Keeping Track and a freebie.......

Have you ever gone home at the end of a day and wondered to yourself, "Did I actually talk to little Johnny today, one on one, even for just a few seconds.?"  I am human, so obviously my answer is yes. Although I do think I have solved that problem for myself.

I am a control freak and I like to be able to tell parents that, "Yes, I gave little Johnny his homework today.  I put it in his backpack myself." While many of you may think this is time consuming, (I think) I finally have it down to a fine art and at the same time I get to make sure I talk to every student, eye to eye, every day.

The blue folder on the table is where they put their homework folder when they come in in the morning.  I then check them all and place them in the rolling file that (conveniently) rolls under the table when I am done.  At the end of the day, I call the kids to me by groups or rows or one at a time depending on what I need to talk to them about.  They come to me with back-packs open and ready and I zip and chat.  

Of course I'm sure you wonder what everyone else is doing while they wait their turn.  

Well here is what they do:

Sight word practice time.  Each student has their own "Green Words" in their desk.  This is their time to work with a neighbor to master their sight words.  Now that we are at the end of the year they are practicing spelling them to their neighbor.  It warms my heart and makes me laugh to hear them practicing with one another.  I love it!  This year I had the most students I have ever had with 100%  not to mention those that scored 80% or above on their "word wall" reading tests! (Of course I left my score sheet at school so I can't tell you the actual break down, but lets just say, I will continue to do this until I think of another way to build community in my classroom.)

If you are interested in grabbing the sight words  that I use you can get them here.

Happy last few days of school...........

Deanna