1-2-3 Come Make Some Voice Choice Things With Me

I think if you'd poll young children about voice volume they'd say loud or soft.  Little ones are just learning that there are varying degrees to those, and that they will be required to adapt their volumes and voices when inside the classroom.  

If you Google voice level posters, you'll get a huge assortment that are very similar and basically agree.  I also designed one of my own, but wanted to go a bit farther to not only help explain things to your kiddos and remind them of voice levels, but offer up some real classroom management that made a world of difference with my Y5's.

There are several options in the Voice Choice packet.  You can display the cards in a pocket chart and go through them with your students or hang them on your white board and put a magnet next to the level you want your students to be at.  Simply gluing a smilie face to the back of a large, glass flat-backed "marble" and attaching a magnet, is a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to make one. 

If board space is limited, hang up the mini poster and then clip a colored clothespin to the appropriate voice level.

You can also explain things via the large posters. Show each one to your students and read the examples for when they should be using that voice. 

You can begin by showing them the picture and reading the name of each voice level, in the appropriate volume.

i.e. If you are showing them the volume level 1 Whispering poster, whisper to your students: "When do you think you would use this kind of voice?" 

After they have shared their thoughts, read the list and add anything else that's appropriate for your class.  Finally, reinforce the sound of this level, by having students model the volume of that voice, as they too "whisper" the name and number of that level.

As a review, after you explain the voice choice concept, put the number cards in a container, and have students pick one.  They share when they would use that number voice level. 

Another way to play this game, is to have students say the words “Voice Choice” in whatever number level that's on their card and have the other children guess what number they are modeling.

You can also use these voice-level number cards to remind students what level they should be on, by quietly placing the appropriate number on their desk or group table. 

Once they read it, hopefully they will make the appropriate volume adjustment and flip the card over, so you can pick it up and re-use it when necessary.

Another thing you can use the voice-level number cards for, is to make a class book.  (Templates provided.) Whatever number a student picks, is the voice level that they write about and then draw a picture. 

Collect and collate the pages and add the cover, then read as a whole group with the entire class.  Each child comes up and shares their page using the #4 sharing voice level.

Besides the number cards, I also made several designs for "Quiet Cards."  Print, laminate and trim the cards and keep them in a narrow basket on your chalk sill, under your voice choice poster. 

As with the number cards, without a word, you place the appropriate card on a child's desk or group table.  This is a great way to silently encourage students, as well as have children adjust their behavior or voice levels, without disturbing the class or bringing negative attention to someone.

Another quiet way to remind your students to adjust their voice level, is with the paper STOP sign.  Simply run off the pattern on red construction paper; fill in the letters with white crayon or paint; laminate; trim and put on a craft stick.

Without a word, and with a grand flourish, (they'll spot the movement) hold up the sign when students are not at the appropriate voice level.  With your other hand, hold up the appropriate number of fingers to show what voice-level number students should be using. 

Keep holding up the sign and fingers ’til everyone has their hand up with the correct number of fingers showing. If they should be at zero, with their lips zipped, put your index finger on your lips as if saying Shhhh, and stare at specific noisy students with your best “teacher look.”   I also made matching "quiet cards" that you can use as well. 

I've included a "Please zip your lips" and a "Shhhhhh!" poster.  These could also be mounted on a large Popsicle or paint stick.  If students don't notice your "grand flourish" as you hold one of these up, and are not adjusting their volume, you can signal them with the tinkling sound of a bell, or flicking the lights off and then on. 

These were a few more quiet ways I got my students' attention. I also hung a lovely sounding wind chime, next to my reading chair to signal story time.  You could use one for your volume adjustment bag of tricks. 

Clapping out a pattern and having students repeat it, was also a successful sound signal for me.  Make sure you explain these sound signals to your students, so they know what you're expecting from them.  Equally important, is having a consequence if they don't make changes. 

If most of your students are doing a wonderful job with their voice choices, you can reinforce their great behavior by giving them a praise bookmark.  They come in full color, as well as black line. 

Unfortunately, there always seem to be a few stragglers, who need a bit more reminding.  Self control was probably one of the top reasons I always had more boys than girls in my Y5's classes.  With them in mind, I designed some positive reinforcement voice control activities for you and included them in this packet.  

Z is for zipper and  ZIPPING your lips.  You can send one of the "I'm having trouble zipping my lips" poster-notes home to a child's parents, or have them color it while they sit in your Time Out or Think chair. This is an easy way to communicate with parents and enlist their help.

Every year I had at least one child with ADHD. An effective behavior modification technique with them, was to earn the right to connect a dot on their paper to make a mystery picture.  Whenever they modeled the appropriate behavior that we were working on, they got to connect another dot. 

This was super-simple, quick and easy for me.  If they completed their picture that day, they received the agreed upon "prize."  If not, they could continue the next day.  Thus, I also made the "Z is for zipping" paper,  into "color a star and connect it to the next one" -- voice control worksheet. 

Besides encouraging them to adjust their volume, you can also work on interrupting, and not blurting inappropriate things out.  I hope you find these techniques helpful, and that you are able to use a few of them to make life in your home-away-from home less hectic.   

This packet will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be up-dated and put in the Classroom Management section of my TpT shop. Voice Choice Packet.  

Well that's it for today.  The sunshine is calling me!  As always, thanks for visiting and feel free to PIN away. 

Summer: "Hair gets lighter; skin gets darker; water gets warmer; drinks get colder; music gets louder; days get longer; life gets better!" -Unknown

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Explaining voice levels to your students goes a long way in managing your classroom.

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This is a wonderful sanity-saver for the first day of school.  Use it as an autograph-coloring page for young children, or a writing prompt for older students, where they write about a few of their classmates that they've made friends with.

1-2-3 Come Do Some First Day Of School Activities With Me

It's been a busy week, so I just have a quick activity for this article.  I hope you can pop by tomorrow for a big classroom management packet that I've been working on, and finishing today.

I know there's a lot to do on that first day of school, but I liked to "over plan" as I never knew the abilities of my new bunch of kiddos. 

Along with the zillions of other things a teacher has to get done, there's always a few things to do that we need some one-on-one time with each child, but what do you do with your other students?

It would also be great to simply have a few moments peace to sort through forms and notes, while students quietly work on something that they can accomplish independently; independently being the "must have" here.

  With these things in mind, I designed two "sanity savers" entitled: "I made lots of new friends today!" 

Use it as an autograph page for your really young students, or a writing prompt for older children. 

Need more sanity?  Extend the activity by telling students to draw a picture of themselves, with one of their new friends on the back of the paper.

Since my Y5's were learning how to write their name, an autograph page provided great practice.  If you don't have enough time for everyone to sign everybody's paper, make one master that everyone signs, and then during recess or lunch break, run off copies. 

At the end of the day, pass the papers out for children to color, while you get a few last-minute things done before dismissal.  Yippee for a special keepsake that I'm sure parents will enjoy too. 

If you teach older students, have them write about some of the new friends that they made.  They can color the picture as well, and if time, they could also have their new friends sign the back of their paper. 

To help practice making decisions, whenever possible, I liked to give my Y5's two choices of something, so I made two coloring pages your kiddos can choose from.  (If you haven't learned yet, offering more than two choices to little ones, is time consuming and overwhelming for some.  They simply can't decide, and you don't have the time to waste with Pokey Joes. ) Click on the link to view/download the I Made Friends Today activity. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  If you have a first day of school idea that's worked for you, I'd love to hear about it.  You can reach me at: diane@teachwithme.com  or post a comment here. 

I'm off to go splash in the warm puddles with my grandbaby... Wishing you a happy day.

"A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning." -Brad Henry

1-2-3 Come Make Some Useful Signs With Me

During the 1st few days of school  there is so much for children to learn and remember, which is often difficult because they can't read.  Some years I was lucky enough to have a bathroom in my classroom, other years my little ones had to truck down the hallway.  Just getting and staying in a line was an accomplishment!

Let's face it, when you're 4 and really have to "go" running into the wrong bathroom is an easy thing to do.  As with all bathrooms, ours was labeled with boys or girls.  Not all of them had the universal stick people signs on them.  Even if they did, most of my little girls also wore pants, so the "different" connection wasn't always there. 

To help my little ones with this, I made a poster showing a little girl and put it next to their bathroom door, along with a boy for theirs. No more confusion. 

Since children are really fast learners, this was really only necessary for the first week of school, but if you mount the posters on construction paper and laminate, why not keep them up all year to assist other young visitors. 

With the help of the sweet clip art from My Cute Graphics, I designed some new posters.  I hope your kiddos find them helpful and that they empower them with confidence about their new surroundings.  Click on the link to view/download the Bathroom Posters.

If you'd like to take a look at all of the other classroom posters and anchor chart FREEBIES on TeachWithMe, click on the link.  

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I try to PIN a few things each day.  My boards are mostly educational in nature with tons of FREEBIES.  (I do the work so you don't have to! A big time-saver.)  Click on the big heart to the right of the blog to check them out. 

Any hoo, while surfing I found two adorable bathroom procedures that I thought were pretty cute.  Elizabeth, over at Fun in 4B, is a 4th grade math teacher in South Carolina. She uses two melamine plates and has students sign out with a dry erase marker.  The marker has a pom pom on the cap to erase the name when students return. 

She also has them put a hand sanitizer bottle on their desk.  She can see at a glance who's gone, and the student is reminded to use the sanitizer when they return.  Click on the link to grab the labels if you want to make some of your own.

I hope you're having a rejuvenating summer.  Blessings to you, from my little corner of the world.

"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul." -Unknown

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These cute posters will help your little ones know which bathroom to use.

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Add some fun to explaining where things are located, by turning this necessity into a game, where your students become "I Spy!" detectives and locate important items in your classroom. 

1-2-3 Come Play I Spy With Me

You can show a child or tell a child, where something is and hopefully they’ll remember.   Taking into consideration their short attention spans and roving thoughts, young children may look like they’re listening, but in reality they’re somewhere else. 

However, if you involve them, with some sort of hands-on activity, chances are you'll not only have their attention, but the information will be solidified.

Put yourself in a 4-year-old's place.  It's warm, you're tired and some big person is droning on showing you where "stuff" is.  Yawn.... Instead:  "How would you like to become detectives and go around the room spying stuff?"   Yippee! A game; movement to get the wiggles out.  Wahoo!

With this in mind, I designed a sort of scavenger hunt for the important things in your classroom.  It's a quick, easy and fun little "find it now, before you really need to..." activity.  

 I tried to think of the things that were important for my Y5's to know where they were located and then searched for clip art to make a map of sorts. 

So that you can clarify things, show the paper to your students and point to the pictures asking "What's this?"  Hearing the vocabulary will also help any ESL students that you might have.  Explain what you want them to do (find the things and zap them with an X, or color them.) 

Pass out the papers and turn them loose.  I had a class set of clipboards that made students feel especially official and important.  You can buy them at The Dollar Store; they are well worth the investment.  I used them for read & write the room, science data collection, games, and interview writing, to name just a few ways I incorporated them.

If you are NOT lucky enough to have a bathroom and sink in your room, take your kiddos down the hall to your restrooms, to complete the activity and have a potty break at the same time. 

Click on the link to view/download the "I Spy Important Classroom Stuff" scavenger hunt activity. Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

I hope you found something here to make your life a bit easier.  Be sure and pop by tomorrow for another back-to-school FREEBIE. 

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone!" -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make A Butterfly Keepsake Frame With Me

As I stated yesterday, despite the fact that summer has yet to be officially launched, I am enjoying designing back-to-school stuff.  As long as I was putzing, I thought why not blog about these new items.  I figure even if some sane teachers are truly on vacation, they can catch up later and scroll to their heart's content, hopefully getting some new ideas that will get them excited to go back.

My grandsons' last day of school isn't 'til this Friday the 20th, so if you too, are still in school because of those dreaded snow day make ups, perhaps you can even use this activity now.

As a good educator, one should not have the proverbial "teacher's pet" but realistically, every year there are always a few adorable students who become favorites.  Even though you treat all of your kiddos equally, those children leave heartprints that become fond memories forever. 

Sweet little Jenna is one of mine.  Thoughts of her, as I type, make me smile.  She was so quiet and shy, and bravely tried to fight those first-day of school tears.  I confided to her mom that she came to me a tiny caterpillar, and by the end of Y5's she had blossomed into a lovely butterfly.  Her mother agreed that Jenna had truly come out of her "crysalis" shell and wasn't afraid to fly!

She was my inspiration for this keepsake frame.  I hope you enjoy making them with your students and that they tug on a few heartstrings as mommies tuck them away.  

The reason this is a back-to-school item, even tho' you'll be doing it at the end of the year, is because you need to make copies of your students' first day of school photographs.  

It's something that most early elementary teachers do, especially if they make an end of the year memory book.  Simply make double prints to save for later, and do a photo shoot of some sort for a last week of school picture as well. 

When I designed my sample, I didn't have any photographs to put in it, so I surfed the web and found "Ho ho" on Crystal's  Little Bit Funky site.  She was kind enough to give me permission to use her son's pictures in my butterfly frame.  Click on the link to check out her helpful blog. 

To make a butterfly frame, run off my templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  There are two on a page for easy printing.  Trim and fold them in half.  Students cut out the X-d sections and then glue their pictures behind the wings.  Mount on a complementary color of construction paper.  

If you think that this type of cutting is too difficult for your kiddos, have a room helper cut the butterfly frames ahead of time.  Even young children should be OK to cut the leaf, caterpillar and flower out.  They glue these to their frame.  Students or a teacher can print the "First day of ________ ... last day!" portion on the wing sections.  

For that finishing touch, I added a paper punch butterfly.  To make it 3D, I used two butterflies, gluing the thorax of the top one to the thorax of the bottom one, and then bent the wings up, so that the butterfly looks like it's flying. 

Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Butterfly Frame.  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  That's how I found adorable little Ho Ho!  Until next time, rest, relax, repeat!

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." -

1-2-3 Come Get Organized With Me!

Well it's already the middle of June and the days are flying by me.  I wish summer would slow down to the pace of those too-long winter days that seem to drag on.  Some of my friends still have a few more days of school, and others have been out a week or more. 

Summer doesn't officially start til June 21st, so there's plenty of time left for relaxing, before our brains begin gearing up for back-to-school and we have to undo the cruise-control mode. 

For lack of something else to blog about, I decided to start designing new things for the fall. This is the first of many articles featuring a back to school FREEBIE.

My husband thinks I'm a bit crazy, but by the looks of what teachers have been pinning and downloading this past week, I am certainly NOT alone.  I truly believe that if you have a passion for education, your "teacher hat" never really comes off, and all it takes to get us excited all over again, is to see a school supply display, smell a box of brand new crayons, or find some books and classroom treasures at a garage sale.

I was always reinventing the wheel trying to make my classroom decor more inviting, organized and just plain cool! After all, this is our home-away-from home! I absolutely love looking at photographs of teacher's rooms.  If you do too, click on the link to come visit mine.

I think teachers look forward to decorating their classrooms, like children start planning their next Halloween costume on November 1st!  Any hoo, even if you have banned yourself from working on "school stuff" for an appropriate amount of down-time, you can still catch up later on all of the great FREEBIES I will be making and posting through out the summer.

The little ditty I put together today, while a warm summer breeze wafted through my office window, is a cute boo-boo book basket.  (Try saying that 3 times!)

Easy, simple and quick; it will help you on the road to getting organized and hopefully make life a bit easier.  The Dollar Store sells a variety of these plastic baskets in all sorts of colors.  So that things looked less cluttered, I used a primary color theme and tried to have all of my basket styles look the same.  

Print off my signage; mount on construction paper; laminate and you're good to go.  Place the basket in your reading area or classroom library section. 

When students are reading one of your books and discover that it needs some repair work to avoid further damage, have them fill out an Rx form of what's wrong with the book and how you can fix it. They tuck the note on the page that needs repair, so that the end sticks out and then drop the book in the "hospital" basket.  

I made up the notes, so that students can get in some extra writing practice, as well as a time saver for me.  No need to figure out what's wrong and where the book needs to be repaired.  If you teach preschool, where children aren't able to write, they simply use the slip of paper as a bookmark for each page that needs fixing.  

Run off a bunch of copies, trim and keep in an envelope.  I taped a Popsicle stick to the back of the envelope and then taped it to the back of the basket, so that it would stick up over the top of the books.  Repairing books is a great job to delegate to a room helper.

There are two signs on a page for easy printing, so why not make one for a fellow teacher or your librarian, as a "Hope you have a great year!" surprise.  If they happen to be your BFF, get them a basket and make up the whole thing for them.  This is also a sweet and inexpensive gift, along with a book, if you're planning on having a student teacher. 

Click on the link to view/download the book hospital basket packet.  Feel free to PIN away. 

I'm off to put on some suntan lotion and play in my garden.  Blessings to you and yours, from me and mine. :-)

"A life without love, is like a year without summer." -Unknown