Welcome to Room 5's Blog!
I hope you had a fantastic two week break with your children. I enjoyed catching up with my family in Auckland and having some down time with my hubby and children.
I'm hoping through this blog to keep you informed of what is happening in our fantastic classroom and school. Blogging is fairly new for me so I'll be learning as I go.
Term 2 should be a really settled term with lots of opportunities for fantastic learning across all curriculum areas. Our topic for the first few weeks continues to be 'Backyard Biology' and that will change to 'Matariki' by approximately Week 5.
Behaviour Management Clip Chart:
- I have revised our behaviour management system over the holidays and a new visual chart is now hanging up. Every student will write their name on a peg and each morning every student's peg will start on the 'Ready to Learn' section.
- Students 'caught' doing the right thing such as being on task and being independent learners will be asked to move their pegs up. This is all about celebrating the great learning happening in Room 5! Students who move their peg up so that it is sitting horizontally across the top of 'Super Hero' (4 steps) will be able to phone their family to share in their successes of the day. These awesome steps up the chart will also be linked to our new warm Fuzzies Reward System (see below for more info).
- Students who choose not to make winning choices will be asked to move their peg down the chart. First step down to 'Warning' is just a reminder with no consequences. Two steps down to 'Losing Super Powers' means 10 mins of thinking time during morning tea or lunch time and a brief discussion with me afterwards about our class rules. Third step down to 'Crash Landing' will mean 15 minutes in another classroom. If there is a forth episode the student will be asked to move their peg horizontally under 'Crash Landing' and this will mean a phone call home to discuss the events of the day.
Fuzzies:
- Tied in with our new behaviour management system is the opportunity for student's to earn 'fuzzies' (craft pom poms). Students can earn one fuzzy by: completing their nightly homework; working well so that their peg is moved up to Flying High; continuing to work really well so their peg is moved up to Super Hero; and getting all their spelling words correct in their spelling test on a Friday. Other fuzzies will also be able to earnt from time to time at teacher discretion. Once a student has earnt 10 fuzzies they will be able to exchange these for a 'reward voucher'. These must be exchanged before the 9.00am bell each morning. Currently our vouchers are for rewards such as: be the line leader for the day; hand out class resources; be the class photographer for the day; bring a favourite book from home to read aloud to the class; wear a crown for the day; wear your P.J.'s in the classroom; and have a computer break etc etc.
Shoes removed in the classroom:
- As we now have a lovely new mat for the students to sit on and in the hope of keeping it clean, I will be asking the students to remove their shoes and keep them neatly on shelves outside our classroom door. As the weather turns cooler children are welcome to bring slippers to wear and keep in the classroom.
