Brain Bags!

So, this is my first year ever working with the little ones. At the beginning of the year, I tried several different ways to do "center time." I felt that nothing would work for me, and I didn't have the classroom management skills yet to handle it either (I had never seen a first grade room function). I didn't like having to stop my small group to tell the kids to switch, or keep up with who was in what center (I got lots of arguing and whining from the kids, argh!) However, I came up with a solution! Brain Bags! Basically Brain Bags are made up of activities that the students can do BY THEMSELVES! Hooray!

I use a tic-tac-toe organizer to fill out and let the kids know what they are allowed to do.

This way I can DIFFERENTIATE for each child, depending on where they are at in each subject. They mark off the number when they are finished with the activity. I explain new activities during our morning meeting, so that when they finish their work, they can walk over quietly to the brain bags, choose one, and work quietly without asking me, "What do I do now?" They have plenty to do! I found these books at Dollar tree, which are for my low, low kiddos and they love it!

And this is a cute felt barn I found in the dollar section at Target! I haven't decided if I should make it, "The Word Farm" where the kids will create words based on the patterns we're learning in LA. Or, if I should leave it for Bossy-R Practice. I'll figure it out by tomorrow!