A Quiet, Straight Line IS Possible

I remember the first day of the first year I taught kindergarten. Mind you, I had just gotten done teaching 5th and 7th grades for 3 years and the only experience I had with groups of children who were 5 years old was, um, basically none. I had a love for children, I had a way with teaching and I thank the good lord above that the principal where I'd been teaching recognized that to give me a chance with the little ones. Anyway, we were leaving a very loud lunchroom and I was going to have a quiet line, one way or the other...I could do this. I wished I had a video of this moment because it would really come in handy during one of my classroom management presentations as a perfectly, comical way to NOT line up children (as I begged the children to stop talking, keep their hands off themselves and told them -can't believe I am going to tell you this- "We will not be leaving the cafeteria until you are all in a quiet line.") The advice that a kind, much more experienced onlooker watching me gave me was this: Just go, they will follow. Guess what? It worked...So, maybe they weren't quiet like I had wanted, but we all got back to the classroom in a timely fashion and the rest of the classes who were waiting for us to leave, got to go, too.
Although it wasn't perfect, as the years of experience have piled on, I have come up with an almost flawless way to march my 20+ kindergarten students through the halls in an organized, quiet fashion by the end of the first week of school. You don't believe it? Well, then listen here my friend and I will show you EXACTLY what I do.
It all starts with this cute, little monkey face that I make them practice like mad monkeys throughout the first day of school. (Don't worry, I phase them out of it by the end of the year 1st grade teachers!). They know my favorite animal is a monkey, so they all try to be the cutest (and quietest!) monkey they can be and it works like a charm. Their mouth is blown out (no talking!) and their hands are tied up by pulling out their ears (no hands on the walls or others!).

Next up? Stop signs! If you are like me, you are the only teacher with a long-winding monkey line. It is impossible to keep track of the front, middle and back of the line at once all by yourself, but, one way to make it easier is to create stopping points. Rather than saying (EVERY time you walk down the hall), "Stop at the corner." or "Stop next to the office," give your students visual cues to stop at the same places every time. They are called our Kindergarten Stop Points. This way, you never lose control of your long line.

I thought I'd share my signs with you so you can have Kindergarten Stopping Points, too! Who am I kidding? I had to create some new, cute-sified stop signs to use this year (haven't you heard the rumor resonating the net this summer? It states that the cuter your room and decor is, the easier your teaching job will be this year! Ha ha!). Hope this helps YOUR year be a little easier!

I made a few different styles of stop signs for you to hang in your hallways. The arrows are to tell them whether it is a stop for coming or a stop for going. Just laminate and hang them up at a few key stopping points between your classroom and your destination and PRAISE the line leader who remembers to stop. Swing on into Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business to grab your stop sign freebies.

Our World is a Classroom

I'm sure you have heard of the Summer Slide.  If you haven't, it is simply how much a child slides backwards in his/her academics over the course of a summer when s/he is not in school.  There are many ways that families can prevent this phenomenon with their own children and it is NOT by skill and drill flashcards or sitting your child down for formal lessons every day. 
I use our world (along with every day fun) during the summer to continue my own childrens' learning throughout the summer.
My boys (ages 5 and 7) and I went for a walk in the City Forest on the bog walk and here are just a few examples of the learning situations that arose naturally during our expedition.

Signs are everywhere and children are naturally drawn to them.

 

Children love signs and, luckily, in our world they can be found everywhere you go.  This set of signs pulled my two little ones right in, so I jumped on it!  My little one found all of the "nos" and used the pictures to guess what the rest of the sign said and my big boy (who can read all of these signs) got to tell him how close is guess was. 

Science was everywhere during this trip.  Take advantage of your surroundings to teach your children about their world using (as in this example) informational text.  My boys love nature and were very interested in finding out more about the animals and plants there in the forest, many that they'd seen before, as well as many they hadn't.  You could always pull up web sites of some of the creatures or plant life your children find in their surroundings on the internet to introduce your child to informational text.

The boys made a game up that they couldn't step on any of the "new" boards.  This led us into a discussion about why the new boards were there and how they decided which boards that would be replaced.  Yes, simple concepts for us, but not so much for young, inquiring minds.  I am always planting seeds and trying to get them to wonder and think creatively and sensibly.

On the 88th pallet, my big boy noticed these little number plates labeling each one.  He, of course, started identifying the numbers sporadically while my little one identified numbers he knew as well (8-8 vs. 88).  They noticed that numbers increasingly got larger and so I asked them guess how many pallets there are on the entire boardwalk and they came up with 500 and 600.  I thought these pretty great estimations since the number ended up being:

Obviously, some summer fun will lend itself much better to learning than others, but no matter what you are doing there is something to be learned everywhere you go and in everything you do.  Help a child stay off the summer slide by inviting them into our worldly classroom!