Quality Behavior in the Classroom

Classroom Stories '15-'16

Only a month into the school year and already a quality attitude is permeating Mrs. Beckner's 1st grade classroom.  It's so exciting to see students taking responsibility for their own behavior.

The Girl Who Wouldn't Do Anything

This little girl would just sit on the carpet with a frown on her face and not participate. I spoke to her privately about how quality students always participate and try their best. I also reminded her that she was not being a quality student because she wasn't trying, and that she could not take Quentin home if she wasn't going to participate and be a quality student. Well the next day, she was a different student! She sang with us and she tried to count with us and she tried to do her class work. Then she came up to me and asked if she could take Quentin home and of course, I said "yes." 
She got the biggest smile on her face! When we walked outside to go home, she turned and gave me a big hug! 
  The students were making a list of soft and hard things the next day and this little girl drew Quentin on the soft side and looked at me and said that Quentin was soft. She was so proud and now she is trying her best!:)

The Students Who Are Quiet When They Need to Be

The first letter in our quality song is "Q-Quiet when we need to be." So, when I wanted the class to get quiet, I would sing, "Q-Quiet when we need to be." And my kiddos would say it too and get quiet. Now, when we are standing in line and the students are too loud, some of my students start singing, "Q-Quiet when we need to be." I just love how the kiddos are taking the initiative to get their classmates to listen.

The Boy Who Thinks Quentin is a Super Hero

This little guy drew a picture of Quentin and said he was making him a super hero.  He said, "Quentin is a super hero because he helps us to be quality students!"  How great is that?

Stay tuned for more quality student stories! :)

We hope you enjoyed hearing about these positive results in the classroom.  We will leave you with this:

Here's hoping your weekend is free of multitasking :)

Freaky Friday

FREAKY FRIDAY is Back! Click on the picture to purchase:

For those of you that were with us last year, you know we joined with a group of lovely ladies to bring you a selection of products in our stores for only $1!  There will be new products each week so make sure you tune in every Friday.  This is a great way to build your classroom arsenal for a fraction of the cost :)

We are offering our brand new October Word of the Day Books- There are 3 books that are in color and black and white that can be sung to familiar tunes.

Book 1: includes fall vocabulary having to do with Christopher Columbus like voyage, sailor, explorer

Book 2: includes senses and fall vocabulary with pumpkin parts, including rind, pulp, orange

Book 3: includes Halloween vocabulary like costume, mask, bat

There is also a single sheet that has the lyrics of the songs. This one is from our September Books.

We are fortunate to have a poster machine at my school so I like to take the page of lyrics and make them into posters for my kiddos to circle the word of the day. The words come from our Word of the Day Calendars.

My kiddos were excited to see their new book on Columbus on their desks this morning .

After they cut out their books and I stapled them together, they started reading them right away:)

I had students start asking me questions about the words compass and voyage. I just love that they are asking these kind of questions!



Click here for more details!

Fall with Community Helpers

It's almost October and Fall is officially in the air.  Children will begin telling you about what they are going to be for Halloween or what pumpkin patch they will be visiting.  You might have kids going on hayrides and drinking cider.  But before all of that, we have fire safety week, and with that, community helpers.

We cannot tell you enough about how great this bundle has been in the classroom.  It provides books, games, a song, puppets, and more fun resources for helping kiddos learn about community helpers.  Each activity is designed to further imprint the idea of community helpers on your students' brains.

Click below to get this great resource for 50% off in our Educents store!

There are a few printables like this one.  The sheet pictured below matches each community helper to his or her tool.

One of the sheets includes these adorable finger puppets that children can use while they are listening to the song.

A group of Pam's Summer School students came up with the idea to cut off the book match pages and use them as scenery for a puppet show.  

One little girl came up with the idea of creating a popup page for her community helpers.  She created environments for each community helper, then cut slits for her puppets to fit through.  You could take this one step further by having kiddos draw a map of their community.  They could include the places where each community helper works and then cut slits for their puppets.

Below is a video that talks more about our Community Helpers Bundle and offers you a FREE community helpers sheet.  Check it out!

Have an awesome week!!

Class Mascots

Hey all,

On Tuesday you got to meet Quentin, our class mascot.  As a class mascot, he gives the students an example to follow for good behavior and gives them an extra push to follow the rules.  We combine Quentin with the Baldridge program, teaching kids that being a Quality Student is the best way to work and behave in the classroom.  We have found that this holistic approach, combining behavior and performance, really encourages the students to do their best.  Having a class mascot is a fun way to emphasize whatever it is you want to emphasize in the classroom.

Minds in Bloom has a great article that reflects the same ideas we use in the classroom.  Creating a culture that includes the class mascot is a fun, low-pressure way to have a positive environment.

Scholastic has a fantastic article about how a class mascot can even motivate kiddos to write.  When Quentin goes home with a Quality Student, they write about him in his journal.  They get excited about their interactions with the class mascot and want to write about them, or at least draw them.

Eduplace has an activity on how to involve the kiddos in creating a class mascot.  This involves creativity and critical thinking.  It would be an awesome way to make the experience more fun for older kiddos!

2care2teach4kids shows you how to use a class mascot in a preschool classroom.

All of these articles support the same idea, that a class mascot is a great way to create a fun environment and motivate your students.  The one cool thing about Quentin, as you can read in our other post, is that we have done all the work for you.  Quentin has 2 songs, 2 books, and other materials.  The idea of quality is strongly encouraged within the Baldridge program and it's a great jumping point for you.  We have seen Quentin work wonders with students who had very strong behavior difficulties and firmly believe in the presence of a class mascot to make your life easier.  As you can see in our previous post, we do have a stuffed Quentin.

He's not for sale in our store, but we would be happy to send him to you if you want to do this in your classroom.  We would be willing to give you his books, songs, Quality Quentin dollars, along with him and other supporting materials for a discount bundle price.  If you're interested or have any questions, email us at soltrain.learning@gmail.com.  We believe he can make a real difference in your classroom.

If not Quentin, at least try a class mascot.  We guarantee you'll see a difference in your kiddos.  Share your successes below!

Have an awesome weekend and best of luck!

Our Awesome Class Mascot

My name is Quentin.  I am a "quality" penguin, and I want to show your kiddos how to be quality students!  There is a song my mother taught me in the book Quentin's First Day, where I learn what a quality student is.  I was nervous about my first day of school and mom made me feel better.  I taught it to my new friend, Mandy, to make her feel better too. Grab it for Free!

The students meet me at the beginning of the year and sing the "Quality Students" song every day.  They talk with their teacher about what a quality student is and earn Quality Quentin Dollars for being quality students.  Along with earning Quality Quentin Dollars and going to the prize box, one very lucky student gets to take me home each night for being the MOST quality student.

 Students like to give me presents.

  

The teacher asks me to hold the word of the day.

In my second book, Quentin's Quality Pumpkin, I remember the part of the "Quality Students" song that says "we take turns to be kind."  I learn that it's not as important for me to get the best pumpkin as it is for me to share with Mandy.

I like to hide in different S.O.L. Train Learning materials so I can remind kids how to be quality students.  I have a whole category just for me.  Click below to check it out:

You will be getting to know me more throughout the year as I tell more stories about my experiences in the classroom.  Have a great week!

Games in the Classroom

Hey out there!

Wanted to reach out this week and share some game ideas for your classroom.  Pam and I are always looking for ways to add excitement to learning and games are a great way to accomplish this.  As our fans know, we LOVE incorporating games in the classroom.  We have several categories in our store devoted just to games including, Brain Bounce Games, Scoot Games, and Other Games!  We are all about some games ;-).

The best part about incorporating games in your classroom is that kiddos are focused more on the fun than they are on the "obligation" to learn and succeed.  It takes the pressure off.  Not to mention it's fun and easy and makes us look good when our children do succeed.

This is fun and simple and can be differentiated in many ways.  You can use vocabulary like we have in our Word of the Day products, your own spelling words, or sight words.  For older kiddos, you can use math facts, Brain Bounce cards, or other quiz bowl type cards.  Don't have Connect 4?  No problem!  You can use these rules to add to any game that involves kids taking turns; Checkers, Chess, Tic Tac Toe.  You can add this extra piece to any game.  Just tell the kiddos if they don't know the word, they skip their turn.  Click above to read more!

Another fun and simple way to practice English Language Arts, Math, or other skills.  Differentiation possibilities are endless!  Click above to read more.

Hopefully that gets your kiddos off on the right foot with learning through games.  Also, these are a GREAT assessment tool.  Easy, low-pressure way to see what your kiddos know.  

Here are some more fun tips:

For Math

Lego Fractions

Zap!

Other Math Activities

For English Language Arts

Blends Game

Sight Word Gross Motor

Say and Stomp

There are also many other game ideas on our Kids Games Pinterest board.

Happy gaming!

Back to School September Memory Game

Hey All,

The Word of the Day saga continues with our September Word of the Day Memory Game!

Click below to get it in our store

Pam used it with her kiddos to further reinforce our September vocabulary and had great results.  This is another way for you to put important vocabulary in front of your kiddos, exposing them to it without the pressure of learning it.  This game is so much fun and as many of you know it's a great tool for critical thinking as well.  We are offering it exclusively to our followers for FREE today only.  Be sure you check it out and let us know how your kids do with it.

Here are a few pictures of some of her kiddos enjoying this game! To provide further reinforcement of the words, they turned the cards over and said the words out loud. Pam just used the first set of 10 words that they have used in class. She will add to the game as she introduces more words.

Pam has been so excited about our newly revised student calendar and our September Word of the Day books. You can get the bundle for 50% off in our store this weekend!  I'm going to let her tell y'all more about that:

Hey everybody! I hope you are having a great year! I know y'all are as busy as I am trying to get your kiddos into a routine! I have had the greatest success with using this word of the day student calendar with the new books that Brittany has written for us. I love that the books can be sung to familiar piggy back songs and my kiddos are so cute singing these songs as they read their own books!

Well, on Thursday I gave them the page of lyrics from the first book and told them to highlight the words that I have introduced on our word of the day calendar.  I was so happy to see how well they did this. Some of the kiddos used their books to help them find the words.

 Some of the kiddos used their calendars to help them find the words.

 Some of them actually just remembered the words:) 

I want to

show you what my students are already doing in their calendar notebooks with these words. This is so exciting for me!

This was written after I encouraged my kiddos to try to use some of the words that we already had from the calendar.  Just think how this student will be writing by the end of first grade:)

Sorry, just one more. It was one of my favorites! Yay!!

Next on the horizon are our October ELA Books and Memory Game.  Follow us on the blog or in our store for updates! We would love to hear how this bundle is helping your students, so if you decide to give it a try-please send us an email or comment here. 

Thanks!