Day 2

Day 2 went much better than Day one. It still went pretty fast, was a lil disorganized, but that will straighten itself out as the cafeteria breakfast schedule becomes more routine. It's hard to start whole group activities and rules when a third of your class is still eating breakfast.

We went over rules and procedures, rules and procedures, and rules and procedures. We also played a whole group game with shapes in a bag where students would pull them out, and name the color and shape if they could. There were 4 shapes in there: a triangle, rectangle (two of the hardest to say and memorize), an oval and a diamond. Then we'd call color or shape, and see if each person knew which one they had and stand up with it. This is laying the groundwork for introducing small groups tomorrow. There will be 4 groups, denoted by a shape. Each shape-group have about 5 children (6 as we get more) in it.

Tomorrow the plan is to get the students used to identifying themselves with the shape and color (ie. orange oval, green triangle...etc). Our consequences board has a stop light on it. Each group will have a pocket with the shape on it. Each pocket contains laminated name strips of the people in that group. When a student does something they've been warned not to do, they have to go move their name from the shape pocket to the color pocket under the traffic light picture. First time is to green, next is to yellow, third is to red. Each color has varying degrees of consequence from a time out, to loss of part of recess, to call home or principal's office.

Eventually, the students will be in groups all day long. When we introduce center changing, each group will have to stay in their center for the full 15 minutes. They will have to get along with people in their group, even if a best friend is in a different group. They will have to use their own words to solve disputes and learn skills essential to independance.

Throughout the year, the members of each group will change. As well, new shapes will be introduced and old ones put away. In this way, students learn and review colors and shapes in an ongoing, meaningful way that has a direct correlation to their school day.