Classroom Economy

I am very excited about this new product I've made and about using it in my class this year. I've never used a class economy system before, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out with my Primary 4/5's (Grade 3/4).

I haven't figured out all the nitty-gritty quite yet, but I think I'm going to assign jobs to them at first, then introduce job applications once they have a feel for what each job entails. They'll know what jobs are most desirable or least, and perhaps have a better idea of what the responsibilities are. I'm hoping the application process will be painless, but we'll see!

I've also made up some Class Job cards to use on our class jobs display. I'll rotate the jobs accordingly. Some jobs require more than one person. I've also made up a jobs chart that has a wee reminder of what the job entails, because we all know little minds can forget.

To keep track of deposits and withdrawals, the kids are going to use a check book recording sheet. I love that it provides additional practice for adding and subtracting, as well as having real world connections with money management. Bonus!

Have any of you used a classroom economy in your classrooms? How did it work out?

Big Changes Ahead

Well, there are some big changes ahead for me. I've been teaching Nursery (Kindergarden) for more or less the last 3 years, but I'm moving on to Primary 4/5 (Grade 3/4) in August. I'm excited to finally have my own class, older children, and the chance to expand my experience beyond 3 & 4 year olds! So excited, in fact, that I got started with labels and organisation well before the end of term.

This is the part where I would post some photos of the pretty labels I made, but blogger is being stupid and won't let me post anything. Surprise surprise.

Nevertheless, I've made tray labels and peg labels for all the children. The kids don't have desks to keep their belongings in, but we have these tray units, and each child has their own tray to keep their things in. Instead of desks, we have tables, which I actually prefer. It's easy to move kids around and you don't have to worry about moving furniture because all their "stuff" is in their tray. Anyway, I've made up some simple labels for their trays and coat pegs.

I've also put together a set of subject labels that I will use for our daily schedule. You'll just have to take me word for it that they are super cute.

Besides going on a label spree, I've been thinking a lot about how I want to tackle this year with a composite class and a new stage for me. Reaching all the needs of the children is always a stress, but now that I have two stages mixed in with all their needs already, it makes things a bit tricky. I've decided that I'm going to try to take advantage of rotations or stations of work in order to spend more time in small groups to meet children's needs. What have your experiences been with this? I've put together my literacy block timetable and my numeracy block timetable, which is half the battle, in order to visualise how I will divide up my time with the children and decide how they will spend their time when I'm busy with groups. I'm really hoping this strategy works for their benefit and mine. I anticipate that I may have to shuffle some things around or restructure, but I really want to make a go of stations/rotations.

What else do you think I can be doing with a split class to benefit them and their learning?

Work in Progress

Just a little something I'm working on...



These task cards will be aligned with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, but that's not to say you couldn't use them in any classroom! Keep an eye on my TpT shop for when they'll be available. All content is original, including the clip art (clip art by me can also be purchased in my TpT shop!).

Book Detectives: Reciprocal Teaching

Book Detectives is an amazing resource that I use during reading groups. It's not my idea (it came from Moray Council Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland), but I have made it my own and established it in my classroom routines.



The above task cards are developed by me using the Book Detective roles. I created Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to go with every role. On the back, there are examples, questions to consider, or other prompts to help pupils fulfill the success criteria.

I implement these task cards in different ways. I have 4 reading groups. Each reading day, I meet with 2 reading groups (by the end of the week, I meet with each group twice. We have 4 reading days). Every reading group is given a task from the Book Detectives ring that they must complete. Sometimes each group has the same task, sometimes different ones, depending on the book they're reading or the skills they need to practice. With older children, I would slowly train them to become more independent with the roles/tasks and have each member of the group fulfill a role and feedback to their reading group. I'm no where near that with my current class, but maybe some time in the future with a more able class I will be able to implement Book Detectives that way.

How do you implement and organise your reading groups?

Group Task Management

In my short time as a teacher, I've heard pros and cons to using Group Work as a teaching tool. Some people think it's the lazy teacher's way to get through the day, some people believe it's a way to get pupils to take charge of their own learning. If you have self-motivated pupils, then group tasks can be beneficial, but I don't think group work should be avoided just because some pupils need a little more motivation and guidance.

I'm sure I'm not the only teacher who's learned the hard way that dividing pupils into groups to accomplish a task requires more management and thought than you'd think. With no guidance, pupils fight over who will do what, or won't actually accomplish anything because no one has really taken charge or taken initiative. As a teacher, you really have to guide pupils with everything from who will collect resources for their group, to who will physically write down information. To be fair, some pupils just click and get on with it; but there are some who really need your guidance in order to accomplish the task you've set them.

Often when I divide my kids up to work in groups, I assign them roles so everyone is clear on what they need to contribute to their group. I've carried this out in several ways in the past: I've popped wee post-its on certain pupils to indicate who's the Scribe/Author, I've written the titles of each role on slips of paper and handed them out randomly, or I've allowed the children to decide who will be what. What I find to be the best method to carry out assigning roles is having these cards to use and re-use:

I created this set myself, including the illustrations. I've printed, cut out and laminated a few sets of these cards (so you can hand them out to several groups) so I can just keep reusing them. The children quickly learn what group roles are and what their responsibilities are, but I find the cards to be a good reminder. On the back of each card, the role title is written at the top with some reminders of what they should do:

I made up a separate page of the job descriptions and glued them to the back of the picture cards before I laminated them. Easy peasy.

I explained the group roles to the children as their Job Titles. For instance, my job title is "Teacher." The Job Titles, or Roles, that I use are:

1. Manager
2. Illustrator
3. Reader
4. Author
5. Resource Manager
6. Reporter

I don't necessarily use every role for every group task, and not every person in the group gets a role all the time because it may not be necessary for the task. Or sometimes, I have fewer than 6 pupils in a group, but there is a need for all the roles, so some pupils may get TWO job titles! I would slowly introduce these roles to younger pupils, but I've managed to be able to use them for as young as Primary 2 (Grade 1).

Let me know if you find this method of Group Task Management helpful in your classroom!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers are known for reinventing the wheel. There are teacher supply stores, ready-made products and resources, books full of photocopiables, free printables online, and yet we spend hours making our own resources from scratch. I'm as guilty as the next teacher. In fact, I'll even admit that I like making my own resources. It drives Mr. West nuts, especially when I spend time on the weekend creating things for my class!

Well, it turns out I'm not the only one who likes to spend their downtime doing teacher-y things. Teachers Pay Teachers is a site where teachers can post their personally-made resources for other teachers to download either for free or for a price. Some of the stuff on there can be pretty useful, and I've recently set up an account of my own to share my handiwork.

There are quite a few languages represented in my class, so I recently made up multilingual Days of the Week posters. You can download your own free set here. The languages depicted are Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu, and English.