Listening the First Time – or Not
One.more.week.
They are ready. I am ready. We all need spring break, already.
Last week we started our “Listen the First Time” points.
We started it late this year because I forgot. I FORGOT!
“They are driving me nuts.”
“They won’t listen.”
“I keep repeating myself.”
After saying this for SOOOO long, how in the world did I forget.
I.don’t.know. My brain was buzzing from all the 30 voices that I couldn’t hear myself think!
Anyhoo… All I do is write Listen the First Time on the board. It looks like this:
Each time the kiddos (ALL of the kiddos) listen the first time, they get a tally mark under that line. After 5 tally marks I write a letter on the board. This has not been easy for them but they did get 10 points this past week.
The letters they’ve earned are….
They don’t know why. No one has figured out what the letters mean and I keep saying “I can’t tell you! Earn another letter so you can figure it out!”
I am guessing the Z that will show up there after the next 5 points will help them out quite a bit! AND hopefully that Z will help us increase the quantity of points we get for listening the first time going forward and they will quickly spell the rest of PIZZA. A pizza party lunch SHOULD be a good motivator.
Friday we did another “Listen Up!” auditory activity (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THESE!!!!! Do you have them? You NEED them! They are VERY telling. I use them as assessments. Simply perfect!) from Fluttering Through First Grade. My kids enjoy these so much and are doing a lot better each time. One of the kiddos said, “You know, Mrs. Clausen, we are SO good at these now – we should listen the first time a little more the rest of the day.” This was followed by a bunch of “Right?”
Uh… yeah… that WOULD be right.
I love this class so much. They are AMAZING! They are hilarious and have the BEST personalities. But boy oh boy do they talk constantly and need things like “line up quietly” repeated a lot.
“Nope, that wasn’t quiet… go back.”
“Oh, bummer… there were at least 10 voices that time… go back.”
“Seriously guys! I KNOW we can do this! Go back and sit down. We’ll try again.”
“After 125 days of school do we REALLY need to discuss what line up quietly means?”
Yeah – obviously.
So anyway – I finally remembered to put up the “Listen the First Time” tally section of the board and things have improved significantly in all areas of the day. I’m hoping it will get a little more mileage since I started it late this year.
I highly recommend a “Listen the First Time” tally chart. I usually start it in January – but apparently you can start it anytime 😉
I tried to keep things calm and easy this week since I know their poor little brains are ready for a break.
We are going to do the “What Would a Butterfly Say” writing lesson and craft.
(Did I mention to you that as an attention getter I added “What does a fox say?” and they reply with the annoying “Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingereding!Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingereding! That’s what the fox says!” #Imaybeattherootoftheirnoise)
Anyway…. the What Would a Butterfly Say is an opinion writing lesson and the craft is also a lesson in symmetry.
It’s one of the writing/craft lesson-activities in the Sprinkling Through Spring download. I love this resource.
These are my actual weekly plans. You can find out more about these digital plans {{HERE}}. If you click the plan image below you can see it LARGER and if you click {{HERE}} you can download an interactive copy with product and freebie links!
I know a lot of you have spring break this week… so I wish for you that the week goes nice and slow.
However, I’m counting on a quick week for me!
Either way, have a fabulous week peeps!
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