Loopin' Littles: Classroom Management

4:29 PM

Do you GoNoodle?? -- I do!! And it has truly changed my classroom environment this school year.

Many of you haven’t heard what this buzz is about GoNoodle- but I promise you, you won’t regret checking it out! It’s a FREE website for brain breaks- If you do any brain breaks at all for your students, you should totally try GoNoodle!

My favorite things about it:

1. It’s FREE!!! – just sign up as a teacher and set up a class. Our class is the “RockinRedSockMonkeys” Pick a classroom “champ” and get to brain-breaking!

Because of the extreme GoNoodle-Love happening in my class, I went ahead and tried the FREE 15 day trial of GoNoodle PLUS. I’m LOVING it and will now pay 10$ a month to continue having the PLUS. The 10 bucks is totally worth all of the amazingness!!

2. GoNoodle is not just all fun and games (although that's a huge part of it!) We have math fact review, calming yoga time before our spelling tests, and energizing wiggle jams to start our mornings. There are ENDLESS choices--and they are all conveniently organized for you into categories!!

Helpful tip for teachers that are afraid of getting too crazy: Use the dancing brain breaks for a classroom behavior incentive!

3. The classroom champs- For each 10 brain breaks you do, your class champ (or character) will “grow stronger”...eventually you will max out your champ- and pick a new one!

This is really the hook for your students.

4. It’s not just for K-2 students- There are plenty of 3-5 brain breaks that your students will LOVE. Movement to help learning matters in all grades!!

GoNoodle PLUS is where it's at y'all- Body Spelling, Word Jam, and Mega Math Marathon.

The kids are spelling each letter of one of our spelling words for the week- STAY

5. It’s not just for classroom teachers!! It’s perfect for P.E, Music, Art, and Counseling!!

Think about the many times a counselor has to calm a student down, or change their sweet little attitudes

... there's a brain break for that.

What about a mile run in P.E?

...there's a brain break for that.

A wiggle song to get your wiggles out before you start working on your artwork?

...there's a brain break for that too!!

When you have time, I strongly encourage you read these quick blog posts I found straight from the GoNoodle Blog! I truly believe it will change the environment in your classroom!!

GoNoodle in the upper grades:

http://blog.gonoodle.com/2014/09/3-ways-to-gonoodle-with-older-students/

Why Movement Matters:

http://blog.gonoodle.com/2014/09/why-movement-matters/

Find the PERFECT Brain Breaks for your class!

http://blog.gonoodle.com/2014/08/find-the-perfect-brain-breaks-for-your-class/

Cure the Afternoon sluggish mood:

http://blog.gonoodle.com/2014/09/5-brain-breaks-perfect-for-the-afternoon-slump/

Take GoNoodle Throughout the Building

http://blog.gonoodle.com/2014/09/gonoodle-throughout-your-building/

I didn't even tell you the best part.

My kids are shocked that not every teacher in my school does GoNoodle in their classroom. They challenged themselves to work as hard as they can to convince other teachers in the building to get on board.

Y'all. It's insane and it's making my heart JUMP to see them so determined.

Last week we brainstormed ways we could persuade.

Today, they made invitations to give our to other teachers so they can come check out our GoNoodle powered classroom and see what all the hype is about...

Our goal is to have 16 teachers to GoNoodle-ize their classroom!

Stay tuned to see how successful the kids are with their challenge!

Ask Me!!

7:24 PM

It's Sunday night and this teacher has about 7 more loads of laundry to do, so I have to keep this short and sweet...

I'm sure you've seen these floating around on Pinterest, and if y'all haven't grabbed these GENIUS "Ask Me" printables from Frogs and Cupcakes to create for your little ones- you're missing out.

I'm telling you- it's GENIUS!

How many times AFTER you explain directions do you have students coming up to you asking EXACTLY the question you just gave the answer to?

Ya, that's what I thought.

It's ridiculous.

I used her free printable to create badges for my kids instead of necklaces (only because I had the badge holders lying around.)

In our class, we have 5 Ask Me badges.

The students work hard to "earn" the badge while I am giving directions. When I'm done giving my spiel, I will choose up to 5 Ask Me friends to wear the badge to assist friends who still have questions while I'm working with a group.