What Worked Well Wednesday 8-4-15

Hello friends!!!!

This is Jill from Chevron and Centers. I am so excited to bring you this week's what worked well Wednesday. I am looking forward to reading all about what worked well in your classrooms past and present. 

I started my 2015-2016 school year on Monday with a fun filled day of PD....notice the sarcasm ha! Tuesday I got to meet my kinders and let me just say they are precious! Our first day with the kiddos will be Thursday.

I am going to share with you all about something that is very near and dear to my heart and it has also worked VERY well in my classroom. I am very passionate about whole brain teaching!! If you haven't heard about whole brain teaching let me tell you that you are totally missing out! I have been using WBT for 5 years. It was a life changer for me:) I am going to share with you today about the classroom rules.

These are the rules displayed in my classroom:) We go over these rules every day and several times throughout the day. Each rule has a gesture as well. My kiddos love the gestures. There are several youtube videos where you can watch different classes reviewing the rules and you can see the gestures.

          

I will use a green sticky note on these rules at certain times throughout the day. There are time when they don't have to raise their hands to talk or to leave their seats. I always tell them at the beginning of the year when I introduce the rules that they don't have to ask me to get a tissue(unless the tissue train gets started) or throw something in the trash. 

I love rule number 5! It is like the catch all rule. I also emphasize that they are not making me happy but keeping me happy. I tell them that I wake up everyday happy to come to school and be with them! They know that by following the classroom rules and expectations they keep me happy. I say this every morning ha. I'll say do you have to make me happy? They will loudly reply with NO WAY you are happy to be here so we will follow the rules and make smart choices to keep our dear teacher happy!

This is the fabulous scoreboard!! This is a GREAT tool to help encourage the whole class to follow the rules. When I introduce each rule we "practice" it and they earn smilies if everyone is participating and frownies if not. The key to the scoreboard is +3 or -3. The class should not have way more smilies than frownies and vice versa.  I offer extra recess or a 2 minute dance party if they have more smilies at the end of the day. This tool is a great way to get total class buy in. Positive peer pressure can be a good thing! I use the scoreboard for lots of things! I'll have to share more about it later:) You can also go to the Whole Brain teaching website and find lots of info on it!!!

I know what you are thinking now. What about that one little friend who is super stubborn and just won't do what I ask? That's where the practice cards come in. I have a small pocket chart with each child's number on it. I also have small copies of each classroom rule. If a child continues to break a rule I will put a copy of that rule in their pocket on the chart. They then have to go to a separate spot in the classroom and practice that rule for 3 minutes. They have to use gestures and words while they practice. There are times that I make them take the practice card outside too. Towards the end of the year I will add a sentence practice as well. 

Thanks so much for stopping by our kinder tribe to check out WWWW!! Please link up below and join in on the fun!!

There are only 2 rules....

1. Make sure that you link up your what worked well post and not your TPT store or products:)

2. Please take time to read through 2 blogs above you and 1 after you and also leave meaningful comments on all 3 blogs.