Digital Learning – Seesaw 101

Seesaw is one of my absolute favorite digital platforms for primary students! Last post I gave a very quick overview of some of my favorite features of Seesaw, as well as Google Classroom, and Boom Learning. If you’d like to check out that post you can find it HERE. I have been using Seesaw in my classroom for over 3 years. I have used it with first and second graders and it has worked out perfectly. It is a great tool to enhance student learning and boost engagement by allowing more student choice.

Getting Started

For starters, Seesaw is FREE**! It’s very easy to set up a teacher account with just your email and password. Once your account is active, you’ll create your classroom. Here you will create your class name and grade level. You can also select multiple grade levels if you teach a multi grade. When I taught a multi grade last year, I created two separate classes so that I could push out different things to my first grade group and second grade group. If you use Google Classroom, you can merge it into Seesaw and have all your students set up that way too.

Once you’ve set up your class, you’re ready to go! You’ll be sent to your homepage which looks like this.

Here is where you will access everything you need on Seesaw. There are a lot of different options and tools on this page. Let’s start with your name at the left corner. If you click on your name, you can select your school and you will see all the classes you have access to, such as classes you create and/or share with other teachers.

If you click on the gear icon, you can see a list of other things you can access, including your account settings. Here you choose things like: your classroom display name, your display icon, and you can manage what type of notifications to receive from the app.

In the top right corner, if you click on the wrench icon you will see all of your classroom settings. Here you can see/change your class name, grade, theme and icon. You can also manage teachers. This means adding or removing teachers/collaborators to your classroom. Whoever you add here can push out things to your class and see students if/when they have completed the assignments.

One of the most important tools in this section is the student management tool. You can add students here and pick the sign in mode (whether you have 1 to 1 devices or students share devices). One really cool feature is that you can also give students the option to like and comment on each other’s work. I personally have done both. This is a great tool because there is real power in students giving each other effective feedback to push their thinking forward. If you do choose to enable this feature, I would strongly suggest having in depth conversations and practicing this to get the results you want. If you teach kinders or first graders, you might even wait until the middle of the year to present this as a choice to students.

In this section, you can also choose if you want families to have access. I really enjoy my families having access and being able to like/comment on their child’s work. It also gives your students more accountability if they know their parents can see all their work. A word to the wise, be thorough in listening to videos/recordings to make sure that it is appropriate before approving for families to hear. Now that we have reviewed all the settings and set up your class(es), let’s talk about your homepage/journal.

Your Homepage

On the main screen, you will have access to everything you need to utilize this amazing platform. On this page is where you add students to your class. It is super easy for students to be connected to your account in the classroom. You will click on the + at the bottom to add students. There a screen pops up with your personally generated QR Code for your classroom. This is one of my favorite things about Seesaw. This code can also be printed and left around the room if students get logged out. Students will scan the QR Code with their device, click on their name, and BAM! Just like that they are logged back in. No fuss about remembering or locating a username and password to lose instructional time! Students will remain logged in and then their screen will look similar to yours except that their feed is full of their own work. Right next to add students you can add families. This can be done multiple ways, but I like to print the sign up sheets out and give them out to parents at Meet the Teacher Night and again at conferences if they haven’t signed up.

Announcements can be sent out as well on this page. Whether you want to send an announcement to your class or your families, you can do both! If you need a more discreet option, you can send private messages to families but you cannot message privately with specific students. Another awesome feature on this screen is to individually look at a student and all of their work. This is a wonder to look through with parents during conference time. On the right, you can see a list of all the student names in the specific class you are looking at (remember that you can have more than one). You are able to click on each student name and take a look at all their work specifically.

This is also where you will see all students’ completion status on those activities. When a student completes an assignment, you will receive a notification on the top left corner of the screen where your name is located. At the top of the screen itself, will be a bar that says, “Approve student work.” There you will click and go through all the work students have turned into you. While approving work, you will be able to listen to recordings, make comments, like items, and you are even able to send back work to students if you want them to redo something. This is a great tool to specifically tell students how to improve their work before submitting again. I used this tool a lot during distance learning to provide specific feedback when we couldn’t be in the same place together. This main screen will become like a Facebook feed of all the different student assignments completed. You will be able to scroll through all their work and see the comments they leave each other, which also need to be approved or can be deleted.

Post Student Work

Time to get interactive! This is the fun part. There are a few different ways you can push out work to students. One quick and easy way is the green + on the same homepage. With this icon, you can post student work, assign an activity, or send an announcement. Let’s walk through posting student work first.

When you click on “post student work”, a variety of choices come up. You can take a photo of anything you’d like, such as a textbook page, a page out of a book, a tree, etc. Students can interact with the content by labeling, annotating, typing on top of it, creating a video response, or drawing a picture. Teachers also have options to create drawings, videos, upload a file, make a note, or attach a link. Take a look at the screen of the drawing tool. It’s a blank screen that has a ton of different choices for you. When you click on the drawing tool, you will see a pencil, a shape, and a microphone pop up. Some features include being able to type directions, provide choices, record your voice, and include a photo.

On the right you will also see a pages button. You can create multiple pages for a student to complete.

I would highly suggest playing around with ALL the different tools in this section. Really take some time and get to know all the different features and ways you can create interactive assignments with your students. What’s great is that students have the exact same tools that you do in that menu. Students are able to record a video of themselves, take pictures and annotate on them, use their drawing tool like a white board- the possibilities are literally endless. If you would like to see some of the creative ways my former students chose to engage in their work you should definitely check out this post. I am always in awe of how creative students are when given the tools to do so. This is definitely one of my absolute favorite things about Seesaw. Students are SO creative!

Activities

Let’s talk activities! You can add a lot more to activities and basically have a whole group mini lesson, activity of skills, and assessment all in one place. One huge perk of assigning an activity is that you can see who has and hasn’t turned it in. You do not have that feature with simply posting student work. This is a huge time saver when it comes to checking for completion or giving friendly reminders to those who might have forgotten about an assignment. You can also schedule activities, unlike posting student work. This works great for planning purposes. My team would plan out our entire week, schedule all of our activities for each subject, and set when we wanted them to be available for students.

We could then go into each specific activity to view and/or send back student responses. Another awesome advantage is that there is also a HUGE community library that you can access for FREE. You can search by grade level, subject, or key words.

I have used this library a lot to find activities that align to what we’re doing in our classroom. While some activities in the free library are amazing, some of them are not the best quality. However, during this distance-learning era, many educators have begun creating some paid activities on Teachers Pay Teachers that are definitely worth checking out. If you subscribe to my email list you will have exclusive access to my Freebie Library, including a FREE Addition within 10 Seesaw Activity!

Of course you may want to create an activity yourself specifically for a skill you are assessing and you have that option too!

In order to access activities, you click on the green + just like when you’re posting student work. This time you’ll click on the light bulb icon to assign an activity. In the Activity Library, you should click on the tab labeled My Library. There you will see a + to create a new activity. Here you can name the activity and add student directions. You have some pretty neat options when adding student’s directions that I love. You can simply type them, record audio to listen to, or even add a video you want them to watch! So perfect for all your different kinds of learners! In customizing your activity, you can add YouTube videos through a link, websites for students to listen to articles, such as Scholastic News, and so much more. For example, if teaching comparing and contrasting, I can have students watch a video I’ve uploaded of myself teaching a mini lesson. I can instruct students to go read a book, I can embed links for students to go learn more, and then I could have a graphic organizer to complete as an assessment. For the culminating part, I could then create a template for students to recreate the same activity for themselves utilizing a book of their choice. What I love about activities is that everything they need is housed in the same place. So this is PERFECT for distance learning! If you would like to watch a video tutorial for creating your own Seesaw Activity click HERE!

If you can’t already tell, I believe Seesaw is amazing. There are SO many possibilities available with this platform that I’m positive I’m not covering them all! Pretty soon I will be creating an entire learning path on Seesaw for a math unit so stay tuned! As I said, Seesaw has an abundance of features and there’s always so much to learn when it comes to digital platforms. The Seesaw website has TONS of training videos you can watch as well. You can find those HERE. You can also check out this video highlight I created for even more details about Seesaw.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including a special Seesaw activity created just for this post for FREE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

**There is also the option to have a paid account, which gives you more access to other features. If you decide to become a Seesaw Ambassador or if your school purchases Seesaw you will have access to all these extras for free.**

Let’s Get Digital, Digital…… in Primary!

Digital this, digital that, “digital” has been the buzzword of the year! Thanks COVID! Let’s be real for a second. 2020 has been a crazy and life-changing year for everyone- especially teachers. We had to shut down our classrooms on a moment’s notice and begin teaching remotely with very little to no experience. Luckily, we live in a day in age where it was actually possible to do so with the technology we have in front of us. Even if you hated every second of it, you struggled, or you killed it and loved it- YOU DID IT! The educator community was tasked to teach students in ways that were unknown and we rose to the occasion. And it seems we still have so much up in the air about going back to school but one thing is for sure- “digital” will most likely still be the buzzword of the year. Whether you are going back 5 days a week with “social distancing”, starting off the year with remote learning, or trying to navigate through a hybrid model, one thing we know is true… we need to be prepared for a digital classroom.

In this post, I hope to provide an overview of some really great digital platforms that will absolutely begin to be a huge part of our primary classrooms. Boom, Seesaw, and Google Classroom are all amazing, user-friendly platforms that can house awesome resources for student learning and engagement. I must admit that I am a little bias towards Seesaw since I’ve used it in my classroom for over 3 years. Again, this is just a tiny crumb of all the ins and outs but stay tuned for a deeper dive into each of these platforms in future blogs!

The Ins and Outs of Boom Learning

This is a super engaging and interactive platform to help students practice a skill and in a fun and engaging way. If you know me, you know I am all about hands on learning and engaging our little learners! Boom has ALL that!

The Log On Process:

You can set up a free account. You are also able to have all student data housed on Boom to see how students performed with a certain deck.

Basic Tools and Features:

Boom is basically a digital deck of educational “cards”. Think interactive digital task cards. There are drag-and-drop features, multiple choice type questions, open ended activities where students can type, and you can even add voice overs for instructions and so much more! The best part is that these cards can easily be assigned through Google Classroom or Seesaw.

What it Can Look Like in the Classroom:

These can be used for fun practice of skills taught. They are so much fun and you can find decks on almost any skill you are teaching. I have been trying to combine my two passions for hands on learning and Social Emotional Learning and so I tested my hand with Boom to SEL Boom Cards. Check out my first deck for teaching students how to be a good friend here! (As previewed in the video above)

The Ins and Outs of Seesaw

I love using Seesaw as a tool for young learners. Seesaw has so amazing features and wonderful tools included that fits well with primary students.

The Log On Process:

This is absolutely a thing. If you had a dollar for every time one of your students had a logging in issue, I’m sure you’d be rich. Logging into Seesaw is SUPER easy and convenient for little people. Once students download the app, students will use your generated classroom QR Code to log in. They only have to do this once, because they then choose an emoji with their name to log in. Each time they open Seesaw, the emoji goes straight to their account so there’s no need for a login and password sign in every time. That makes it very simple for littles and less instructional time lost! If they somehow get logged out, which of course happens sometimes, you can easily pull back up the QR Code and quickly log them back in.

Basic Tools and Features:

Because what makes a cool and functional app if not the tools and features right?! Students are able to draw, write, record, take pictures, videos, and then upload things they create. As a teacher, you also have these same tools available to you. You can create activities, drawings, write notes, record videos, and insert links to everything a student will need to complete that activity. This is great for distance learning because its ALL- you guessed it- DIGITAL! Students have super easy access to watch a lesson, complete an activity, and turn it in, all in one place. The teacher is also able to see who has and hasn’t turned in the activity!

What it Can Look Like in the Classroom:

One way I have taken advantage of Seesaw is to teach students a skill and allow them to show their learning in a way that works best for them. With the tools Seesaw has to offer, it allows students so much freedom and choice to express their learning in a way that works best for them. I have watched student engagement and creativity go through the ROOF! Check out this post for how that has looked in my classroom.

Connectedness:

This app is a great tool to connect students to content while also being able to involving their families at home! Parents and guardians can gain access to Seesaw to see and comment on their child’s work. Teachers can easily send messages or announcements to families as well!

The Ins and Outs of Google Classroom

Google Classroom has some very similar features to Seesaw. I have typically seen Google Classroom work beautifully in older grades. But does that mean primary students cannot use Google Classroom? Absolutely not!

The Log On Process:

Depending on your district, students will usually have a generic log in being something tied to a student number with a password usually being tied to their birthday. Students have to type in this information EVERY SINGLE TIME. I have found this to be tricky for younger students. It takes A LOT of time at the beginning of the year to get them trained to remember, learn to type with no typos and without frustration. Practice is key but I also like to print out this information and make sure students have access to it in a handy place in case they forget.

Basic Tools and Features:

In Google, you can create one classroom or different classes depending on your needs. There are so many great tools you can use on Google, such as Forms, Slides, and Meet. Google Forms is a great tool for collecting feedback or creating SELF GRADED assessments. You can create interactive activities for students on Google Slides, or find many premade resources and templates on Teachers Pay Teachers. For those students who need more assistance, you are able to have a Google Meet session right in your classroom.

What it Can Look Like in the Classroom:

Just like with Seesaw, you can create assignments with everything students need to complete it and schedule it! You can combine Forms and Slides to create engaging lessons and assessments or transport students into a digital escape room to prove their learning by cracking codes to escape. Check out this one for practicing Addition and Subtraction within 20!

Connectedness:

You can share just about anything on Google with anyone who has a Google account, which is free for anyone. Parents can create an account and gain access to anything the teacher or student wishes to share with them. In that, parents can communicate and give feedback as well.

So Let’s Social Distance and Get On These Digital Assistants!

Obviously you have to determine what works best for you, your classroom and your students. I know for me I am still learning and will continue to learn more and more about these platforms. Am I an expert? Not by any means. But I know the importance of becoming fluent with these new digital assistants that will no doubt be integral in our classrooms this year. I will soon be creating digital learning paths that will have everything a student needs to learn and master a new skill. This path will use Google, Seesaw, and Boom to help engage, assess, and teach students! Look for those coming soon, and if there is any skill you would love to have a learning path for, please let me know!

Stay tuned for more in depth blog posts on each of these platforms. Also, drop by the comment section to share anything helpful I may have missed to help guide teachers! You can also let me know anything you would like to see in upcoming blog posts about both Seesaw and Google.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including my newest Boom Deck for FREE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Teaching Routines & Procedures

Rules and procedures are the backbone of your classroom. In my opinion, first you have to LOVE your students. Then you have to teach them about what you expect from them and then you can teach them everything else. You can be the most knowledgeable teacher in the world and an expert in your field but if your class get too chaotic, it’s hard for students to gain that knowledge! It is my belief that if you hold your students to the highest of standards they will absolutely meet them. If you think they can’t, they won’t. It is important as an educator that you also have to be their cheerleader. They are YOUR students and you may be the only one cheering them on so you have to do it! Challenge them, cheer for them, push them to be their best and you will be amazed at what they can do.

So let’s talk about rules. Rules should be specific and easy for students to follow. For example, “Keep Your Hands and Feet to Yourself”. This rule is specific for students and should be easy for them to follow. In my opinion for the primary grades, 3-5 rules is a good amount and you don’t really want more than 5. Students should know them and be able to read them. I believe if you have a long list of rules they won’t hold as much meaning and can become unimportant to students.

At the beginning of the year, I like to think through what I want my rules to be. After I have a general idea (alone) I then have my students “help” me develop the rules. It is important for students to feel like they helped create these rules because it is their classroom too. If you have read in my post about Back to School books, you’ll know I love to use literature to help teach important lessons. So of course I use books to help us with our rules too. We may read books like, “What if Everybody Did That?” or “Volcano Mouth” to help us create our rules for our classroom. Typically my idea of rules stay the same from year to year but with student input, they may shift a little. The discussion piece is the most essential part of creating the rules in your classroom. Asking students what is important to them and what they want their classroom to be really helps them think about what rules we need in order to create that environment. As we sit and dialogue, I chart their ideas and we highlight similar ones. After we have talked and charted multiple times, I then create from our list our 5 classroom rules. I then present them to the students and get their input. If we all agree, then we all sign our rules for the classroom (and they don’t change all year).

So now we have our classroom rules. Let’s talk about procedures, procedures, procedures! Procedures need to be modeled EXPLICITLY in order for students to understand and know their expectations. Think about how you want your classroom to be run. For example, how do I envision how students will use the bathroom or get a new pencil. Let’s think through the bathroom expectation. As stated earlier, ALWAYS have high expectations and that goes for anything and everything. You want to set an expectation for how it will look and sound when students use the bathroom. When you know how you want this to look, you must model it for the students. If you expect that students use a hand signal to go the bathroom, uphold it and make sure they do that EVERY TIME. If Johnny needs to go to the bathroom and uses the signal but then Katie needs to go and doesn’t and just gets up, what would you do? If you don’t hold every student to the same standard, then they won’t follow the expectations. It gets exhausting and patience is tested and it takes practice and more practice and then more and more practice but you must stand strong.

By spending ample time at the beginning of the year thinking and planning these rules and expectations out, it can greatly reduce stress and worry for the remainder of your school year. It also helps you have a classroom that is a comfortable environment in which students THRIVE. Remember LOVE them first, teach them expectations, and then everything else comes easy!

These are just a few of the things I cover in my Back to School Teacher Guide. I go over in extensive detail how I successfully set up the classroom and go through how I teach all my procedures. I also cover organization, communication, and so much more!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Hand Signals FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

Back to School Book Companion Activities

If you had a chance to read 25 Awesome Back to School Read Alouds, you’ll know my favorites out of the TONS of great back to school read alouds. In that post I shared the why for those specific books. Here I’ll be sharing some of my favorite activities to go along with those books. These are typically activities that have students practicing an important skill to go along with an integral lesson tied to the story. Some of these activities many be geared towards primary grades but I believe that there is also value for older grades. The best part… many of these activities can be found for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers!

First Day Jitters

I love to end the first day of school with this book. There are so many great activities that can be done with this book and one of my favorite community building activities is to use a first day feelings chart to discuss how we felt on our first day. I also love to use the poem pictured below because the students get a kick out of it. Of course a kid favorite is definitely making and drinking Jitter Juice!

You’re Finally Here!

Aroundthekampfire has the BEST resource for this book! From the cutest bulletin board, to TONS of wonderful activities including a retelling activity, first day writing, and of course the ADORABLE craft!

I Don’t Like Teamwork and Sharing is Not My Thing

This a great book to introduce the class to working together as a team and why it is so important. After reading, we chart what a good teammate looks and sounds like to build up to the really fun part…The Cup Stacking Challenge! We get to practice BEING a good teammate in groups of 4 or 5. Each group is given a stack of cups and a rubber band with 4 or 5 paper clips (based the number of students in the group). They are NOT allowed to touch the cups or rubber bands, only their paperclip, and they have to work as a group to stack the cups into a pyramid! Students love the challenge and although some get super frustrated, it’s a great way for them to practice great teamwork skills!

David Goes to School

David is always a fun and entertaining character. He always shows us the WRONG things to do and kids love it. One of my favorite things to do after reading David is discuss good choices vs. poor choices. I’ve created THIS comprehensive resource that includes whole group, partner, and individual practice for students. It also includes a fun book for students to create about good choices!

Chrysanthemum

I have been reading this book since my first year of teaching and completing the same activity that I believe is super powerful for students. I cut out as many little red hearts as I need for each student to have one. Before reading I explain that we will crumple our heart every time we hear a hurtful thing said in the book. This not only keeps their attention, but it gives them something to do while listening. After reading, we discuss what was said and I challenge tell them to try and un-crumple the heart to get it back to what it started as. When they can’t, I tell them that all of those bends and marks represent how hurt things leave marks that we cannot see or undo. We then make a class promise to be kind to one another and I have each student write their name on their crumpled heart. We tape them all to our promise as a reminder and I keep this up most of the year.

This is Not a Box

The activity that goes along with this book is one that challenges and pushes some students out of their comfort zone. The book shows how creative this little bunny is and we discuss it. Afterward, each student is given one bottle cap and a piece of paper and I tell them that it’s not a bottle cap. They are then given time to create something out of their bottle cap. Students can use glue, markers, and crayons and the only requirement is that they have to incorporate their bottle cap somehow in their creation. When their time is up, together we write about what we created. The length of the writing will depend on their grade. For beginning of the year first graders, I like to use the sentence stem, “This is not a bottle cap it is a __________.”

Interrupting Chicken

Another fan favorite that kids love because Little Chicken just can’t control herself! We discuss how her behavior impacts others and what would happen if we displayed that behavior in the classroom. Mrs. Wheeler has the perfect FREE resource to go along with this book! There is a whole class sort that can be completed together as well, in addition to an individual practice students can do!

Only One You

This book has sweet message that allows students to see why they are special. The Classroom Contessa has a fun writing activity and craft for students to complete. I love hanging them in the hallway when completed because they all turn out so unique.

How Full is Your Bucket?

I love using this book for many reasons but the most important is that I believe it is such a great analogy for students. This is language that we use for the entire year to help students understand how their actions impact others whether it be in a positive or negative way. After reading, we complete a sort of Bucket Filler vs. Bucket Dipper behaviors. Students then write how they will be a Bucket Filler throughout the school year. The set pictured below is a set I’ve had for many years. I don’t know where I found it but there are TONS of activities on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Leo the Late Bloomer

Leo is such a loveable character that many students can relate to. His friends can all do things that he can’t… yet! This is one of my favorite books to use for goal setting. We discuss how everyone blooms at different times and how we will all learn a lot throughout the year together. We all set goals, including me, and we hang them up as a reminder of what we want to strive for. HERE is the template I like to use and it also has a bulletin border banner for display!

Giraffes Can’t Dance

This is another great book to talk about goal setting and open up student’s minds to having a growth mindset. We discuss what a growth mindset is and watch the VIDEOS from Dojo. These videos go super in depth about what it feels like to have a growth mindset. The website also has discussion guides and activities to accompany the videos. I typically do different writing activities to go along with the videos and we watch them over a few days. We have a lot of discussions about having a growth mindset and continue that over the year.

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Let’s talk SAFETY! This is super important to discuss with students. This book is a fun way to do that! Gloria helps make safety more entertaining and we can have some serious discussions about how we stay safe. After reading the story, the students can create their own safety tip and they LOVE this activity.

The Most Magnificent Thing

Another great book for having a growth mindset and I like to use it to set up an expectation for STEM in our classroom. We discuss what STEM is and how we are all engineers. I use the posters from my Pigeon STEM resource to help establish expectations. We then complete our own most magnificent thing. I love using this FREEBIE from Buzzing for Books! It is so fun to see their creativity and their struggle!

Kindness is Cooler Mrs. Ruler

This book helps set up the expectation of kindness in our classroom. In the book, Mrs. Ruler gives the students an assignment of doing 10 kind things. I typically read this book on the Friday of the first full week of school and give each student 10 hearts and have them do 10 kind things at home over the weekend. The following week, students get to present the kind things they did and I hang them up outside! They love it!

The Pigeon Has to Go to School

If you haven’t read this one yet… YOU HAVE GOT TO! It covers SO many things that students and even teachers feel when coming to school for the first time. I am so passionate about this book that I created an entire BUNDLE to use for back to school! Covering things like STEM, Social Emotional, and Writing…. with of course tons of cute crafts. Check out the bundle HERE that will have you covered for back to school!

These are just SOME of my favorite back to school activities. Just like with books, there are so many more activities out there. If you haven’t read The Morning Meeting Book and The First Six Weeks of School, I would highly recommend both of them to read prior to starting the school year if you can! Building classroom community is also SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT at the beginning of school and as these books and activities bring these discussions to light, there are many other things we do to build this community. Here are some of my other favorite first week of school activities to help build classroom community:

Brown Bear Activity- Lindsay, Lindsay who do you see, I see _____________ looking at me (Learning Names)

Poison Dart Frog

Emotions UNO

Teamwork Hula Hoop Activity

Hide the Object (Following Directions)

Connection Circle (From Day ONE)

Just Like Me

Get to Know You BINGO

If you would like anymore information about ANY of these activities please don’t hesitate to email me at lindsaynsauer@gmail.com. Or if you have any more of your favorite back to school activities, I would LOVE to hear about them.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including The Good Choices Book FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

25 Awesome Back to School Read Alouds

Picking out the first week read alouds is one of my FAVORITE back to school activities! There are so many amazing authors out there providing books that cover everything you need for the first month of school. The many important lessons they learn from these great stories are crucial for students, especially to set the expectation from the beginning of the year. It’s ok if they’ve read them before because they can still gain many wonderful things from hearing books more than once.

Keep in mind that I teach first grade so some of these books may be geared towards primary grades, but I believe that most of the books can be used for any elementary grade student. Here I’ll cover some of my favorite read alouds that I personally use during the month and why! Stay tuned next week to learn about which of these I choose for the very first week and favorite activities to go along with these amazing stories! So.. what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!

1.Interrupting Chicken- This is such a cute book that teaches students about the importance of not interrupting during important times. It’s such a fun way for students to see how disrupting it can be when someone is talking or telling a story and they can’t finish what they’re saying.

2. Giraffes Can’t Dance- I LOVE reading this book at the beginning of the year. It helps teach students about the importance of growth mindset. It is also a great read aloud to help set the stage for goal setting.

3. Not A Box- This is a great book that helps engage students sense of creativity. It shows them how we can take something simple and create something magical. It also opens their mind to how we all see things in different ways.

4.Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen- I have been reading this book almost as long as I’ve been teaching! It is my favorite book to help students understand the importance of listening to others. They get to hear and learn about how to listen in a safe and funny way.

5. Only One You- This is a sweet book that shows how each and every one of us are unique. It’s a great book for community building and sharing with one another what makes each of us special.

6. Rainbow Fish- Another favorite that I read every year! This book teaches so many valuable lessons to students, including: being kind, sharing, and standing up for yourself.

7. You’re Finally Here!– Students LOVE this book. It shows kids how excited we are as teachers to have them in our classroom and how long we’ve been waiting for them. It’s cute, funny, and entertaining!

8. The Bad Seed & The Good Egg- Both of these books teach students the lesson of it being okay to make bad decisions sometimes and how to reflect. They’re both great for introducing having a growth mindset. It shows students, in a super fun way that students can relate to, that just because something happens to you it doesn’t make you ‘bad’ and that you don’t have to be perfect under pressure.

9.How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?- This is a fun book that shows students the “wrong” things to do at school and the kids absolutely love it! It sparks great conversations about correct choices at school.

10. First Day Jitters- This is my FAVORITE book to read on the very first day of school. It is such a sweet book that students and teachers both love. It shows students that it’s ok to be nervous and that even teachers feel that way too.

11. Chrysanthemum- This classic shows students how it feels when someone says hurtful words about you. It helps students understand how our words can really hurt people even if we can’t see it.

12. Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon- This is another book that shows students that it’s ok to be themselves, even if that means they’re different. It shows students how to stand up for themselves and to be brave like Molly Lou.

13. The Most Magnificent Thing- This is one of my favorite books to use to begin STEM in our classroom. It shows students that even when we have an idea, things may not go how we plan but to NEVER give up. It’s a perfect lesson to build flexibility and patience in students and to help motivate them to keep striving when things aren’t going like they thought it would during a project.

14. How Full is Your Bucket?- This is a great book that provides a great metaphor for students to see how their actions impact others. Using this language helps students understand others’ feelings that can be used for the entire year.

15. Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Share- Teamwork is essential to a successful classroom. This book is the perfect way to help students see the importance of teamwork!

16. David Goes To School- David is such a lovable fun character that the students love and that many can make connections to. He wants to do well but has a hard time listening. It’s a great book that shows the things we shouldn’t do in school in fun ways.

17. What Do You Do With A Problem?- This author and illustrator has done an awesome job of making a beautiful books to simply look at things from a different perspective. I love reading this one to discuss problems we may face and how we can look at them differently to solve them.

18. My Mouth is A Volcano- This is such a fun book to teach students about learning how to calm their ‘volcano mouths’. I love this relate this one back to The Interrupting Chicken because it brings about fun discussions that students love.

19. Kindness is Cooler Mrs. Ruler- Mrs. Ruler is here to teach about kindness! It allows students to learn about paying it forward and how our acts of kindness can affect others.

20. The Pigeon Has to Go to School- Here is one of my favorite new read alouds! I cannot wait to read this with my students this year. Pigeon is a beloved character that goes through all the feelings of going to school. It’s a great book that shows students it’s ok to be nervous but to realize all the fun and amazing things they’ll get to learn and do at school!

21. The Recess Queen- This is a great book I love to read before sending students outside for recess for the first time. It’s all about how people may be going through things we don’t understand and to show them kindness anyway.

22. What if Everybody Did That?- This is a great story that captures the bigger picture of how our actions affect others at and beyond school. It challenges them to see how we collectively we can make a positive impact on our world.

23. Officer Buckle and Gloria- This is one of my favorite books to teach about why rules are important in the classroom. The students love this sweet story and learn the importance of being safe!

24. Leo the Late Bloomer- This book is similar to Giraffes Can’t Dance and shows that everyone blooms at their own time when they’re ready. It’s an adorable story with a wonderful message for students that it’s ok to not be able to do something everyone else can. I love to use this to discuss goals we set for ourselves.

25. Little Monkey Calms Down & Little Mouse Says Sorry- These are some of my favorite books to teach students important life skills. We as educators have to help students recognize and deal with emotions and these books open up great dialogue about conflict management.

These are just SOME of my favorite read alouds. Obviously there are SO many more great books out there! You may have noticed that I love to read meaningful stories that teach important lessons. I love children’s literature and there are so many great stories that open up opportunities for students to connect and see that they’re not the only one with these feelings. Don’t forget, next week you can stop back on by to learn about some of my favorite first week of school activities to accompany some of these awesome read alouds!! Be on the lookout for a Back to School Essentials Giveaway happening soon!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the First Day Feelings Chart and Writing FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

Digital Meet The Teacher

Meet the Teacher – COVID Edition

These are crazy times. School’s reopening plans are either that they’re not opening, opening in a hybrid way, going completely virtual, or are going back “as normal”. So much is up in the air but one thing is for sure, we have to plan for our future kiddos. And meeting YOU, the teacher, is going to be a highlight of this year- whether in person or digitally.

Building connections, helping our families feel supported, creating an exciting learning environment for students, and above all else this year, making students feel safe are huge priorities as an educator. Meet the teacher night is crucial in upholding these principles with families. And this year, if you are going digital, holding a virtual meet the teacher is really convenient for families who can’t take extra time off and this could lead to increased participation! But how can we connect digitally with our families on a day we’re so used to hanging out in our classroom? Let’s get into some fun engaging ways we can do that!

Postcards!

Who doesn’t love getting mail- especially kids?! How special would your students feel getting a postcard from their brand new teacher whom they have yet to meet! They are a great way to help students feel welcome at a distance. They are easy to use and can be personalized for each student. As a subscriber, you can grab these super cute postcards for FREE!

Zoom!

Zoom has become a very popular way to connect digitally. There are a number of different ways you could set up a digital Meet the Teacher with Zoom. You could print the link on a postcard letting them know the date and time of the event. You could use a virtual invitation found HERE! If you wanted a record of best times for families to meet, a mass email containing a Google Form survey to complete is a great idea. An alternative but similar idea is SignUp Genius. I used them all last year with student conferences and it was such a great and easy way to collect and store their data… and it’s FREE! As far as the actual Zoom event, you could have a time for each family or do it in clusters as a meet and greet for the schedules that meet up.

Digital Presentation!

Maybe you’re not too fond of being behind a webcam? That’s OK! You have to do what works for you and what makes you comfortable. If you want a way to share important information and let families get to know you better, you could create your own presentation to cover these items. You could even host a chat room or conference call while sharing this presentation with families to allow them to ask questions. You can even embed a link to your virtual classroom or a video tour of your actual classroom for families to explore! They will have a blast and be able to get to know the room at a distance. But of course the thought of creating a whole presentation just adds on to the multitude of things to do right?? So, I’ve created a completely customizable presentation for you to edit to take off that stress if you so choose that can be customized in Powerpoint or Google Slides! If you’d like to access that, go ahead and click HERE! 🙂

Get to Know You Activities!

This can be a fun take on an old school social Meet the Teacher/ Meet the Student! Another great and easy way to connect with families is by sharing a digital meet the teacher newsletter for families to get to know you. What’s even more fun is sharing a template for a “Meet the Student” form for students to complete and share! These forms contain slides for students to fill out where they can put a picture, facts about themselves, and so much more. You could also have students comment on each other’s post about one thing they have in common or what they would like to learn more about. Both of these activities are available HERE! The meet the student forms can easily be shared on Seesaw or Google Classroom depending on what platform you use. After they are turned in, students can scroll through their ‘feed’ to meet all their new classmates virtually!

Another Positive Note!

Let’s face it, even without Covid, storing things digitally is much more convenient and less wasteful than paper. To help you organize student information, I’ve created some digital forms for families that can be shared in person or virtually. These forms can help you easily gather student/family information and student interests. You can grab these forms HERE! Another great way to provide information to families easily is with an interactive flip book. These Back to School flip books, paper and digital versions, are completely customizable to meet your needs. These interactive documents can help families understand the important parts of your classroom. From covering Zoom time expectations to your daily schedule, these editable flip books are available HERE!

Schools Opening “As Normal”

I know a lot of schools have even more risks when it comes to starting the year off as if this pandemic isn’t still happening. However, I’m confident in the fact that you can still throw a super fun, socially distanced, meet the teacher shindig. Not only will you be promoting safety, but also you’ll provide families with a long deserved fun night out with their kids. In addition, they’ll leave feeling supported and confident in the fact you’ll be there caring for their child’s education throughout this school year. So let’s take part in this equation- a lot of families plus a little social distancing equals a perfect night to remember!

So you have your classroom set up, you have labeled ALL the things with student names, so what’s next? You’re ready to meet your students! I know they are SO ready to meet you! I don’t know how you feel, but this is one of the most stressful and exciting parts of the whole year. You get to meet a lot of your kiddos and usually their entire family! I hope that after reading this, you feel more prepared and excited about meeting all your sweet littles, while also keeping everyone safe!

This set up is designed to deliver a fun and engaging evening for your families that they are sure to remember. I will help you have an organized and successful event that will help you to build connections with your families in an exciting way. These stations can easily be used in social distancing situations! A few years ago I asked myself how could I make this overwhelming time special while at the same time, take some of the pressure off? I came up with one word: STATIONS! Families had such a blast and it gave me so much more time to go around and meet everyone and talk to them while they all had activities to do! Parents were equipped with a checklist to make sure they made it to each of the fun stations! Here are some we set up!

The Photo Booth Station!

This station was a hit! They had such a blast with the back to school props and shared pictures that were hung around the room. This was such a fun way for families to have fun together and create some great memories in their new classroom. I LOVE using the props from Teach Create Motivate. Below you’ll see some examples of them. In order to ensure proper sanitation, I would recommend having families use their own device to snap the pictures and providing some sort of cleaner for them to be sprayed off after each use.

The QR Codes Station!

Another station my parents adored was a station where they could grab a QR code that was a video of me reading The Night Before First Grade to my students. I told them to listen to it the night before school started. When parents dropped off their students the first day of school, I had SO many parents tell me how much they loved that I did that for their child. I also had so many students that ran up to me telling me how excited they were that they got to see me read to them! I love using these editable tags from Missing Tooth Grins. Below you’ll find a picture of the station.

The Ready Confetti Station!

My students loved this one so much. They got to take home a bag of confetti so that they were “ready” for school to start. This is such a fun FREEBIE from Miss Hellen’s Hippos that was pretty easy to assemble. I bought some confetti from Michaels and put it in a plastic bag. Then I just stapled the tag to the top and that was it! Super easy inexpensive gift that the kiddos absolutely loved! See them picture below.

The All About Me Bag Station!

The last station I want to tell you about is a great get to know you activity that makes things super personal. You get some paper bags and have students put 3 things in it that represent them. Then they bring it back to school when school starts and they can share their items with a friend. It is such a fun way to get to know your kids and a great soft activity for the first week of school. I even did one too so my students could see my interests. If you subscribe, you’ll receive a cute directions tags to add to your bags for FREE!

These are just some of the fun station ideas you’ll find in my Editable Stations Resource. Not only was this a fun and exciting experience for everyone, but it was a great way to start building connections right away and took some of the pressure off at back to school time! You’ll find my Editable Meet the Teacher Stations HERE.

Not only are these stations a BLAST for families, but it is also perfect for social distancing. These stations can be organized around the room to keep families at a distance. You can set limits of people at a station at a time and be sure to keep 6 feet away from others. You can set the requirement of a mask if you want to or not and provide hand sanitizer at each station. Remember, do what is best for you and set the expectation you wish to carry through the school year.

Meet the Teacher is one of the best ways to kick off the year with families. I hope that this post helped you feel a little less overwhelmed about the unknown and a little more excited about what’s to come. Whether you meet your students virtually or in person, you are going to have a GREAT year with your families. These ideas can help you connect, have fun, and save you time! If you have any more wonderful ideas to share or are looking for something else to make life easier, please share in the comments below!

There are so many different ways to make this digital event special with families! Have more ideas? Please share them below in the comments. We are all a team together and we need each other now more than ever.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Welcome Postcard FREEBIE and All About Me Bag FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Setting Up a Classroom Guide

It’s that time of the year again! Back to School- insert frantic nightmares about school, back to school ads, and the dollar section to become full of so all the cute classroom things. This time of the year is like Christmas for teachers. Most have been dreaming, and probably planning and prepping, about how we will set up our classrooms. It can be exhilarating and overwhelming all at the same time. Will there be a theme? What million ideas from Pinterest can be used? Will there be flexible seating? What is best for my students? There are so many thoughts that pop up. I hope that after reading this post you can walk away with some great ideas to get you started and feel less overwhelmed and ready to dig in!

Before I begin, I just want to point out that of course we dream about how we would like to set up our classroom with all the cute decorations from Lakeshore or Target but remember who this classroom is for? Is it for our friends on Instagram or Pinterest? Most teachers would answer no. The classroom is for our students. So if the classroom is for our students, isn’t that what should be at the forefront when we begin to plan setting up our classroom? Reflecting on past classrooms over the years, I’ve accumulated numerous things I no longer use and themes I’ll most likely never decorate with again. I would think, “theme first, then set up”. It wasn’t until last year that I made the shift to making my room student centered and putting students at the forefront when planning to organize my classroom.

Of course Pinterest and Instagram are WONDERFUL resources to find amazing ideas, but it can also be very overwhelming. So before you scroll, think about things that are ESSENTIAL to your classroom being a welcoming, interactive, and successful environment for your students. If you haven’t seen my Classroom Set Up Checklist I would highly recommend starting there. It covers everything you could possibly need when planning out your classroom set up. Here are some things I feel are the essentials:

● Seating Arrangement– Where will your students sit? Will you have flexible seating? From your students’ perspective, what do you think would create the most comfortable setting? Creating a visual aid, such as a map is something I love to do to determine where everything will be and how our seats/centers will be arranged.

● Student Organization- This is definitely where I spend most of my time thinking. Where will student materials be (pencils, crayons, scissors, etc.)? Where will they turn in papers? How will they get new pencils if needed? Where will broken ones go? Will students have a desk where their personal materials are stored or will you have flexible seating? Where will students store lunch boxes, backpacks, and coats? When planning I like to think about it not only from the student lens, but also by what makes sense in the flow and traffic of the classroom. For example: I’m not going to put a lunch tub all the way across from where students hang their backpacks. That would waste time and create unneeded disruptions.

● Technology– Will you have technology in your classroom? What type of technology? iPads? Chromebooks? Desktops? It’s important to think about where these items will be stored and how students will access them. For example: if you have desktops, think about where they will be placed because it’s guaranteed that they will be a distraction to other students.

These “essentials” and more, including rules, routines, and procedures, are all covered in depth in my Back to School Teacher Guide. This guide is a great resource for new and veteran teachers as it takes you through everything that needs to be planned thoroughly in order to have a smoothly running classroom. Over the years, I’ve adjusted, gained feedback and have had principals tell me that my classroom runs like a well oiled machine. The culture in my classroom is something I’m proud of and encourage in every class of students I have. I wanted to share my strategies with everyone and so I created the guide to explain how I facilitate that culture.

Another important component of the classroom is of course your teacher area and materials. I am the first to say that I am guilty of having a HUGE mess behind my table. Life happens. Papers pile and things get thrown to the side to be “filed”. Yeah, you know it happens. But of course it’s our intention to try and not have that happen. One way I lessened the crazy pile stashes was eliminating my teacher desk.

After a while it became just an extra thing taking up space which in turn, was another place for me to “store”, aka throw a bunch of papers on there that might not be dealt with until the end of the year.

A few years ago I made the shift to not having a teacher desk and instead used my guided reading table as my material space. With a smaller space, organization is key. Below you’ll find pictures of a few of the ways I’ve stored things in the past. I love using the Rainbow Cart from Michael’s. You can almost always find it on sale and usually also find a coupon too! Don’t forget to use your teacher discount as well! I also love using Sterlite Drawers to store materials for myself and students. When setting this area up, think about things that need to be stored and try to think through things that will eventually pile up. Some examples include: student notes, notes from home, PD materials, guided reading/math materials, books, papers to be filed/graded. Think about what’s easy to manage and functional. I’ve tried cute things that aren’t functional and end up never being used. Just like with anything else, see what works and what doesn’t. Maybe something that works one year won’t work the next.

I hope that you walk away after reading this with some great ideas to get you started planning out your classroom set up. Remember that having a super beautiful classroom with the best decor you can find doesn’t make you a great teacher. The love and thought you put into it with your students in mind is what makes your classroom stand out. Taking time to plan out how to have a functional classroom that meets the needs of your students is what’s important. If you read my blog posts about flexible seating, you know I am all about having a student centered classroom. If you plan for your students, I promise you will have a warm, welcoming, successful classroom that your students will love to come to everyday.

If you subscribe to my email list, you will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

How To Flex Seat

Have you decided to implement flexible seating but are slightly freaking out about how exactly to do it? My intention is to help you set up flexible seating in a way that is as successful as possible and to hopefully relieve some of the fear and anxiety that happens when you make any major changes in your classroom. If you read my last week’s post, you know exactly why I believe flexible seating is an essential component of any successful classroom. If you haven’t had a chance you can find the post here. Here I share all the nitty gritty details on setting up- from acquiring seat choices to expectations, and how to manage flexible seating throughout the entire school year.

My two biggest pieces of advice I have with flexible seating is, model, model, model, and model some more and learn how to let some things go. Let go of some of the control, let go of how things look and sound because trust me, it’s going to be different. But if you do let go, wonderful things can happen! Did I know know everything diving into this? No. Did things go wrong? Absolutely! Could things be different for your classroom? Yes. But in learning to let go, you’ll read how even when things went wrong, they turned out perfectly okay.

Acquiring Seat Choices

Seating options = magic. They can also equal a lot of money. However, there are many ways in which you can furnish your room on a budget. Donors Choose is an amazing tool where you can create a project to get funded (this is how I got a lot of my seats). Amazon is super convenient with 2-Day shipping (if you have Prime) and tons of options. Donors Choose even has a nice feature that allows you to pick out options from Amazon. Ikea has many cheap options that kids love. Hobby Lobby and Michaels often have their lap desks on sale and you can use their coupons that they always have available to save even more. Garage sales are also a great resource for finding seats that you can make your own with a little DIY project. I have collected different seat choices over the years and slowly built up the options I have so the cost didn’t overwhelm me. My best advice is to try and get as much funded as possible. If you have to pay yourself, look for sales and deals and slowly start to build up over time. I have included a list of some of my students’ favorites with links:

Yoga Balls -I ended up buying the ones with the legs because the other ones rolled everywhere it and it drove me crazy.
Wobble Stools – These are a bit pricey but they hold up well and the kids love them.
Crate Seats – You’ll find the link to how I made mine. These hold up really well.
Scoop Rockers – I bought these from Walmart when they were on sale.
Lap Desks – Target has started selling these! I always look for whoever has the cheapest and best coupon. I think I ended up getting most of mine at Hobby Lobby because they always have a 40% off coupon you can use on 1 item.
Regular Desks are also pretty popular with students. Sometimes they just like to sit in a regular desk and chair! Although, I do like to put these fidget bands on the chair legs for students to still help with the wiggles.
Standing Desks are also pretty popular for students who don’t like sitting for long periods of time.

*These are the options that worked best in my classroom. Next year will probably be different just you’re your classroom will probably be different. Be open-minded to trying different options and see what works best with you and your students.

Classroom Organization

When deciding to implement flexible seating options in the classroom, organization of all things has to be thought about thoroughly.

Will you have individual or classroom supplies? A combination of both?

Where will students store their materials, books, folders and such?
Where will you store different seat choices?
How will students access seats and materials?

These are the kinds of questions I asked myself when prepping my classroom. I did a combination of individual and classroom supplies. Students used pencil boxes to store their personal materials and they doubled as their portable name plates to help them ensure they were able to spell their first and last name. (This was needed for first grade but may not be needed for others). Sterilite bins housed extra materials, such as scissors, glue, and crayons, which my students may need and they had access whenever they needed. To house the remaining student materials such as books, folders, and notebooks, each student had their own bin with their number on it. This also became the way students would choose their seat. Students would arrive, grab their bin for the day and place it at the spot they wanted. It was a first come first serve basis (this process is discussed later in teaching expectations). When deciding where to store seats, I knew that I wanted them to be spread out throughout the room so that students weren’t all going to the same place all at once. To start the year, I had different table options that would be “The Yoga Ball Table” or “The Wobble Stool

Table”. If they wanted those choices, they would have to sit at that table. Other options, like scoop rockers or lap desks, were stored around the room that they could grab and find a spot. The tables later changed so that students could grab a seat and sit wherever they wanted to work. This set up worked for my classroom and my students. You may want things to look different for your students. It’s whatever you feel comfortable with. It’s ok if things don’t work out how you plan….. that’s usually how it goes anyway right? It’s ok if you have to change things around multiple times. The way I started the year with flexible seating, is not the way I ended the year. Things change but you and your students adapt and it’s all a learning experience. An experience that will push you farther than expected but so many great things happen because of it. The biggest mind shift in changing my classroom environment was so that it would be student centered and this is what helped my students thrive.

Materials to Teach Expectations

To ensure I was ready to teach ALL expectations for every seat to my students, a lot of behind the scenes prep took place. I gathered materials and picked resources that I felt would work best for me, but you may find something different that works for you and your classroom.

Polka Dots Please has a great comprehensive resource that talks about Smart Spots. I love using that term with my students so they know that the seat they choose is a spot where they learn and work best. I printed and laminated all the spots I had and we went over them all. After reviewing them, I turned it into a book and kept it in our classroom library. My students loved reading it all year. She also includes a contract that I have the students sign at the beginning of the year after we have gone over all expectations.

Just A Primary Girl also has a great editable resource that I loved using to write out all my expectations for each of the different seat choices I provide. I used the posters to explicitly teach about each seat. One management strategy I love using is to take real pictures of students following expectations. I would look for students following expectations in their seats, take their picture and put it right on the poster for students to see. She also has mini versions of each seat that can be used on a magnetic board for students to pick their spot.

If you’ve subscribed to my blog, you will have also received the flexible seating brochure that I use with parents at the beginning of the year to help them understand flexible seating and explain why it’s important for our classroom. If you would like this brochure, you can still subscribe and get it free!

All of this prep work I did over the summer to help myself be prepared for a successful flexible seating implementation. I am a huge proponent of setting up clear and precise expectations from day one. This has helped me successfully run my classroom for many years. I strongly believe that both of these resources truly helped my classroom be successful for the entire year. They provided awesome references that were super easy to review as needed.

Teaching Expectations

So now that you have your seats, you’ve organized and set up your classroom, you have your materials to teach expectations for all your seating options, we’re ready to go teach right? Oddly enough, this is the moment when I totally panicked. I started wondering, “Where are they going to put all their stuff when they come in?” “Where are they going to sit on the first day of school?” “How in the world am I going to teach them how to use all these seats?!” Amongst a million more. Well I’m here to help you not panic!

First, let’s talk about meet the teacher and the first day of school. With flexible seating it looks MUCH different. Parents aren’t sure where to sit, siblings are playing with yoga balls, and it can get a bit chaotic. For meet the teacher, you might want to consider displaying a few seating choices for parents to see but mostly having chairs for everyone to sit on. Totally your choice! For the first day, I found it most effective to have students bring their backpack and everything right to the carpet, which is where we start out every morning. After getting to know each other, unloading and collecting supplies, we began to learn about a few seat choices. It was previously decided which seats would be introduced first, starting with the most basic like regular and standing desks. We went over our posters and students practiced what it looked like, whereas I would practice what it didn’t look like (students never model what it doesn’t look like). This is how I teach all of my classroom expectations: what it looks like, almost looks like, and never looks like. You can find more information about this in my Back to School Teacher Guide .

We spent the first week of school learning about different seats and practicing them. We always learned the same way. We would sit on the carpet together with our expectations poster and practiced what it looks like and doesn’t (again, only I practice what it doesn’t). We would discuss what seat choices we want and how we would use them. I would then randomly call on students in a way that everyone had a chance to get to pick a seat first. After picking seats, we would practice doing a low level activity, such as reading or a worksheet, to get students used to being in the seat. After all the seats have been taught, which usually takes about a week or so, I encourage students to try out each type of seat to see which they like and how they work best. We discuss how they may not like every seat and that’s ok. When introducing seats, we discuss the term “Smart Spots”. We discuss what a smart spot is and what it isn’t. We discuss that a smart spot does not mean a spot next to our friends. Instead, it’s a spot that we work best and that we want to sit in. With my group, we really had to discuss Smart Spots quite a bit there was A LOT of reminders on how they are not next to a friend. We also discuss that students get one warning and I’m very strict on this rule. ONE warning and then I can move them. They know that these seat choices are a privilege and can be taken away if not used correctly.

Choosing Seats

Let’s discuss how students choose their seats. Again, this is all up to you and what works best for your classroom. In our classroom, students had a personal bin that housed all of their materials. They would come in the door in the morning and put their bin at the spot they wanted to be at. Other students knew that they could not move that bin or that seat because it was taken. This process also took some practice after teaching students to really pay attention to other people’s belongings but this became pretty fluid. After a while, students knew exactly what to do when they came in during the morning. This also taught them that if they wasted time, they might not get the seat they wanted. Of course, even after all of the practicing and all of the modeling, everything will not be perfect. They’re kids! There will be arguing, upset people, and it’s ok. Many days were spent learning how to manage conflict. I really encouraged my students to share and be kind with one another. In the beginning of the year, a student might have come really wanting a yoga ball only to find that they’re all gone. I might ask my students if anyone is willing to give up a yoga ball, especially one who has already had the yoga ball that day or week. I would facilitate these solutions but over the year, most of the time students were able to handle this on their own. Here’s another scenario of managing conflict with kindness- John, Katie, and Michael have their bins in front of the Wobble Stools. Lucy didn’t pay attention and put her in bin front of one too even though there aren’t any left. Now it’s time to get started and there is an argument about who can sit there. What do you do? 9 out of 10 times someone will just move somewhere else with no problem because they know someone would do the same for them and they know they will get another opportunity to sit there. You must really model this with students and praise students when they do this to help encourage this behavior. It’s all about modeling kindness and fairness and helping students manage conflicts on their own. Yes, first graders can do this!!

The biggest take away here is… MODEL, MODEL, MODEL! Be very explicit with your students so they know exactly what it looks like and exactly what it doesn’t look like. Just like with any classroom expectations, be firm and consistent! Flexible seating is a new challenge but so worth it. Students love being given choices and you will be amazed at what they can do when they’re empowered to do it. I believe if this works with my firsties, this can definitely work with your kiddos! If you’re looking for more beginning of the year tips and set up, you’ll love my Back to School Teacher Guide I discussed earlier. I go through every detail of setting up a classroom to help you successfully set up and have a smoothly run classroom. Even if you’re a veteran teacher this guide can still help you think about things you may not have before!

If you subscribe to my email list, this post comes with a Flexible Seating Checklist FREEBIE that will help you ensure that you have everything you need! You will also get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

Why Flexible Seating is a Must Have in My Classroom

I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz about flexible seating. Maybe you’ve even tried it. How do you feel about it? Did it turn out well or did you have a negative experience? This year I caved into the buzz and tried it and while it wasn’t all positive at first, it turned out better I than imagined. And now I have some reasons why it is a must have in my classroom and why I’ll never go back to traditional seating! The biggest reason most definitely being the difference it’s made for my students.

Check out my post about SSR to get a few glances at what flexible seating looks like in my classroom. In that post, I briefly discuss how flexible seating changed what SSR looks like during the classroom and how it helped to have such a positive impact on student achievement. The best part is that SSR wasn’t the only time that flexible seating had such an impact in our daily routine. I remember at the beginning of the school year thinking, “Oh no…. where are they going to sit on the first day of school?” or “How are they going to pick their seats throughout the day?” It was extremely overwhelming.

I teach first graders and have for years. They’re young. They need to move. It’s actually pretty ridiculous for them to be expected to sit in a desk all day long. I’m way older than them and even I know I couldn’t do that! However, I remember being driven crazy by the fact that students would tip in their chair or sit on their knees and fall out of chairs. What I wasn’t recognizing was that they needed that movement. Since implementing flexible seating, I’ve seen a HUGE difference in needing to get those wiggles out because they are able to do it. Students can bounce on yoga balls if they need it, some may decide they do better standing or maybe they notice they really enjoy a regular desk. The best part of flexible seating is that students get to choose what works best for them. Even with them being young, they really are able to rise to the challenge and choose what works. I can confidently say I witnessed 6 year olds who knew what seat worked best for them and what types of seating did not. Here’s one of my favorite clips of them working!

When I decided to take the plunge into flexible seating, I went all in. I did all the research I could and it turns out there isn’t that much. I went to multiple places to find different cheap seating options. I created multiple Donors Choose projects to help me fund it. When I had all of my seating options, I was extremely nervous and wasn’t sure how it would work, or if it even would work. If I’m being real honest, I had that same thought multiple times during the first few months of school in the middle of tackling what flexible seating would look like for us. Next week, you’ll learn all about my challenges and how to successfully set up flexible seating in your classroom!

However, after months of experience and us learning together, I will NEVER go back. For starters, I think it is extremely important for students to have as much choice and voice in the classroom as possible. I believe flexible seating really helps provide that. It’s also a nice reminder to think that when we are working or reading as adults, we’re not always sitting in a desk. As I’m writing this now, I spend some time sitting on the couch then move to a stool. I move and choose whatever makes me feel comfortable. Shouldn’t we provide the same opportunity for our students? After teaching students about all the different seating options, it was amazing to see how much their focused changed and their desire to complete their work was increased.

Is everyone’s experience going to be smooth sailing? No. Maybe you tried and it didn’t work out for your students. Remember that what works for one group of students may not work for another. During my first year with flexible seating I learned A LOT. There are things I will do differently next year, and I’m sure new adjustments will happen for a new diverse group of kiddos to meet their needs. However, if you had a less than great experience, I would say reflect and retry it! And If you haven’t tried out flexible seating, I strongly encourage you to do so because it will change so much in your classroom and your students. If you’re fearful of the unknown like I was, I’ll be creating a helpful start up guide soon to try and ease the worries of flexible seating.

One of the most important things I learned from flexible seating is that in order to help empower your littles to take ownership of their learning, you have to let go. I know as educators (and trust me I’m a total type A personality) it’s hard to let go but amazing things can happen when you do. I also learned there’s no one right way to set up flexible seating. You just have to do what works for you and your students! Check out my new post coming soon about my tips on how to successfully set up flexible seating in your classroom.

If you subscribe to my email list, this post comes with a Flexible Seating Brochure FREEBIE that you and your parents will love! You will also get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

Teaching Will Never Be the Same

Be careful reading this post about CCIRA because after I attended, I will never go back to the way I was teaching before. In this year alone I have learned so much about myself as an educator and have grown more than any other year I’ve taught. In reflecting on what has had the biggest impact on the drastic shift of my teaching, I’ve narrowed it down to two contributing factors: the birth of my son and attending CCIRA for the first time.

I had the pleasurable opportunity of staying home with my son for his first year and when I went back to the classroom, I realized one huge thing that my classroom was missing. Students need more play! This insight came from interacting with my son during his first year and being so aware of his constant need to play and be active. I then realized that my first graders were not much different and they too needed to be active and play in order to be successful. I attribute this as the beginning of some radical changes in the way I run my classroom.

I implemented an abundance of hands on learning activities and opportunities for students to play while learning. I came to the realization that it was not only MY classroom but more importantly, the students; this classroom was OURS. At this realization, here came another huge shift in our room. I felt I had to do more fostering student choice and ownership in the classroom. I wanted students to be proud of their class and the learning that was happening inside.

I had been trying to implement student choice and voice all year by using flexible seating, connection circles, as well as a variety of other tools. I thought I was giving all the choices they could handle. However, after attending CCIRA for the first time and getting to hear Debbie Miller speak about her new book, I understood I was still missing a huge part of student voice. She asked something that really made me stop and think about everything I had previously learned about teaching literacy. “Are there rules to workshop?” (Miller, 2018, p. xvi)

At first I immediately thought yes of course there are. You have a 10-15 minute mini lesson, guided groups are conducted, and then closure. But then she blew my mind when she showed that it doesn’t have to be the same thing every time and how we can teach in different ways and that workshop can look different depending on the needs of our STUDENTS. Of course, this was my biggest take away. What do our students need? After all, our teaching is all about the students and their needs.

Debbie then took it a step further and asked us what would happen if we let the students own the work. She stated to let students show their learning in whatever way works for them. This really made me stop and think. Was I letting my students have enough choice? Was I allowing them the freedom to show their learning in a way that worked for them? The answer was no. I realized that we discussed the learning target everyday and why it was important. We discussed our success criteria but in the end, I was the one truly owning it. I had put my first graders in a box and it really broke my heart to think that. Well I walked out of the session knowing that my teaching had completely changed and that I had to take immediate action.

I went back that following Monday and knew that student work time was going to look completely different. Instead of the normal, “Here’s how you need to complete your independent work”, I told students, “Show your learning in a way that works for you.” Well I bet you can imagine the looks on their faces… they were lost. I had so many questions and I was intently very vague. We discussed the learning target one more time and I said simply said ‘go’. As you can probably also imagine, day one ended up being a total disaster and honestly most students didn’t get anything done. It was a huge learning experience.

During planning time, my teammate and I got together and discussed what we needed to do differently to better support our students. We made a few different examples to show students some ideas of ways to show their learning. As a grade level, we use Seesaw so we showed students all the different tools offered on the application to support their learning. Some examples included recordings, drawings, typing, and writing. After providing a few examples, I was amazed at the depth of learning and understanding of our students. We have since continued to fine tune how this works.

Allowing students to have true ownership over their learning, I have seen just how brilliant my students are and how they differentiate for their own needs. I am constantly in awe of the creative work they continue to produce, as well as their deep understanding of their own learning. They are the true owners of the work now and it shows. This clip is one of my favorite work samples from my students. She totally captured the character’s experience!

Eventually my teammate and I decided we were ready to fine-tune this process a step further and we created our first micro-progression. This happened after listening to Maggie Roberts speak about the importance of micro progressions in the classroom. “Micro-progressions house the way toward higher levels of work. By providing actual examples of work that’s improving, as well as listing the qualities that make up each “level” of work, micro-progressions allow for both self-assessment and self-assignment.” (Roberts & Roberts, 2016, p. 17)

We decided to try it out with our character unit and made our first micro-progression for character traits. We started backwards and created 4 levels of understanding of character traits. We discussed the four levels and again gave students the opportunity to show their learning in a way that worked for them.

I was blown away at not only their depth of understanding of character traits, but also the ability to assess themselves at the level they were working at. Learning these two tools at CCIRA has changed the way our classrooms look. If you walk into our classroom, you see students engaged in literacy and taking ownership of their learning. You will hear students discussing with one another their understanding of their learning target and how to increase their level of understanding. So I leave you with this – “If we’re not teaching children to be independent thinkers, what are we teaching them?”(Miller, 2018, p. 171)

If you subscribe to my email list, this post comes with my Success Criteria Chart FREEBIE that you and your students will love! You will also get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

References

Miller, D. (2018). What’s The Best That Could Happen? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Roberts, K., & Roberts, M. B. (2016). DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Independence, and Rigor. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.