Is it Friday yet?? I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck already. Does anyone else ever feel like you’re left to fend for yourself and you’re treading water and then you’re attacked and criticized for efforts to solve problems and reach your children?
Today I am going to share my tips for how my little monsters line up. I am a lining up/hallway walking control freak. It is one of my biggest pet peeves when my class isn’t in a straight, quiet line. And it really gets me riled up when other classes are loud and moving in a blob rather than a line.
One of the first things I do is put down numbers for my students to stand on when we line up. When I inherited my Kindergarten classroom a few years ago (Wow, 4 years of kindergarten already? What a great 4 years it has been!) I found these great carpet squares with numbers from 1-20. I decided these would be perfect for lining up. I hot glue them to the floor in a straight line. My students learn to line up on their number each time. This eliminates the bickering and pushing and fighting over who lines up where. My only issue with these numbers is the hot glue. I’ve had to re-glue a lot of these already this year. Last year, they hardly needed fixed. This year, it’s consonant. Any suggestions for how to keep them stuck to the floor?
We face forward with snowballs and bubbles when we line up. We keep a bubble in our mouth so we’re quiet. It’s funny to see the kids always walking around with giant bubbles in their mouth. We clasp our hands in front of us hence the snowballs. We used to do duck tails which meant our hands were behind us. But there was concern that this represented handcuffs and going to jail. Umm, REALLY??????? I won’t even discuss the insanity of that argument.
Another trick up my sleeve is my friend Mr. Who. Mr. Who is an owl puppet that I purchased a few years ago. He is a great help with our line. He can spin his head all the way around so he can watch the line as we walk. Mr. Who also reports on who is doing a good job and who needs some attention. The kids are very surprised when they see Mr. Who whispering in my ear! When I break out Mr. Who, I usually see a drastic improvement in my line!
It’s also not uncommon to see us walking up and down the hallway practicing. We practice until we get it right.
How do you line up? What are your tricks and tips for a perfect Kindergarten line?
On another note, I want to give a huge shout out to my blog friend, Mr. Michelbook. He is another male blogger who teaches first grade. He has a great blog with some great ideas. I love how he titles all of his posts with the line “The one with the….” Come on…go visit him. You have to support the men! We’re special you know!!!!
