Welcome to our series on social emotional learning in the elementary classroom!  We are going to be chatting about some effective strategies and procedures you can easily and quickly apply to your classroom for improvement in student self-awareness, self-control, and social skills.  During the month of January, we will cover four different SEL topics.  January has always been my favorite month to teach, because I was always able to do a reset with the students I already had a relationship with.  We could then really hone in and improve SEL skills to in turn take a deep dive into instruction.  The less you are having to stop and redirect student behavior, the more time you have to teach.  We know that is more important now than ever.  This month, we will cover four topics that I felt were most needed right now that could cover the most behaviors: listening, making good choices, kindness, and resilience.  Let's talk LISTENING and FOLLOWING INSTRUCTI......

It's that time of year when everything gets so busy!  I love the Christmas season, but it's a lot!  It's especially fun and super busy in the classroom.  We always have a winter party on the last day of school.  In the last two districts I have taught in, the last day was a 2 hour day in which we could have our party.  I used to do the whole traditional classroom Christmas party , but for the last few years I started doing station rotations.  It made such a difference!  Everything was organized, not chaotic, and the students had so much fun.  I like to do a theme for the whole day.  I have done a reindeer theme and an elf theme, so this year I finally decided to put them in a resource to post in my TPT store.  I usually do 4-5 stations, but I added more to the pack in case you needed them to stretch out all day.  In this post, I will share some tips and all of the stations to you can do for an elf-themed holiday party. You don't hav......

I love using picture books to teach a social emotional learning topic.  I Am Thankful by Sheri Wall is the perfect text for teaching students about thankfulness and gratitude.  The rhyming story gives lots of examples of things to be thankful for in students' real lives.  When creating a book companion, it's important for me to make every activity standards-based.  In this resource , students will practice identifying rhyming word pairs, making text-to-self connections, and describing the characters, setting, and major events of a story.  You know I had to also throw in some cute crafts that are perfect for decorating your classroom during the month of November!  The activities in this resource are designed to cover five days of your read aloud time.  I would read the whole text on day one and then choose certain parts of the text to read on days 2-4.  On the last day, I would read the whole text again. I included comprehension posters for each sk......

Happy November, teacher friends!  I love this season so much in the classroom!  You can really feel that the breaks are so close and Christmas is in the air!  Sometimes, along with that comes the need for more redirection because students can sense it, too.  That's when I pull out a classroom behavior management game to get us back on track.  The goal of these games is to take students from being extrinsically motivated to intrinsically motivated.  I want them to make the right choice because it's the right thing to do and not just for a prize.  How you, as the teacher, approach that makes all the difference and sets the tone.  They need a good amount of positive feedback when playing these games for them to be successful, such as, "I noticed how quickly and quietly you transitioned from the carpet to your seat."  You can then ask a student to add a game piece to the board.  If you have strong routines and a classroom management system i......