I saw this wonderful idea in Pinterest. It caught my attention as a nice straightforward, stand alone solution to behavior management.

This is how I envisage myself implementing this in class

• I create a tub of cool down cubes as seen in the picture.
• When I see a child with known behavioral issues becoming stressed or agitated, I place this on their desk.
• The student then takes a cube and carries out the recommended action.
• Hopefully over time the student becomes familiar with all the suggestions on the cubes, and is able to calm themselves down without it.

I think I will pass some of these on to the parents of my students. I'm sure some think we just sing Frozen songs in class all day.

The list is great but a few stands out for me are:

• What was the best thing that happened at school today?
• Tell me something that made you laugh today.
• How did you help somebody today?
• If you got to be the teacher tomorrow what would you do?
• Tell me a weird word that you heard today.
• Tell me one thing that you…

Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud (Author), David Messing (Illustrator)

If you watch one video in my blog please make it this. A truly delightful book. I read it on day one with my K3 students and refer back to it when ever there is any behavioural issues that arise in my class.

I picked mine up in Amazon. Also available in Japanese.

For the last month I have been teaching K2-Grade 1 students in Daily 5. Although I have observed many Daily 5 classes over the years I was at a loss as to how best to introduce it and encourage adoption by my students.

The Daily 5 - Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades (first edition) by Gail Bushy and Joan Moser is an awesome easy to access book that really supported me. You can read it from start to finish, or just drop into a particular skill you wish the students to acquire. I will be revisiting the book as a whole over the break, and I still refer to each section when planning. It is a highly recommended read.

Here is the book contents. There about 100 pages in all, and very accessible.

Part 1: Daily Five Basics

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: From management to …

Introducing Numbers 1-10. To play requires simply a football.
1. Stand in a circle holding hands
2. Kick the softball to, not at, each other
3. Restart the count if the ball goes outside the circle
4. Encourage the students to count aloud with you
5. This activity can work equally well with…

Thousands of innovative, standards-aligned digital resources, compelling student experiences, and professional development opportunities.

A mighty useful free resource that had up until now escaped my attention. If you are a teacher of any grade looking for an easy to use professional resource site then just head over to the PBS Learning Media website and have a wander through it yourself.

Highlights for me include:

• Content by calendar - content by major holidays, observances, important dates, and themes
• Assign lesson and…