I'm slowly getting back into a school routine.  I love linking up with Holly to share what's working in my classroom and at home.

This week I wanted to share how I use my clip chart with Class Dojo.  We use a clip chart school-wide and I had never used one before beginning at this school in January.  Over the summer I had time to think about how I could use this management tool with Class Dojo, which I love.  Here's what I came up with:

In this picture you can see my clip chart.  I have somewhat of a sports theme going in my classroom and I decided to make my clip chart line up with that.  All the kids start at "Game Time" and can move up or down for there (pretty standard clip chart).

At the end of the day, if they end up on MVP, they get to add a sticker to their clip.  I just use these foam stickers that I found in one of my cabinets.

Also at the end of the day, I have my clip chart monitor tell me who clipped up to what level.  Here is where Class Dojo comes in!

I've blogged about Class Dojo a few times which you can read HERE and you can click on the Dojo picture above to go directly to the site.

Getting back to what I do.  When the clip chart monitor reads me the numbers from the clips that have moved up or down, I simply go into Class Dojo and award points.  I've added the behaviors of clip up on the positive side and clip down on the negative sive.  If they get up to MVP, they earn 3 Dojo points, All-Star is worth 2 Dojo points, and Score is worth 1 Dojo point.  If they end the day under Game Time, they lose Dojo points.  Ending on Foul means they lose 1 point, Strikeout loses 2 points, and benched loses 3 points.  My students earn rewards and reward tags for every 10 Dojo points.

So far this system is working great for me and my kiddos.  I'm supporting the school wide behavior plan while also making it my own.  Do you use Class Dojo and/or a clip chart?  How's your behavior management plan working for you?

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Brandi

One of the great things about summer is the fabulous linky parties that people are hosting.  Today I'll be linking up with 2.  First up, Tried It Tuesday with Holly.

This week I'm sharing some of the homemade laundry recipes I've been using.  At first I was skeptical when a friend mentioned that she makes her own detergent, but once I tried it I was hooked.  Most of my recipes come from Jillee at One Good Thing by Jillee.  

The recipes I've tried and use on a consistent basis are Super Concentrated No Grate Liquid Laundry Detergent and Fresh Scent Homemade Fabric Softener.

Here's a pic of all the ingredients you need to make these.  I'm sure many of these you have on hand and use for other things!

Super Concentrated No Grate Liquid Laundry Detergent:

This recipe is really easy to make.  The ingredients are Borax, washing soda, and Dawn dishwashing soap.

Fresh Scent Homemade Fabric Softener:

This is probably my favorite concoction. I love the way this makes the clothes smell and feel.  The ingredients are a scent-booster (I use Downy Unstoppables), baking soda, and vinegar.  My daughter loves to help me make this because of the reaction of mixing baking soda and vinegar.  A little goes a long way and the fresh scent stays in the clothes for a while.

 

Next up, Two for Tuesday with The Teaching Tribune.

This is a great linky where bloggers and sellers are choosing 2 items to mark 50% off for today.  I've chosen my Reward Tags and my Editable Binder Covers.

My kiddos (4th and 2nd grade) have loved earning Reward Tags.  This product currently includes over 90 different tags.  I'm in the process of updating this file and adding to it.  By purchasing it today at 50% off, you'll be able to redownload it once it's updated and have saved a nice little penny! You can read about them {HERE}

My binder covers have kept me organized this year.  Everything is very easy to find.  I need to redo some of them due to common core, but I know where I can find my resources!

Off to see what's been marked down!  I love a good sale!

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Brandi

I meant to write this a few days ago, but life happened.  Anyway, I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for

My tried it for this week is a website called KidRex.

This site is a kid-friendly Google search engine.  All of the websites that pop up when you type something into the search bar are appropriate for kids.

Here are some examples:

My kiddos are using this to do research for their all about books in writing.  They are having a blast finding information online and I feel safe that I don't have to worry about something inappropriate popping up.  I call that a technology win-win!

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Brandi

One of the things that I love about the blogging world is getting great ideas that I can implement in my classroom.  One of the great ideas that I wanted to get back into was math work stations.  Since this is something new I'm doing this year, I thought I'd link up with Holly for Tried It Tuesday and with Kristen for her Math Centers linky party!

I've often had a variety of fast finisher activities that my students could choose to do after they complete their independent practice, but there was no real structure to it and some kids would pick the same activity day after day.

When I took over my current class in January, I was determined to implement work stations.  I began by teaching some of the basic activities that would be in work stations every rotation.

Math Journals: I purchased this fabulous product from Tara West:

I print off the journal prompts that are aligned with standards that we've already covered extensively.  I put all of the pages into sheet protectors and students use whiteboard markers to complete each sheet.

FACEing Math: I blogged about FACEing math a while back.  You can read up on that HERE. I think it's one of my kiddos favorite work stations.  I made 3 copies of each lesson and put them in sheet protectors. Then I put all the lessons into a binder.

When they go to this work station, they just find the lesson they're on and take it out of the binder to get to work. My kiddos solve the problems using their whiteboards.  I don't need to see their work, since I will be able to tell if they got it right based on their picture!

Facts: I use timers from the Dollar Tree and SuperSpeed Math from Whole Brain Teaching for my kids to practice their facts.  I also have flashcards they can use.  In the next few weeks I'll introduce Math Power Towers from Teacher Tipster.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Once my kiddos had these 3 stations down, I introduced how our work stations would run on a regular basis.

I have 8 rotations that we get through in about 2 weeks.  I split my kids up into groups of 2-3 and they stay in this group for the entire rotation.

In addition to the 3 work stations that I talked about before, I have a teacher work station where I review specific skills that each group needs, and 4 math bags.

Now I know this isn't the cutest organization, but it's working for me right now.  Since we started this so late in the year and I don't know what grade I'll be in next year, I went with function over style.  This summer I'll get something cuter I promise!

Anyway, I use these 4 bags for review activities.  During each rotation, I try to include an activity that reviews place value, measurement/geometry, money, and 2 digit addition/subtraction, because those are the areas my kiddos need to strengthen and keep practicing.

Well this post is long enough.  I'll blog another day about how I actually run my work stations and manage student work.  Thanks for reading through it.  I'd love to hear how you set up work stations/centers in your room.  

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Brandi