Establishing Routines
Posted by Hope Spencer on 17 Aug 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Management, Classroom Routines, Grade 1, Grades 2-3, Intermediate, Kindergarten, Planning and Curriculum, Preschool, The Mailbox
I know it sounds cliché, but I just can’t believe that it’s time to get ready for a new school year already! Preparing the classroom for my students’ arrival was one of my favorite things about teaching. I know that establishing a routine can make all the difference in the classroom, so I’ve scanned the August/September 2009 issues of The Mailbox® magazine to find tips you can incorporate into your planning.
Preschool: I use this simple system to quickly and easily track attendance. For each child, I place a card labeled with his photo and name in a pocket chart. When a child arrives, he moves his card from the chart to a nearby basket. After everyone has arrived for the day, I know at a glance who is present.
Kindergarten: Looking for a way to keep small classroom items at your fingertips? Use plastic cups! Pin plastic cups to bulletin boards and place items such as nametags, calendar pieces, or manipulatives inside. Or adhere a strip of magnetic tape to the back of a cup, attach it to a board, and put dry-erase markers inside.
Grade 1: To keep your class list at your fingertips, type your students’ names using a small point size. Then tape the list to the back of your school identification badge. You can count on it to be a timesaving reference during fire drills and any emergencies!
Grades 2-3: I use a simple rhyme activity to signal transition time. I ask a question, such as “Are you ready, Freddy?” and direct my students to answer with a rhyme, such as “Yes, Eddie.” It’s a quick way to get their attention, and my students like to be involved. To keep students’ interest, I change the names periodically throughout the year.
Intermediate: To keep my hall passes from being lost or germ-infested, I use badges that hang from my students’ necks. I write my name and room number on the back of each badge, laminate it, and punch a hole in the top corners. Then I thread each hole with yarn and tie a knot at the end to create a necklace. These handy badges are sturdier and easier to see than handheld ones.
Here’s to the best year ever!
Hope
Congratulations to Theresa F. from Glendale, Arizona. She is the winner of a copy of the K-1 Organize Now, May, book.
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I love organization; everything runs so much smoother. Having students take things to the bathroom with them has always disgusted me (yuck!). When my students leave for the bathroom, they take their clothespin with their name on it and clip it onto the boy or girl bathroom pass that is right by the door. They do not have to interupt class to use the bathroom and at a quick glance, I can see who is out.
Thanks for the great ideas–I am nervous this year since we no longer have any kindergarten aides. One thing I like to do is have a quiet book for each child. I got this idea from a friend and it works well. Every time or anytime they are done with their work and don’t know what to do they work in their quiet book (70 page spiral notebook). It is also a great tool to show their writing progress. It starts with scribbling and ends with writing letters and/or words.
I am teaching kindergarten for the first time and I know routines are very important. At my school we do not have a consistent special area time. Some days I have it in the morning and some days it is after lunch at various times. I am having a hard time myself getting used to a routine. I wish I had a special area at the same time everyday.
these are great ideas! I can’t wait to try these out on my first graders, especially the rhyming idea!
Preschool, 4+5 year olds. - When the children arrive to class I have a sign in sheet for them to write their name on. We call this our “attendance/snack” sign in. The children rush to sign in and it gives them practice writing their name. Of course we help those that need it. Then before clean up time we have our Star Student of the day count how many names are on the paper. We do this not really for attendance but for writing and math practice for the children. We then hang each daily sign in sheet on the bulletin board so parents can see how their children are progessing in writing their name.
I love these tips. Here’s the best tip I’ve ever received; give each student a number (I do this alphabetically by last name so if their last name was Adams they’d be #1, Branson they’d be #2, etc.). You can use that to count off during fire drills, to number their folders for homework/returned work folders/classroom folders, to number their notebooks for writing/journals, tags on their desks, tags in their cubbies, and even in your grade book! Plus, it makes filing a lot easier when they put their number on their paper, the kids can just file the papers for you according to their number!
I love the comments! I teach first grade but think they will love the 2-3 grade tip for transitions. I am going to give that one a try this year! Something new!! Thanks so much!
I could absolutely use more ideas like these! I will definately look into getting some of these Organize Now books and using some of your suggestions too!
Thanks!
Thanks for all the great posts. I believe I can incorporate some of these ideas in my daycare!
I also use name tags as the children come in, but i never thought about separating the two of them so that the children would have to locate their names to match their pictures, that is a really good idea, i also use name tags for my centers, that they have to use to go from one center to the next, they really like them because we always play a game before they get them to go to a center. Right after breakfast they are like Ms.Cassie can we play who’s wearing…. so we can get our name tags to go to centers, they really enjoy it.
What a great idea!! That is a great way to help children who need to understand word families and rhymes. We start school next week and I am going to try that,
Thanks so much,
Tina Parent
I love routine in my classroom. I find there are so many less problems when children know the routine and what to do and to expect each day. I start the year with a visual schedule so my 3 and 4 year olds know what to expect next. When there is a change in the daily routine I tell the children at beginnning of the day.
Routines are important. I start the day off by having the students unpack and put their things away. On the way to their seats they put their “take home” folder in a bin by the door. Their morning work is on the board and they are ready to go. This gives me time to go through their take home folders and see if there is anything I need to address first hand.
I teach 4 year olds and I love the idea of them helping with attendance taking. I have seen this idea in Mailbox before and have decided to use it this year and see them learn to read their names.
@ Jamie,
I love the velcroed pictures. I planned on using their photos and names for attendance, but I love that they go on their chairs. Then that they will use them for their center choices.
This year I placed a photo of my preschoolers on an attendance board with velcro on the back. the attendance board has their names on it, so I can see easily to take attendance anytime of the day! They remove them from the board when they arrive, and attach them to their chairs. (we have velcro dots on the backs of the chairs, and to designate how many children are allowed at each station) Then during centers time, they use them to choose which station they will occupy. The sand table holds 6 kids comfortably, so if there are no available spaces to hang your picture, you must wait for the stations to switch! Works great teaching the children to take turns and put others first!
I love routine and know that I wouldn’t be nearly as sane without it. However, I’ve been teaching middle school the last six years and this coming school year I’ve been moved to Junior Kindergarten. I can anticipate many things, but developing the routine and classroom expectation is one that I’m a little nervous about. I’ve already got some great ideas from this blog post and love reading Mailbox for others. I would just hate to have an unpleasant classroom for my students because I was inconsistent on setting up the routines. I’ve also been fortunate to have met people along the way that have already shared useful tips… it’s good when others offer what they’ve learned in their experiences.
Thanks to all of you who have shared ideas!
My three and four year olds start doing the attendance from day one. I have their pictures and names separate so they have to find their names. As the year goes on I mix up their names weekly and then document who needs help and who is independent. Our attendance is on a strip of sticky back velcro on the door.
I love those tips! I’m a preschool teacher but I could use any of those ideas — and probably will!
Thanks for sharing!
I have used the hall/bathroom necklace idea for the last few years with my 4th graders. I have used plastic string but students would break it numerous times so this year I will use yarn like the suggestion says! Another good ideas might be name badge clips that they can attach to their shirts.
This is the morning routine I learned from my cooperating teacher when I was student teaching:
Empty backpack.
Always do lunch count.
Sharpen pencil.
Your morning work.
The first letter of each step spells “EASY.” I adapted it to my classroom, but it helped to have an idea of what a morning routine could look like.
This is my second year teaching kindergarten. Last year I felt I was not as organized as I was when I taught 4th grade…but this year I feel a little more on top of things. I have set up an attendance area for the students to use, their name card is on a magnet that can be used for graphing as well as attendance as the year progresses. I will be expecting more from my kinders this year as I have learned they are really capable of more than I expected last year.
I really found many great ideas in my Mailbox issues.
I have have to agree with everyone. Routines are extremely important. In fact, I have noticed that when kids are in school and they get use to a rountine, they also want a routine at home. When I have Parent/Teacher conferences, that is one topic that almost all of my parents talk about. I have mailboxes for my students and give them a Daily Folder. They know that all their papers go into their mailbox so at the end of the day, they take their Daily Folder and put their papers inside to take home. When there are no paper inside their mailbox, they always come to me and ask where they are. They get use to taking their folder home and when they do not have to, it is out of order for them. I’ve also placed a container on each table that has scissors, crayons, pencils so they know where to find extra supplies.
I teach middle school, so there are bells to dismiss at the end of each class period. At the end of the day it’s usually hectic, so I say, “Quiet row gets to go; where it is, I don’t know!” I then just dismiss by rows as they become quiet. It alleviates cramped quarters at the lockers as well. And,on days when someone has a birthday, the celebrity always gets to leave a minute early
With my class of 3 year olds, I always just take attendance on my own and never gave it much thought to let the children help with that task. Usually, during Circle Time, we will have a Good Morning song that introduces the children to one another - but this idea will reinforce that! Thanks!
I have attendance items that I changed monthly to go along with the major theme for the month. (apples-Sept,pumpkins-Oct,etc.) It really helps my preschoolers in recognizing their name and the others in the class.
I love the idea of using magnets or velcro to make the name tags for use in attnedance taking. Younger children love being able to use anything with magnets or velcro on them! Thanks!
Great idea for attendance using the picture on a tag and putting in a cup. Great organizational tool.
As a soon to be teacher it is amazing how clever you all get to be! Looking forward to coming up with my own ways to organize so that I a can someday pass along my knowledge! Thanks to you all!!!
I love the cup idea. Now, I am off to the store to buy some plastic cups and magnet strips.:)
Jill,
You’re so right about routines! I can’t even imagine what my classroom would be like without them…I shudder at the thought! Even myself, personally, I don’t function well without routine, imagine what it’s like for the kids without it! Good luck in the new school year, it sounds like you’ll be a great teacher!
In order to have students be responsible for something when they come in, I have them take care of attendance…well, sort of. I write each child’s name on a wooden stick (it actually looks like the old fashioned spoons you could eat ice cream with) and hot glue a magnet on the back (you could also do velcro too). When the kids come in in the morning their names are in a basket, but as each student comes in they put their name under one of the headings: I’m Here or Absent. Every week, a new student has the “attendance” job, so that person puts up the name(s) of the students that are absent that day. I teach 1st grade, so it’s a great way for students to learn name recognition. I also have two other signs: Boy and Girl. So when the kids have to go to the bathroom they just move their name from “I’m Here” to either “Boy” or “Girl.” They know that only one boy and one girl can go to the bathroom at a time, so if they see a name up there already they have to wait until that person comes back. Doing all of this solves two problems (1) I don’t have to keep listening to “Can I go to the bathroom?” and (2) I can just glance up at their names to see who’s here or not so I can quickly take attendance.
I just finished my student teaching, and during this experience, it became SO obvious to me that routines are very important to ensure a well-flowing classroom day! The cooperating teacher I was with did not have a lot of routines set up - so I attempted (halfway through the year) to set up routines. At the end of my experience, I had a chance to see other classrooms, and I took so many notes on routines they had!
I agree with making a ryhme or something fun for the students to be involved in when making transitions. I use to have my 3rd graders sing a song I found in one of the mailbox magazines a few years ago. It was something like: Here we go time to change, line up with our hands to our sides, faces looking forward, mouths of similing and here we go. The older kids in the upper grades always thought that class was over 5 mins before the bell rang. They thought they could cluster in groups and talk, well I burst their bubbler when I would fill in at times, I gave a pop quiz over the lesson we just finished. Each student had to answer a question in order to line up, it worked out great because students wanted to make sure their friends lined up quickly with them. Have a great year.