S.O.L. Train: Moments That Count in the Classroom: The Beginning of the Year

The Beginning of the Year

I have this display of Quality Quentin on my wall outside of my classroom. I take pictures of my kiddos to put on the little glaciers.

They are greeted by Quality Quentin when they enter the classroom.

I read Quentin's First Day. It is a book about how scared Quentin is to go to school and how Mama Penguin makes him feel better by teaching him the Quality Student song, so he knows how to behave at school. You can get the book in our store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-ELA-book-Quentins-First-Day-808786

Then we sing the Quality Student Song and act out the letters of "Quality" This song is included with the book. You can also grab just the song for FREE:)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quality-Students-Mp3-Song-450741

After we have read the book and sung our Quality Student song, we will pass around Quality Quentin and each of the kiddos will say their name and what a quality student is.
"My name is Jon, and a quality student listens to the teacher." We have these class meetings every day the first few weeks of school and then we will have them weekly. My students really learn how a quality student acts.

I also talk to them about how they can earn these Quentin Dollars when they are Quality Students. They also can lose them if they are not being quality students. They get to go to the store when they earn 10 and they can save up 20 to get larger items. The cool thing about this is they are learning about saving money to purchase something bigger. I also had students to use their dollars to buy gifts for family members. One little girl even asked about getting something for her brother's birthday but didn't have enough dollars, so I loaned them to her and was able to give her a mini lesson on loaning money from a bank. It was great! And she was so proud and happy to be giving her brother a present that she felt like she earned. I use these dollars now as my behavior system because it is so much easier and it takes away the pressure from the kiddos when they were changing their signs. It is a free download in our store. I just run them off in grayscale.

I also use this as a class incentive. We will vote on an activity that the class wants to do and when we get enough Quentins on the igloo, we will do the activity. The kiddos love seeing the number of Quentins grow. You can get these in our Back 2 School Bundle. It is at the bottom of this post.

The parents are very good about helping me with donating items for our little store. I just ask for parents who can to sign up at the beginning of the year to donate.

As you can see, they love the Quentin Dollars!

This is our September Word of the Day Calendar that we use at the beginning of the year. My kiddos are given their own calendars so they will know what the word of the day is and the calendar has a pattern for the kiddos to follow. They get so excited when they see Quentin on the pattern pieces! We have these Word of the Day calendars for every month. I am finishing August and then we will be bundling the whole year for a discounted price. We hope you will follow us so you know when it is posted:) Here is the link if you just want to try the September calendar.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-of-the-Day-September-Calendar-829261

This is something new that we just added to our Back 2 School Bundle. You can also get this sample pack for free. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Freebie-Back-to-School-Sample-Pack-with-Quality-Quentin-1305041

Our Back 2 School Bundle has everything you have seen, the book, song, puppet, pocket chart poem, plus a whole lot more to get you ready for the beginning of school with Quality Student behavior. There is also a Mandy and a Mama Penguin puppet for your kiddos to help act out the book.

This is just one of the printables in the bundle.