Making Smart Choices ~ Helping Students Deal with Frustration and Anger

I had mentioned on my Facebook page {follow me here} that last week was a ROUGH week for one of my behavior students.  There was hair pulling, climbing under desks, crying, hitting, scratching, and it wasn't even me doing it.  :/

My student's daily sticker chart that I send home looked like pretty rough this past Tuesday.  It was NOT a good day in my classroom.  The physically aggressive behaviors have been increasing a lot lately.  You can read about how I track behavior and provide positive reinforcement {here}.

We might only have 15 days of school left, but I knew I had to do something.  Often there are a lot of external factors that influence our students' behaviors that we can't control such as medications, problems at home, lack of sleep, etc.  But it's always best to be proactive.

Students that have behavior problems will often need to be explicitly taught how to handle their feelings of frustration and anger and what they can do instead of lashing out.

I created this Making Smart Choices unit for my student, so he can work on identifying his feelings before they get out of control.  This unit is meant to be a teaching tool to use before disruptive behaviors are happening.  You can click on the pictures to check them out in my TpT store.

We all know Teacher Appreciation Day is coming soon.  As a way to show our appreciation, there will be a big sale over at TpT on May 7th and 8th.

You'll be able to get up to 28% off everything in my store {here} if you use code TAD13.  This is a perfect time to clear our your wishlists and to stock up on things you'll need for the beginning of next school year.

Thanks to my friend at Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs for the awesome sale sign!

Five for Friday - May 3rd (or 4th)

Yay for Friday!!!  I'm currently at home and lounging on the couch.  It's glorious!  My husband wants to go watch Iron Man 3 tonight, but I really just want to sit right here.  So happy that it's Friday, and I can link up for Five for Friday.

1.  This is our crazy dog, Harley.  Lately, she's gotten a little moody.  Very upset with us to the point where she won't even look at us when we pet her and she's sulking all the time.  At the new house, the kids are outside playing ALL from the second they get home.  I think she feels left out.  Who knew dogs could be so moody???

2.  Let's just say that Tuesday SUCKED big time.  Wow, it was a rough, rough day.  This was a super long week.

3.  After Tuesday, I really had to reflect on what I could do differently so that these types of behavior could be prevented BEFORE they get to this point.  Although, I'm not really sure if anything would have helped on Tuesday.  I'm working on some new stuff to help deal with anger and frustration.  I used the thermometer chart today with my student, and he really was able to identify where he was on the thermometer.  I'll be back to let you know when it's all complete.

4.  Despite all the behavior problems, I've been "trying" to get some curriculum and assessing done this week.  We've worked on composing and decomposing numbers with this awesome pack by Kindergarten Smorgasboard that you can check out by clicking {here).

5.  We also started working on place value Friday afternoon.  I had over half of my students absent Monday - Thursday.  I was hoping to start working on this earlier in the week but had to keep pushing it back.  So Friday afternoon, I got to introduce place value during an observation at 1pm.  Seriously, observations on a Friday afternoon at 1pm?  That's just not fair.  To help us practice building numbers with tens and ones, I used this awesome Constructing Numbers unit by A Differentiated Kindergarten.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

May Currently

Yay!!!  It's May!!  That means I'm soooo close to summer break.  And it means that it's time to link up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly currently.

May also happens to be my favorite month, because it's the month of my birthday!  Woohooo!

I'm loving this Survivor season!  Does anyone else watch this season?

Now that we've moved into base housing, my kids can play for HOURS every day after school.  There's a TON of other kids their age here and a park at the end of our cul de sac.  It's seriously soooo nice.  This is what life is supposed to be about.  I do need to figure out a way to eat dinner before 7pm though!  I see a lot of sandwich nights in our future until  summer break starts.

Is anyone else EXHAUSTED?  I am seriously wore out.  Every day it's a huge effort to get out of bed and drag myself to work.  I am just wore out.

I cannot wait for summer.  My oldest daughter is graduating high school.  How in the world is that even impossible?  I'm so excited to spend my days at the beach, reading good books, and taking naps.  The best part is that my best friend is coming to visit us for 2 whole weeks in July!  So excited to show her Hawaii!

Only 17 more days left of this school year.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed they pass quickly with way less tantruming, hair pulling, scratching, and hiding under tables than I've had the last 2 days from one of my students.