Thursday Throwdown: Sending Students Off With a Few Reminders

Today is our second day of school!  I'm already TIRED!  But I couldn't pass up the chance to participate in Erin's Thursday Throwdown over at I'm Lovin Lit.

I love this link up.  I always get so many great ideas of ways to interact with my students.  I'm sharing a simple, easy one today, plus I get to show off my cool new clipboard that I made!

My classroom sits next to an exit door to the buses.  Fortunately, my fabulous teammate has her classroom on the other side of the exit door. Starting with our first day of school, we teach our students to exit through the doors between our classrooms.  The last period of the day many of our students are not with us.  It is the scheduled period for band or chorus, and a lot of our smarties participate in these activities.  We want our students to pass us on the way out the door so we can give them gentle reminders about having all of their materials.  My teammate and I park ourselves on stools in the middle of the hallway with our clipboards.  Our clipboards have messages on them.  They usually remind students about an upcoming test, or ask them if they have remembered their Communication Journal, etc.

Sometimes we ask the kids a question and have them answer it on the way out the door.  Sometimes we give them Jolly Ranchers or Hershey kisses as rewards for having what we are looking for, or answering questions correctly.  If they don't have what they need from their backpack we have the opportunity to send them back to the locker before they get on the bus.
Hopefully we are reinforcing key organizational skills and the importance of being prepared!  Although this isn't interacting WITHIN my classroom, it is a great way to touch base with our students and build rapport with them.
Stop by and visit Erin at I'm Lovin Lit and link up an idea or two of how you make your day more Interactive!

6 comments

  1. Loveeeee the clipboard!!!! Great idea! A quick and easy way to give those needed end of day reminders.

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  2. Great idea and thanks for sharing! Our four sixth grade teachers all are in our end of the hall hollering out " be sure to take your math book" ...." Bring your permission slips back tomorrow" etc. We sound like auctioneers at a farm show..and not in a good way! I am going to whip up some GoodBye Boards tonight to use tomorrow. Now if we can just get the kids to not race out of the hall like they are fugitives ...that will be another post!

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  3. I am always so impressed with the organizational ideas you teachers come up with when you have travelling students - love this one! Plus sometimes it involves candy - totally interactive.

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  4. I really like the idea of using a clipboard for things like that!

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  5. Hmmmmm, methinks I need an LSU clipboard, hehe. Off to find purple & gold duct tape ;)

    Darnee
    Tales From Two 2nd Grade Classrooms

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  6. I"m with Darnee! Haven't seen any LSU, but I obsessively bought several rolls of Saints duct tape and have several plain clipboards still in a Wal-Mart bag....

    ;) Erin
    I'm Lovin Lit

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