Quick ideas for a Monday

Happy Monday!  Mondays can be rough and when you add in the "Back to School" factor, it can be extra rough.  My firsties are doing so well at learning their routines and getting used to being here all day!  My district does not offer full day kindergarten, so most of the little babes are not used to being here ALLLL DAY!  I don't want them to know that their teacher is not used to being there all day either (yet!)  I thought I'd add two quick tips that may help when managing the classroom and to help teachers stay organized throughout the week.  

First, you'll see the picture of two pencil buckets.  This is a common trick in many classrooms, but it is one that I will NEVER stop using.  To help decrease the amount of interrupting of little firsties asking for a new pencil or the ever so annoying sound of a pencil sharpener grinding while you're teaching, the pencil buckets are here to save the day!  One is marked "Sharp" and the other is marked "Not Sharp."  While the labels may not seem like a big deal, I really liked that they had the thumbs up/down picture to help those firsties learn how to read the words by using the picture to help.  When they break a pencil or it becomes dull, without a making a sound, they can get up and put the dull pencil in the "Not Sharp" bucket and take a new one out of other!

Now onto an organizational tip!  I am a list maker.  I am one of those who can have five different lists and can have the same items on three of them...something I have to work on!  But, this "to do" list has definitely helped me in the classroom.  Sometimes we find ourselves doing the same tasks the same day of every week.  I found myself writing things over and over.  I found something online but changed it to fit my own needs. I'd love to thank that person for the "idea" but can't seem to remember where, so THANK YOU!  I still need to update it for this school year, but you can see what I use.  I make one copy and sometimes just use one sheet for the entire week.  Depending on the week  day I may need to switch to a new one!  You know, when there a million and ONE things to do!  The techy part isn't strong yet, so sorry!  I can give you a picture and will work on being able to link it so you can customize to your own desire!  

Hope this helps for some of you out there!  There are many AMAZING teachers out there who have blogs and give some Motivational Monday tips or Management Monday ideas...I'll try again soon to see if I can help out in some way!