities of your students. It really makes a difference for you and for them when you remove pressure and get to know them. Your classroom should be a positive environment for every student. Having a reminder to keep things positive may be beneficial to your room. Try adding a poster with a positive quote to keep students inspired!

Looking for more tips and ideas on classroom management? Check back in at http://purefunsupply.blogspot.com/ tomorrow for another blog post. You can also leave us a comment below and let us know what works best in your classroom! We would love to share it in one of our future posts.

Hand-Print Crafts

Give your students a helping hand with these hand-print crafts! Your little ones will love creating different crafts using their hands!

Spider- Start by painting the upper half of the palm along with all four fingers. Making one print at a time, place the hand firmly onto the paper. When making the second print you will need to point the fingers in the opposite direction, connecting the upper palm prints. You can leave these spiders on the paper and add a decorative web, or cut them out and hang them around the room! Wiggle eyes also make a perfect finishing touch.

Lobster- Take your hand-print crafts under the sea with the lobster handprint! This is done just like the spider hand-print, but using the thumb as well to create the eyes.

Zoo Animals- These friendly zoo animals are simple to create with just a single hand-print! With the fingers pointed down, have the students turn their hand-prints into zebras, giraffes, lions, elephants and more with markers.

Fish- Don’t forget about the classic hand-print fish! These fish always come out unique to each student with a variety of bright colors. Paint the different colors directly onto their hands and all they have to do it stamp it down! Try cutting them out and creating a school of fish on your classroom wall.

What’s your favorite hand-print craft? Share your ideas with us below or leave us a comment on our Facebook or Twitter pages.