Pop, Poppity, Pop

I love those lessons that just...work. There's no real reason why but everything about them is balanced and fun.
This year I took over Literacy planning for my team. Although this is a big task, it's not as bad as it sounds. We do not re-create the wheel each year, but re-use last year's lessons and edit as we feel we need to. As such, my job is pretty easy. I just add in some flare here and there (usually thanks to Pinterest inspiration).
However I find that I am often torn between the creative craftivities that I see all over the US-based teaching blogs (and love so much) and my UK-based training. I want my lessons to be interactive, creative, tactile and fun, but this doesn't always produce a lot of concrete evidence in my student's workbooks. In the long run, this poses a problem when our workbooks are being scrutinized and there is not work for each day written down. Of course, I could photograph, print, cut, glue in and mark each activity that we do but that just. isn't. practical. To sum up, it's hard to strike a balance between what I want to do and what I have to do.
My little ones' learning is the most important part and here is a summary of a lesson that I think worked for everyone.
The Literacy unit we were studying was Playscripts. This lesson worked because it was a script about a popcorn salesman. The main Learning Objective was to read and understand a script (which children would eventually be writing on their own) and to also use their 5 senses to describe (in this case, popcorn).
Firstly, we read the Reader's Theatre script "Pop, Poppity, Pop" off of the Super Teacher website. You need a subscription to view and download all of the worksheets off of this website, and I highly recommend it. After that, we did a word shower (one of my favourite activities) using all of our senses. I got them started then sent them off to finish their own in their Literacy books. To help them along,  I handed out plastic cups full of popcorn so they could sniff, taste, feel and see the stuff. (As I'm writing this, I am realizing that I could also have microwaved it with them and we could have discussed the sound it made. Again, all of these fabulous things are not always possible to do.) Students then completed the comprehension questions on Pop, Poppity, Pop. All in all, I think this was a fun lesson that took a simple comprehension text and made it tactile and fun!

Rewards in 3L

Each year that I teach, I try out different reward systems. I've found that the best ones are the simplest ones. With too many systems you can end up tripping over yourself to keep them straight and they start to lose their meaning. When I taught in England I started using the behaviour chart that you see all over Pinterest and I really loved it. Of course, the one I created needed some serious amendments (each tiny, laminated name attached with sticky tac and often got lost), but it worked really well. When I moved to Bermuda, I packed away each of my handmade pieces but was soon introduced to Rick Morris: Creator of New Management. If nothing else, this sturdy chart will last up to lots of wear and tear. 

Check out my awesome Time Timer (purchased from Amazon) and my punctuation popcorn from here.

Good behaviour= clip up

Poor behaviour= clip down

You can see here that the kids' pegs have tallies on them. Students clip up until they are 'on top of the chart', then they clip off the chart. We chant "He/She's OFF THE CHAAAAARRRRTTTT!!!" and celebrate their achievement. These students will get a tally on their peg. Once students in my class get 5 tallies, they get to choose from my reward catalogue. "Fluffy Friend" and "Best Seat in Town" are two of the most popular prizes. I LOVE my reward catalogue because, once I've made it, I never have to think about it again! There is no running-to-the-dollar-store-to-top-up-my-treasure-chest business. This is not a school-wide thing, but I highly recommend it to everyone. You can also see a green peg with a butterfly on it. This is rewarded to students who get clipped off the chart 10 times. a HUGE achievement in our school. Once they are off the chart, the child or the teacher get to wear the peg on their shirt.

Another special reward I give in my class is these little postcards. I ordered them a long time ago from Vistaprint and paid next to nothing for them. For the last few years, I sent them out randomly throughout the year when I felt that a child deserved it. However, this year they ended up buried at the bottom of my desk drawer and I totally forgot about them. I just dug them up and have decided to send out an entire class set in one go. We send out 'Welcome' postcards in August and they are always a huge hit. Aren't they so cute!? What I love most about my reward systems are that they are pretty self-sufficient. I don't have to worry about staying on top of things or doing a certain something each week (because I always forget).
Good luck tackling all that tricky behaviour in your classes and remember...YOU TOTALLY ROCK!