Behaviour Management Strategies for Senior Classes

My post this week is all about the various behaviour management strategies that I have found useful in my teaching of senior classes. Some I am using with my current 5th Class and others I have used with classes I have taught in the past. It is important to note that what works for one class may not work for the next, so don't be afraid to try out different strategies and see what works best for you!

Raffle Tickets:

www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=259048224

I use raffle tickets in my classroom as my main reward system. This is my favourite way to reward behaviour in senior classes. I have tried lots of other reward strategies (ticks for groups, smiley faces on a chart, golden time rewards and Class Dojo), however I find that tickets are handy as you can carry them around the classroom with you and they act as an immediate reward.
I give out tickets for: good work, working quietly, handwriting and presentation of work, answering questions, quizzes, kind deeds, helping teacher, etc. On a Friday, I choose my pupils of the week and they each get 3 tickets. I choose someone as Gaeilgeoir na Seachtaine, someone who was an enthusiastic learner, someone who showed respect and kindness and someone who showed good sportsmanship in P.E. I also give 3 tickets to the student who has won 'Work of the Week'. The children's tickets then go into the draw and winners get a homework pass.

Golden Time:
I used this with my 3rd and 4th Class last year and found it quite successful as a reward system for the whole class. I used this Golden Time Race Track to record their progress throughout the week. Golden time choices (board games, extra P.E., drawing, etc) were then given to the group who won group of the week from ticks on the board.

Cushions:

This year, in order to motivate my 5th Class to complete extra work once they have finished their classwork, children can receive 2 points for their group when they complete a worksheet, Maths card, write a poem or come up with a Maths problem. The group that has the most points at the end of the week, win cushions to sit on the following week. 

The Quiet Sign:

I've found this works as well with 3rd and 4th class as it does with infants. I use a door hanger sign when children are engaged in independent written work. The sign has a picture of a child working and says 'Sh, quiet time'. When the children are about to start writing, I go to the door, pick up the 

sign and slowly bring it to the handle while counting down from 5, getting quieter each time until 1 is only a whisper. When it is on the door, everyone including me must not speak above a whisper.

www.clipartbest.com

Chants:

When I am looking for attention I say: 'Hocus Pocus' and the children reply: 'Everybody focus!'. If they don't hear me the first time, I will repeat it and they will usually reply the second time. I emphasise how focusing involves looking and listening with their lámha trasna. 

Sign a contract:

In our school, we have a set of school rules that we discuss with children on the first day. We talk about which rules they feel are most important, whether any rules have been left out and whether they feel any rules are unfair/unnecessary. Occasionally when they have broken a rule, I ask them to take out their contract and find the one they have broken. They must explain why it is important to keep that rule and they are reminded of their signing of the contract on the first day.

The 3 Warning System:

Unfortunately, no matter how much positive behaviour is rewarded, there must be consequences for children who repeatedly misbehave in class. I give my children 3 warnings: 

1. Verbal warning
2. They must move seat
3. Extra work to be completed during break/at home. 

Once a child has gone through all of these warnings and they misbehave for a third time, parents are contacted.

Class Discipline Problems:

Sometimes some classes can be particularly challenging and need to be reminded constantly of the behaviours expected of them, especially in 5th and 6th. In the past I have used this checklist to monitor class behaviour during each lesson. Children can then be rewarded for getting a certain score at the end of the week. This score can increase each week as they reach their target.

Last But Not Least: Keep Them Busy!:

Make sure you have activities for children to undertake when they finish their work, as many discipline problems happen when children aren't focused on an activity. You can read about some of my early finisher activities in this post. Songs, poems and reciting tables are all good transitional activities to do while children are changing books to reduce noise in the classroom. Make sure you give them time before a lesson to take out books, line copies and write titles and dates so that when it comes to the written part of the lesson, they can start straight away.  

Throwback Thursday: The Sun, Moon and Stars

We have been learning all about the sun, moon and space over the past couple of weeks and the kids enjoyed this immensely! Here is our current classroom display: (Apologies for poor lighting, it is directly under a window!)

Geography/science: 

We discussed features of daytime and nighttime (sun, moon, stars, light and dark colours, people who work during the day and those that work at night, etc) and completed the above poster as they named the various features. We discussed how the sun is still around during the day even when it is cloudy. We discussed how we are never in total darkness because of the moon and stars. We also created night and day pictures. 

The following day, we learned about how the earth rotates and how this causes night and day. We pretended we were the earth as we all held hands in a circle. One child held the Irish flag (they were Ireland) and the other children were other countries in the world. One child held a flashlight (facing the child holding the Irish flag) and pretended to be the sun shining on the earth. They started by shining it on Ireland and I got everyone to rotate around, as the earth does, as day passes. I told the girl playing 'Ireland' that when she could see the sun, she would shout out daytime. When she could not see the sun anymore, she would call out nighttime (as it is now dark in Ireland, with no sun). We then did the same thing with a globe to check whole class understanding. We stuck a sticker on Ireland on the globe and we all shouted out daytime when the sun was shining on Ireland, and nighttime when it wasn't. 

History:
We discussed the first moon landing. We brainstormed things we knew already. We then looked at a PowerPoint which told us about the first people on the moon.

First walk on the moon! from SeniorInfants

We watched some Youtube videos of the moon landing and talked about how the moon was different to earth. They then wrote about one thing they had learned about the moon landing.

We also read a story the following week on Neil Armstrong's life. We discussed this and created timelines of his life (What Armstong was doing as a child, as a teenager and as an adult).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0618152393/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Art: 

We created blazing suns. We talked about colours in the sun, how it is too hot to land on (unlike the moon), and general sun safety (you can't look at it in the sky, you need to protect yourself from the sun, etc). We used crayons in yellow, orange and red to create the suns on A4 pages. We used a squirty container to squirt yellow paint around the center and then repeated this by mixing more yellow paint with PVA glue and glitter. 

Literacy:

We focused on the sounds: 'igh' and 'oo' and following various activities and a lot of practice in reading words containing these sounds, they were included in our morning messages each day e.g. we are talking about the moon today, we are learning about day and night, we are making a moon today, we are dancing to high and low music etc.

                         

Music: 

We sang the song See-Saw (The Right Note) and pretending we were on a see-saw, we went up and down  to accompany the high and low notes in the song. We then listened to pieces of music 'The Elephant' and 'Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy', talked about the music (whether it was high or low pitched), and responded to it through dance. I sang high and low notes to them and they showed whether it was high or low by bending down low or going up high on their tip toes. I asked individual children to do this also. 

Geography 2: 

We created a KWL chart of what we had learned about the moon so far and what else we wanted to know about it. 

We played an interactive game on http://www.earthsunmoon.co.uk/. We discussed through our playing of it, how craters are made, how mountains are made, how the moon moves around the earth and how the moon changes shape and what shapes it makes. We noted what we learned on the KWL chart and then created mini-moons from playdough.

English: 

We used what we learned about the moon to write a class non-fiction book about the moon. We looked at some non-fiction texts and talked about things that make a non-fiction text different to a storybook. They then drew a picture of the moon on a template and wrote some facts about the moon that they had learned over the past couple of weeks. We numbered the pages, created a contents page and added a coverpage to our book to complete it. It was then placed in the class library for reading.

So that's what I've been up to for the last two weeks, happy teaching!

Thematic Unit: Space

The topic of 'Space' offers great scope for integration across the Primary School Curriculum. Here are some tried and tested lessons based on the theme for senior classes (I taught them to 5th, however they can easily be adapted for younger classes too):

Geography: The Solar System:

Create a KWL on the solar system. Explore and quiz the children on this PowerPoint from Seomra Ranga, which gives useful, simple information on each planet. Divide the children into groups and give each a planet (or another topic like stars and constellations, etc) to research over the week and create a project on. 

Geography: Stars and Constellations: 

Discuss prior knowledge with the children and then go through the activities and discussion points in this PowerPoint:

PE/Music: Creative Dance:
Create an Outer Space themed creative dance sequence using the lesson outline provided on page 72 of the Teacher Guidelines. Revise different shapes, pathways and travelling movements with them before you begin teaching this dance. The dance itself is divided up into three different segments:

1. Countdown, explosion and take off: Encourage them to stay in the one place on the floor for the countdown and explosion, while using their bodies to show a build up of energy (shaking,
   
   flame movements, etc). Get them to take off and form groups of 5 with the first child forming a rocket front with his hands and discuss how the rocket moves through space slowly and gracefully. I like to use music from Star Wars for this section of the dance: John Williams – Anakin vs. Obi-Wan.
2. Landing on the planet Zor and exploring it: The children join together as a long rocket and then separate into two groups. One half of the children fall to the ground as if landing, lying flat. The rest of the 'rocket' makes its way off the 'stage'. As they begin to rise, get them to perform actions, struggling with the effects of gravity. The theme music from X-Files is a suitable piece of music for this section of the dance.
3. The Death Dance of the Whirly Gums: Read the poem with the children and discuss and create various movements to portray the poem in pairs, ending with the death dance. I like to use John Williams - The Asteroid Field to accompany this section.

Perform the dance with a clear start and end point and ensure all sections run smoothly from one to the next.

Art: The Solar System:

Use the song above to learn the order of planets in the solar system. Discuss the colours and textures of the 8 planets so they can recreate them as accurately as possible. Create a solar system picture using oil pastels for the planets and a black wash for the background.
They can also create 3D Papier-mâché planets like these:

Science: Light:

Explore this PowerPoint (as far as slide 17), discussing ideas and doing the experiments discussed along the way :

Sources of Light from blueroses0805

In the following lesson, you can go through this PowerPoint and set of experiments on refraction and colour mixing:

Light: Refraction and Colour Mixing from SeniorInfants

If you are looking for lesson ideas for teaching younger children all about space, check out my post for Senior Infant Adventures on The Sun, Moon and Stars! 

Throwback Thursday: The Theme of Winter in Senior Infants

Autumn is over, much to my dismay, and so too is the unusually mild weather! As we (reluctantly) welcome the beginning of winter, I feel it only appropriate to feature this post on winter themed lessons as my Throwback Thursday post this week. Enjoy!

Geography/Science:

We looked at an image and discussed how they knew it is winter in the picture. We then played a game of Cluiche Kim using the following PowerPoint:

Winter things seen in winter from SeniorInfants

In their workbooks, they crossed out the things that you would not see in winter and circled the things you would see. Early finishers had to draw more things you might see in winter. Over the course of the week, the children were asked to bring in new things for our winter nature table from home.

Science:

We discussed the ways that birds keep warm in winter and looked at pictures of birds using feathers for insulation (after feathers were mentioned as one particular way to keep warm).

We explored how birds also use migration to keep warm, through this PhotoStory about Wally the Swallow, which I questioned them on afterwards:

The children then drew two pictures side by side of the two ways that birds keep warm in winter.

Geography:
We helped teddy get dressed for the winter weather using items from the magic bag and explained why he would wear these things. We then discussed how teddy would keep warm if he lost his warm winter clothes (e.g. food, heating, exercise). The children mimed different things you could do to keep warm and the class guessed what they were miming. We drew all of the 4 things that would keep teddy warm in winter in separate boxes on our sheets.

History:

We read and discussed the book: ‘Snow Bears’. After this, we sequenced events from the story on the IWB, discussing the vocabulary of: beginning, middle, end, first, second, third, last. The children also drew their own storyboard for the story.

                                     Snow bears sequencing activity from SeniorInfants

We also discussed winter in the past. We talked about ways that people lit and heated their homes in winter in the past and also how they heated their food during the winter. We looked at laminated pictures and sorted the old pictures from the new pictures. We then completed this worksheet, labeling each as either old or new:

Art: 
We filled a white sock with a large ball of newspaper and then a small one. We twisted the top of the sock around a good few times and folded it down on top of the snowman’s head to make a hat for him. We added buttons, eyes, a nose and some children added cardboard (cereal box strength) arms to his sides.

  

Music

I showed the children two winter themed pictures of an inside and outside scene. We talked about sounds you might hear in each scene. I played Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons: Winter’ for them and asked them to choose which winter scene they hear in each section of the music i.e. the blizzard picture or the indoor picture by the fire. Following this, they pretended their fingers were falling snow and moved them in time with the music as they listened again. 

Winter vivaldi from SeniorInfants

We also sang the song ‘Winter Clothes’ as a transitional activity.

Writing Genres: Recipes in Senior Classes

I hope everyone had a relaxing break. It's hard to believe we are on the run up to Christmas already!

Before the midterm, I was writing recipes with my class. Despite having taught recipe writing to them last year (in 4th Class), I found myself having to do a lot of resource hunting online to find some new (and

www.bakingmad.com/

more challenging) examples to use with them this year. Unfortunately, I found myself getting slightly frustrated at the lack of free ideas and samples to show children when it came to this genre. I eventually built up a bank of good resources myself (putting in a huge amount of time and effort) and my lessons went very well. Then I thought, why not save other teachers some time and share these ideas and resources all together, in one place? Therefore, this week, I have written a post containing all the ideas, samples and templates you could ever require to teach recipe writing to your class. I hope you find them useful!

Step 1:
Begin by asking the children to tell you what a recipe is, who uses them and what makes the format of a recipe different to the format of a story. Brainstorm a few things on the board.

Step 2: (Optional)
Make a simple recipe with them in class. This gives them a purpose for their reading and written work. Get them to work in groups or make the recipe as a class (depending on resources/class size). Discuss any difficult words before they begin. Pick a simple recipe which will be easy for them to write about later. Here are some recipes you can try:

1. This year I used my own recipe to make Rocky Road.

2. There are some great recipes which require only a microwave on Number 2 Pencil's website. Brownie in a Cup was the one I used with my class last year.

3. If you don't have a microwave in your school, you could always make something like Eton Mess

The Food Network

www.joe.org

or fruit salad.

4. If you are looking for something more complicated or have an oven/more advanced cooking equipment, some of Nigella Lawson's recipes are quite straightforward.

Step 3:

It is now time for them to learn more about the genre of recipe writing by examining a collection of different recipes (or simply using the recipe they followed the previous day) to come up with a list of features they must include in their writing. Some of the websites I have linked to above have some very good recipe samples you could use. It is very important that you choose recipe samples with a similar style to what you want them to create i.e. if you want them to use numbers, don't show them recipes using paragraphs, etc.

You have two activity options once you have chosen your sample recipes: 

1. You can pair them up and have them highlight various characteristics of a recipe on their own individual copies of the recipes.
2. You can have the sample recipe on the board and go through it with the class, highlighting key features as you discuss them.

Step 4: 

Create with the children, a class checklist of all of the features they have identified and write the list in their copies. Get them to put a box at the end of each point, to tick once they have finished their first draft.

Our checklist included:

• Headings: Ingredients and method
• Measurements of ingredients
• Numbers/steps
• Short sentences
• Imperatives (You can also call these 'ordering words' if you have a younger class and discuss examples of these)
• Baking/cooking vocabulary (Make a list of these on another board using their ideas and some extra words of your own)

Step 5:
The children can now begin writing their recipes.
Twinkl.co.uk have a useful template for recipe writing which you can download here.

You have three choices when it comes to topics:

1. The children can write a new version of the recipe they created the previous day in class. 
2. The children can create their own original recipe.
3. They can create an imaginary 'Witch's Potion' (this website has a nice template they can use).

At this point, they have their checklist to work from in their copies, a sample recipe to guide them either on the IWB or as a handout, and a list of baking terminology available for them to use. 

Step 6:

Once the first draft is complete, the children can start self assessing and editing their work:

• First, get the children to read over their recipe and check off items on their checklist.
• Then, have them spend 5 minutes checking over their work and correcting capital letters. 
• Next, have them check for punctuation and spend a couple of minutes correcting this in their work. 
• Finally get them to check that they used some variety in their imperatives and change words that occur more than once.

Step 7: 

The children can now write a second draft including these changes.

Step 8:

Correct the children's second draft. When it is corrected, they can write their final draft using their best handwriting.

Keep in mind that this post covers a couple of writing lessons and the steps weren't all completed in one day. Let me know if you find these tips helpful and if you would like to see more posts on different writing topics in the future!