Like many of you, my teaching and work life has shifted dramatically over the past few years. Sometimes I am teaching from home, other times I am doing teaching-related work from home… but I am almost always doing it with a little one at my feet. I’m not in a physical classroom right now, but my “teacher mom” hat is still very much on. And trying to keep a toddler busy while working from home during the day is no joke. So I’ve tried my best to adapt and find ways to keep that darling toddler busy while working from home. It’s not always easy, but I’ve found a few hacks that make it just a little bit more manageable.

Lean hard on teacher skills

Even though I’m not in a classroom with 25 kids right now, I still know how to set up centers like a champ… and I’m using those skills to keep my toddler entertained.

Toddlers have notoriously terrible attention spans. She’s 3 now, but since she was 20 months we have been doing a modified ‘center time’ to keep her entertained while I work from home. I’ll set up a small handful of centers in our living room and we’ll rotate through them every 15 or so minutes. The centers themselves aren’t anything extraordinary - just toys and activities we have around the house - but she has something new to look at and explore often enough that it buys me time to get some work done. 

Here are a few things that I’ve set out:

Farm creation kit using printable pieces from Earlybird and found materials around the house!

• Little people

• Rice bin

• MegaBlocks

• Coloring

• Dollies, snack,

• Magnetic tiles,

• Dough or Clay (The DIY sensory dough kit from Earlybird is super easy to set up and bought us a solid 20 minutes of playtime!)

• Even snack time makes a great toddler center!

Reach out to trusted resources 

Image: Two children play with a color sorting activity.

In our house we LOVE Earlybird. Instead of scouring the internet for a million “toddler activities” or “toddler crafts” that may or may not work, and might be developmentally appropriate, everything on Earlybird is already classified by age and skill. So many of the activities use items we already have at home and they’re researched based. So while they may not always be ‘Pinterest perfect crafts’, they’re activities that I can set up for my toddler that she can often engage with totally independently. The site is a low monthly subscription (that comes with a weekly newsletter that has each weeks’ activities planned out for you) and they have so many free ideas on their Instagram page. 

Set a visual timer

A visual timer like this is a great trick for showing little ones exactly how much work time you have left.

If my toddler is right beside me while I’m working, I try to be intentional and set a timer for exactly how long I’ll be working, and I break my work time up into small chunks.

However, I make sure it’s a visual timer. Time is such an abstract concept for kids, and saying “I’ll be 5 more minutes” and “I need 75 minutes” mean almost the same thing. (That is, they mean absolutely nothing!) We use a visual timer like the one pictured to show her how much time until I can play.

I’ll work for 30 minutes, and then play for 5-10.  Work for another 30, and have lunch together. Work for another 30, and cuddle and read books. Etc. And I always follow through. When that timer beeps I don’t pause and wait to finish my marking or quickly upload something else… the timer means we break to do something together. It’s really helped us find a balance.

Use screen time

I know… screen time is controversial in some parts of the internet. But around our house we save screen time for when silence is important. Like when I have Zoom class or meeting, or need to listen to an audio file quietly. Since screen time is a bit more rare, my toddler is is much more likely to sit quietly and watch a show or play a game on my iPad. 

Right now we are loving the app Sago Mini World for independent iPad time. She’s not quite ready for the letter/alphabet games, (and to be honest, I didn’t love the quality of the ones we had trialed) but we may try those again in the future.

For shows, I always lean heavily towards ones that model empathy, kindness and showcase diversity in families and characters. Disney+ is our subscription channel of choice, so we watch episodes of Bluey, TOTS, Doc McStuffins, The Rocketeer and Mira Royal Detective. 

Head Outside 

Image: A mom and child set up a learning center outside.

We live on the west coast, so this one isn’t always possible (Hello, rainy season).  But whenever possible, I take my charged laptop outside and work while she plays outdoors. I seem to be able to get more concentrated work time when there are mud, sticks, and dirt to play with.

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Pin these ideas for later!

Have you started an end of the year countdown yet? The last weeks before summer break can be a bit (okay, a lot) chaotic in the classroom, but they are also the perfect opportunity to get ahead for back to school.  I would much rather get organized in May/June than feel overwhelmed and behind in August/September… no matter how tired I am at the end of the year.  Maybe it’s my enneagram 1 personality, but being properly organized helps me to feel ready for a break.  And I am ready for summer break this year.  These organization ideas for the end of the year will help to set next year off on the right foot!

Text: How to get organized before summer break.
Image: A notebook, pencil, paperclips, and pencil sharpener are displayed on a white surface.

There are a handful of things that I always try to do before leaving school for the summer.  Take a peek into my Year End Checklist:

End of the Year Must-Do Checklist

1. Recycle, donate, or toss student and teacher supplies that don’t work. It’s a great time of year to declutter and make sure everything is working and/or has lids! This includes supplies that just don’t work in your classroom.  Do you find yourself never reaching for that class set of pastels? Time to send them somewhere else!

2. Organize supplies and materials. Some years the class can be left set up, other years it has to be packed into boxes. Either way I try to make sure the supplies are organized and packed in a way that makes back-to-school unpacking easy!

3. Prepare blank name tags and labels. I may not know the names of students in my class, but I can make sure that name tags, cubby tags, and desk tags are laminated, organized, and ready to go.

4. Re-label any storage bins (like the ones I have EVERYWHERE in my room) or cupboards.  By the end of the year, the labels around my room are often peeling or discolored.  Before I go I take a moment to re-label anything that needs it and move anything that could use a new space next year. 

5. Organize student books.  I go through all of my books to repair any damages, recycle any that are beyond repair, and organize books back into levels or genres.  It’s great to start with an organized library. 

6. Deep clean my teacher-desk.  By the end of the year, my desk is a M-E-S-S.  I don't always know where half of the papers came from, but I know it’s a great time to purge as much as I can 

7. Photocopy lessons for the first week (or month!) back.  I like to have at least a weeks’ worth of back-to-school math, writing, reading, and get-to-know-you activities prepped and ready to go before I walk out the door.  That way, when the chaos of September rolls around, I am at least semi-prepped with a weeks’ worth of lessons to grab and go! You can see some of my favorite no-prep lessons for the first week back here.

If at all possible, I include my students in completing these tasks.  Most of these items are necessary because of how hard the classroom has been used by 22-28 students during the year, so I feel like it’s right to have them help with the re-set process for the next year. (And it counts as a life skills lesson… right?)   Is there anything I missed on my list? What is on your must-do list for getting done before summer break? Let me know in the comments below or chime in on instagram!

Are you having issues with digital resources? Not sure how to assign out a Google Slides product? Do you want to send out only ONE slide/page of a resource at a time to your students in Google Classroom? I’ve scoured the internet and had conversations with many teacher-colleagues to put together this resource of videos, articles, and blog posts that will hopefully help to answer some of these questions!

Hopefully, these posts can help you as you navigate the digital Google components to the Poet Prints Teaching units you already love. Make sure to check here to see which digital units have been upgraded. Re-download the units you already own to access the new digital upgrades!

I’m new to Google Classroom. Where do I even start?

Pocketful of Primary has a great video on the basics of Google Classroom here. Take a look around her Youtube Channel. After a handful of videos, you’ll feel ready to dive headfirst into your Google Classroom!

How do I get my digital TPT purchase into Google Classroom?

Shelley Gray Teaching has an AWESOME blog post that walks you through each step in this process. She does a fantastic job of walking you through everything from opening up the initial link in your TPT purchase, to opening the Slides file, to assigning it in Google Classroom.

How do I assign a Google Slides product to my students in Google Classroom?

Check out this video by Pocketful of Primary. Although this video dives deep into how to create your own resources (wow!) she gives a great step-by-step video tutorial of assigning a Google Slides product right in Google Classroom. Start at 5:35 for this.

How can I assign only one or two pages at a time, instead of the whole digital slides file?

In this blog post, Learning to the Core explains how to separate her reading passages by making multiple copies of the original Google Slides file. The same principle can be applied to ANY Google Slides file that you purchase on TPT.

• Make a copy of your Google Slides file (File > Make a Copy > Entire Presentation)

• Save that new copy (so you now have both, the original with ALL the slides, and your copy)

• In the copy, delete all the slides that you don’t want for the day

• Send your students the new copy, with only the slides you want them to have!

• Repeat as necessary

How do I use Google Slides resources in Schoology?

Technically Speaking with Amy has a great video about how to use the Google Classroom app (and your Google slides resources) right within Schoology. Her post about it is here, and it’s super straightforward.

What if I don’t have Google Classroom? Can I still send my resource to my students?

If you don’t have Google Classroom there are some options for getting Google Slides resources into the hands of your students. Take a peek at Shelley Gray Teaching’s blog for her super-helpful (and screen-capture full!) information all about the best ways to send these out.

It's almost impossible to get away from 'friendship issues' in the classroom. The second half of Third Grade seems to be the season for bickering and fighting, no matter how many community-building exercises we have done in the first half. I absolutely LOVE Third Grade, but it also seems to be the year where they discover that they can be mean to each other by intentionally discluding others in activities and saying generally unkind comments under their breath.

There are so many strategies for building classroom community in tough seasons like these. We've talked about love languages, and learned how to be bucket fillers, I've implemented whole-classroom curriculums on peacekeeping and gone to anti-bullying Pro-D seminars. Today I'm going to share one small activity that has made a big difference.

One of the more successful things I've found was a few afternoons of purposeful play. I would ask students to bring in a favorite board game from home and get ready to use it during class time. (Certain years my students weren't excited by board games, and I'd set out lego or other building materials as an alternative). Then, I would divide them into intentional small groups that would change each day. These groups were designed ahead of time so that students would get to know people outside of their regular social circles.

While students were playing I would project a get-to-know-you or deeper thinking question that they needed to ask their group mates. We'd go through 3-6 questions over the course of our 30-45 minute 'play' time. I always pull my questions from the book 'Q&A a Day for Kids', it's one of my 'secret weapons' as a Third Grade teachers. There are so many great questions. I use it for this activity and for morning meetings every Friday! (You can find it HERE, this is not an affiliate link).

My admin was on board with this afternoon break to play board games and build with Lego because it was purposefully character-building and my students were having a hard time with bullying and exclusion. This was really good for forcing students to get to know people outside of their preferred social groups. Do you have any quick activities to help when your students are being just plain mean to each other? I'd love some new strategies. Let me know below or connect on Instagram, @poet.prints.

With every first day back after a school break, I try to be very intentional about how to build classroom community and help my fourth-grade students re-connect with each other. It’s so easy to resort to just catching up with friends and going with what’s familiar, so one way to help my students connect with as many peers as possible is through “speed friending!”  It’s a great classroom community activity for any time of the year! 

In this activity, there are a series of questions that I show on Google Slides, and with each new question comes a new peer to interact with! It’s a great way to encourage students to make connections with peers outside of their usual social circles. I start the activity with a brief set of ‘rules and expectations’ that help to set us up for success.  

With twenty-four students, I divide the class into two lines with their chairs facing each other.    I tell one of the lines that they are now glued to their chairs and that the line of classmates across from them now moves one over with each new question. 

These questions range from silly “would you rather” style prompts to more intentional questions like “What is a quality you look for in a good friend?” Or today’s humdinger was “What is something that you really struggled with that you want to continue working on?” 

The question that received the most giggles was over “What are you really interested in right now? For example, your teacher is obsessed with Baby Yoda.”

And on the twelfth question, we end with a fun movement game where partners create a sequential rhythm with their hands and voices. 

What I love best is that the students are engaged with each new question, they enjoy the variety in different partners, and the community naturally restrengthens as the students bond over shared experiences and similar answers. 

What activities do you do that help facilitate conversation and connection in your classroom? I’m always on the hunt for new ideas.  Leave some ideas below! 

This was a guest post by Sarah, an elementary teacher in British Columbia.  She shares all of her upper elementary adventures on Instagram at @themissengteacher.  

Unpopular opinion: I find celebrating birthdays in the classroom to be quite stressful.

Okay, that statement isn’t entirely true. I love celebrating my students, but I cannot stand the mountains of cupcakes, cakes, ice-cream treats, jello, and candies that are inevitably brought into the classroom.  One student even brought in a pot of spaghetti on the morning of his birthday.  I wish I was joking.

While I do believe that birthdays are a great opportunity to celebrate each individual student, the sugary treats and unanticipated meals can make our day quite difficult.  Have you tried teaching 30 third-graders who are very hyper on cupcakes with mile-high-icing?  I have, and it is not easy.  Then multiply that by 20-30 different birthdays in the class… it’s a lot of sugar.  And when students spontaneously bring in a lunchtime item to share (spaghetti, hot dogs, pizza, etc.) there just often isn’t time to pass it out and eat it before the lunch bell rings.  At our school students get 20 minutes to eat lunch and passing out ‘special birthday lunch’ without notice means that students forego their outside playtime.

I also have a handful of students with a restricted diet (allergies, family preferences, naturopathic suggestions) and days with food treats just end up making many students feel left out.

There are so many other great ways to celebrate students and their birthdays without sugary treats. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Plan a game or activity for the class.  Bring in a soccer ball, parachute or any group game and have students play something together.

2. Bring an in-class activity. I’ve had students bring in a small drawing project, an outdoor game, or a quick STEM challenge

3. In lieu of cake/candy, families are welcome to bring in a small toy or pencil

4. Do something different – last year we decorated an 11x17 piece of paper for each student.  In the center of the paper, I wrote “Happy Birthday Joe” in large letters.  As students arrived they wrote a short encouraging note on the paper.  Then, the birthday student took a picture holding the sign and wearing a birthday hat.  This was a great keepsake for the student and the picture looked awesome on a bulletin board. 

Don’t have time for a celebration like this at every birthday?  Try picking one day per month to celebrate birthdays!  Students love knowing that a celebration is coming and I like to be able to plan ahead of time for these activities.  Plus, it allows all monthly birthdays to participate, even if their family has not sent in a game or activity!  

I’d love to know how you celebrate birthdays in your classroom.  Does your school have any rules about sugary treats?  Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram! (@poet.prints)

Can you believe that some schools are mere weeks away from Back to School time? Are you one of those teachers who is winding down their summer and starting to think about Back to School? I’ve never been one to really ‘unplug’ from school altogether over the summer, but I do use the time to make/create things for my classroom that are fun for me.  (Like a good DIY or cute classroom signs). Whether you are a new teacher or returning after 15 years, there are always a handful of things that need to be done before school starts again. Some are just decisions that need to be made, and others are small projects that will make the first weeks much easier.

1. Figure out what to do with supplies

Does your district have students bring in supplies on the first day of school? Do you buy them yourself?  In my school, we do a combination of both. On the first day of school, students arrive with backpacks full of school supplies.  You’ll need to know what you plan to do with these! Are you having students store all of their supplies in their desks? Will you keep some of their supplies in a cupboard/drawer to be distributed throughout the year? Will you gather some up as communal supplies? Decide your preference and think through what you will do with the supplies as they arrive.

Grab a free science lesson all about famous bridges. It’s the perfect way to start reading informational text and the STEM challenge is just so much fun.

2. Decide what you will do with student work

This one goes along with #1. Do you plan to have students store all of their notebooks and pronged folders in their lockers/desks? Will you keep them separate and sorted by subject area on a classroom shelf? This is important to know ahead of time as it will help you to stay organzied in the first few weeks.  If you plan to keep all of their notebooks and folders separate then the first days of school are the perfect time to collect and label all of these books.  I blogged about how I store student work over here.  

3. Determine your attention-getters

In elementary school, routine is key!  Decide what method you will use to get students’ attention and start practicing this on day one.  When you are consistent with one or two attention-getters, your students are able to respond quickly… freeing up a lot of time for you! Here are a few of my favorites: call and response, lights dimmed, hands up high, counting down from 5, a silent hand-gesture that signals it's time to pause and listen.

4. Start a substitute teacher document

I know what you’re thinking… school hasn’t even started yet and you think I should already be planning for a sub?  Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. A couple of years ago I had a medical emergency on the second day of school and was out for two weeks.  Boy, do I wish I had written down my classroom procedures, expectations, and expected routines ahead of time. Even just an interim document can be a lifesaver in case of unintended time off.  Check here for my 5 things that you’ll definitely want to include in your sub plans.

5. Find something to do for the first few days

This one might seem obvious, but you should have the first few days of school totally planned before you head back into school.  This is a great time to introduce some fun theme-based lessons as you get to know your students and assess their learning needs. There are lots of ways to kick off the year.  You could theme your lessons around a book, start with some engaging STEM, or jump right in with your regular schedule. No matter what, I definitely suggest having some quick-activities on hand in case a lesson is interrupted or just doesn’t go to plan.  I created this booklet to help me quickly assess student learning styles and get to know my new students a little bit better.

Did I miss anything? I’d love to know your must-do’s before school starts!  Send me a message or sound off in the comments below.

Keeping track of student work can be a headache in most classrooms.  In the schools I’ve worked at, I’ve seen a lot of different ways to organize work.  Some teachers let the students keep all of their work, some store it all on shelves in the classroom, others do a hybrid of both.  I don’t think there’s any “right” way to do this, but I do know what has worked best for my students and me.

I have always chosen to keep most student work in labeled ‘buckets’ on the shelf.  It’s not that I don’t trust my students to keep their own work organized, it’s that many of them simply haven’t learned that skill yet.  

Technically, these are laundry buckets and I get them from the local dollar store.  I keep them in the same place and use dollar store labels to create one for every subject/topic we are covering.  Before we start something, 3-4 kids grab the bucket and hand out the work to their peers. After the work is finished, each student is responsible for putting their work back in the correct bucket.  I find that this step helps to build a bit of independence. Students learn that their work needs to be put in the proper place or else it won’t be marked.

This isn’t a fix-all to student work organization.  Some students will still put their work in their desks or backpacks, but eventually, they learn how to pause and check for where it should actually be.  I’m trying to build independence and responsibility at an age-appropriate level.

When it comes time to hand-in work, I place a mini-checklist beside each bucket.  As a student hands in their work, they also check off their name. It’s a quick way to see who has forgotten to hand in their work.  

My favorite part of the system - I can just grab a bucket and take it home to mark!

We’ve all had ‘those days’ in the classroom.  You know what I mean, the days where it seems like nothing can go right.  The math lesson flopped, the social studies’ guest speaker canceled at the last minute, a child is in tears because their paper is” too wrinkled”… and you are about to lose it.  This is #teacherlife, am I right?

I am currently spending a year substitute teaching, and I can’t tell you how many days I have walked into a classroom to a plan that says “Find something to do for reading, writing, math, and PE” or, better yet, walked into no plan at all.  

These days are inevitable, and they happen to everyone.  This year, more than any, I’ve learned to have a handful of on-the-go games ready at any time.  These games can fill a few minutes and allow you to gather your thoughts before you proceed with the day.  Sometimes I use them as a ‘re-set’ after a tough lesson. Hopefully, they can help you as well!

Activity 1: Silent Ball

I always keep a small dollar store ball in my teaching bag for this very game.  In Silent Ball, students sit (gasp!) on top of their desks. Then, a ball is passed to the first student.  The goal of the game is to keep the ball moving around the classroom without dropping it or making a peep. If the ball is dropped or someone speaks the round is over.  You can keep ‘score’ by counting how many passes are done, or timing how long the students can keep the ball going without dropping it. I love this game because it is cooperative and forces students to work together to achieve their goal.  

Activity 2: Charades

I almost always have a deck of charades cards in my teaching bag.  This game is great for almost all levels, and meets some important Speaking and Listening outcomes at the same time. I play charades in a few ways.  First, we play the classic version where students have to act out the card pulled. I also play an alternate version where they have 30 seconds to describe as many cards as they can.  Then, after all cards have been described, students have another 30 seconds to describe the cards using only one word. That one is a lot of fun, and usually draws on students’ memory from the previous round.  I haven’t yet met a class that doesn’t like a charades break!

Activity 3: Go Noodle

Wiggly group? Energy coming out of everywhere?  Go Noodle is my best friend in these occasions. Accounts are free for teachers, and there is plenty of free content to get your students up, sweating, and moving around.  My younger students love “Koo Koo Kangaroo” while my older students prefer “Fresh Start Fitness”. So far, all kids from K-5 have loved the track-and-field style channel “Go With the Pro”.

No internet connection or projector?  Keep a few high-energy, kid-friendly songs, ready to go on your smartphone.  A quick game of freeze dance will have almost the same effect on K-3 students!

Activity 4: Four Corners

This is a classic in-school game and for a good reason.  Students love being able to get out of their desk and try to win in a game of Four Corners.  To play this game, label each ‘corner’ of the classroom 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then designate a student to be “it”.  This students sits in the middle of the room with a blindfold (or very covered eyes) and slowly counts down from 10.  During this time, students must sneak to one of the designated corners. The ‘it’ students then yells out a corner number, and all of the students in that corner are out.  The game continues until only one student is left. To keep things moving, I tend to ‘close’ a corner as fewer students remain in the game. By the end, the final few students are only allowed to choose from two of the corners.

What are your go-to activities for a tough day?  Do you have any favorite classroom games or activities? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

This year, my teaching career looks very different from the past few.  After university, I was super lucky to land a third-grade teaching contract, and I stayed there until this past June.  After moving to a new city over the summer,  I am trying something different.  While we get settled somewhere into our new house and community,  I am taking the year to be a substitute teacher in our local public district (or, as we call it up here in BC, a TTOC, Teacher Teaching On Call). 

It's been fun to pop into many different grade levels for the day and see how different teachers and schools choose to run their classrooms.  Most often, teachers leave me wonderful day plans with exactly what I need to teach each day.  (However, I have been very thankful for emergency plans on days that there has been nothing left!)  

In looking through many, many different 'sub plans' I've noticed that most are missing a few key pieces of information that would make my day, as a substitute teacher, so much easier.  Here are the things I wish all sub plans would include:

Your Usual Attention-Getter

How do you usually get the attention of the students in your room? Are you a clapper?  Do you do a call-and-answer?  Do you ring a bell?  Does someone turn the lights off?  As a sub, it can be almost impossible to establish a new attention-grabbing routine in a day or two, and kids respond best to what they are familiar with.  When a teacher leaves this key piece of information in his/her plans, it helps to set me up for success! 

Extra Class Lists

So often, substitute teachers are only given one class list for attendance, and then it is required to go back to the office first thing in the morning.  The rest of the day, I am without a complete class list.  I love when the teacher has left a few easy-to-find copies of the class list somewhere readily accessible.  

Important Routines

I have found that students thrive on routines, so when a substitute teacher arrives, they can be very thrown off by familiar routines that are not 'done right'.  If you have an important routine in your classroom - morning meeting, end-of-day dismissal, birthday songs, line up, how centers are chosen, etc.  write down the procedure to help different substitute teachers maintain the routines while you are away.  

Off Limits Items

Regardless of how 'on' I am as a teacher, there will always be one or two students who try to get away with things that the classroom teacher would not normally allow.  If there are things in your classroom that the students can't use, touch, or do - jot them down in your sub notes.  

Student Notes

As a classroom teacher, you have days (and weeks, and months) to try and 'figure out' some of the tougher students.  Substitute teachers have only minutes.  If you have a student with special needs, or a student who may need some behavior help, write down some of the strategies that have been successful.  As a sub, we want to help your students be successful, but the best way to do this is to partner alongside the work that you are already doing daily in the classroom.  

Have I missed anything?  Is there anything that you include in your sub plans that is a lifesaver for your students?  Let me know in the comments below!

- Rachel

This has been an up-and-down week for me as a teacher. I have been away for most of it... sick... ugh! Man do I miss my kiddos. I had some amazing Valentines activities planned for them, but had to leave them in the hands of a very capable substitute teacher. Thank goodness for wonderful subs, I don't know what I would do without her!

Does anyone else feel like being away sick is more work than being at school?  I know I need to take the time to rest and heal, but planning for a substitute is just so much work.  There are so many good grab-and-go sub plans out there, but sometimes I just want things to continue my way, and I know that's not always possible.

In this season of colds and flus, it never hurts to be over-prepared with sub plans!  I try to have a binder of writing assignments, math projects, and classroom routines all prepped and ready to go just in case I can't be in the next day.

Am I alone in this anxiety over leaving my class with a sub?  How do you plan for your inevitable days off?  Let me know in the comments below!

- Rachel

Around this point in the year, I like to do something a little bit different with my classroom organization.  This is more than putting students in groups.  Physically, we move our desks around, and we also lightly restructure a few of the ways I interact with the students in my class.  In our room, we are now divided into five learning communities.  (Loosely based off of this book) The point of these groupings is not to pit one group against the other in a reality-show-style standoff, but rather to build a tight-knit mini-community within our already close classroom community.   Let me explain…

By now, we have spent a good portion of the fall learning how to be bucket fillers, and what it means to show expected behavior . Students know my expectations to be kind, gentle, put others first, and follow the rules of the classroom.  We have done this in the context of the whole classroom where each child has been asked to generically look out for everyone else, and the teachers are the ‘overall’ support system if something goes wrong.  We are now switching up the model

With the introduction of community groups, I’ve explained that, within the classroom, each group is like a family.  (Of course, if “family” is not a safe word, you may want to use something different).  A group works together to do their best, to work hard and most importantly, to take care of each other. If one group member is upset, or frustrated, or confused, it is first up to the rest of the group to try and help them before they go to a teacher or someone outside of their group. 

At the beginning, we use a points system.  This is not intended to be used as a competition, but to encourage group to work together in a kind, respectful, and cohesive manner.  As a group, they are supposed to show expected behavior and be bucket fillers.  When I notice a group is encouraging each other, speaking kindly, helping a friend who is not understanding an assignment, all on-task, gently reminder a member to focus, etc.  they receive a point for their group.  (I also make a big deal that bragging, especially in the context of points, is not okay).  Then, on Friday, we have a points ceremony, and it is a big deal.  We have envelopes, and prizes and everyone wins something.  And then it re-starts for the next week.

Gradually, the points system is phased out, and just the groups remain.  But every year, my hope is that the cohesion and community will remain.  Some years it does, other years it takes more work, but overall, I have found that working in groups tends to yield incredibly positive results. 

Other things that we do to build community within groups:

• Group journals: each group member writes an encouragement sentence in every other group members journal (more on this later!)

• Group leaders, one person per week is the group leader

• Play time in group groups – either ‘free time’ or structured play with specific outcomes, a chance to have fun is a great bonding experience

How do you feel about grouping your students in groups?  Have you tried something like this? How has it gone?

- Rachel