Back To School With Guess Who?

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An apple a day is what I always say . . . Please welcome Michelle  from Apples and ABCs as she gives you some tips for organizing your classroom helpers. 

Hello everyone!  It’s Michelle from Apples and ABC’s!  I am so excited be blogging for Marsha today, so thanks for having me :).  

On staying with the theme “Back to School” (is it coming WAY too fast for anyone else?!?) I want to share with you how I do my “daily helpers” in class.  I get so jealous of the teachers that have 15 different class jobs, with clever titles, and that change daily.  I am SO not that teacher.  There are so many aspects to teaching and especially to keeping a classroom run smoothly.  For some reason, I have not been able to implement a detailed classroom helper system.  It seems like I have tried every year, and I end up forgetting whose job it is (and so do the kids)…  I wish I could have a structured system, and have the kids so well trained that the classroom helper jobs are running without me even needing to intervene.  But that is not my reality.  :/  The good news is, I have found a system that works well for me!  Maybe some of you haven’t found the perfect classroom helper system yet either, so it could work for you too!

Here it is:  I have one helper a day.  Yep, just one…and that student gets to do EVERYTHING!  They are the line leader, light monitor, runner, paper passer, you name it, they do it.  Let me share some of the benefits.  Instead of only getting to turn the lights off 6 times a day, they get to be in charge of everything!  This makes them feel so special when it is their special day, and it’s all about them!  There are always little things or opportunities to get the other kids involved in the day, but there is one person that is the main helper.  This keeps it simple and easy for me and all of the kids to remember whose day it is!

Let me show you how we keep track of who the helper is…

I have a long, skinny pocket chart by the door and each student has an apple with his/her name on it.  We call this “apple order.”  Having this list of names is helpful to know whose day it is, we just go down the list and each person gets a turn.  This is also helpful when I need to make sure everyone gets a turn at something, or if students are being pulled out to be tested, or all need a turn to glitter something (a kinder life for me….), then I just go down the list of names and make sure each child gets a turn.

There is a clip that slides down the pocket chart and if it’s your day the clip slides to your name.  If someone is absent, I might switch the apple with the one below it and it will be that next child’s turn.  
I bought this pack of apples at Lakeshore, and wrote each child’s name on it.  Then the apples go in the chart, and there we have it:  a classroom helper list!

I hope this way of doing class job’s isn’t too simple for you!  It surely keeps me organized!  One day I will have 27 class jobs, but until then, it will just be “an apple a day….”
Come visit me soon!  -Michelle Griffo

Check back tomorrow for more back to school ideas and activities from my next guest for Back To School with Guess Who?

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Marsha Moffit McGuire

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