Back-to-School

Setting up your classroom? I like to assure a cooperative setting right off the bat. Don’t have tables? Push desks together to get that cozy family feeling – groups of 4 to 6 will work great. Invest in a few plastic baskets so tables share all pencils, crayons, scissors, etc. No fights over ownership in your cooperative classroom! Tape down your nametags and number each one. For a group of 6, each child gets a number, 1 to 6. This makes it handy when you want to think-pair-share. Just say, “Numbers 2 and 4 share quietly, numbers, 1 and 5, and numbers 3 and 6.” It’s handy for quick directions, too. Need papers handed out? A quick, “I’d like the number 4 people at each table to pass out these papers.” So simple – yet so effective!