Wait Cards for Easy Transitions

Oh summer, why don't you last forever?

Just when I was getting used to my carefree schedule, I'm back to work. 

This is my 13th year teaching and EVERY year I feel nervous, anxious, and slightly depressed about back to school. We had Orientation tonight and about half of my class came to meet their new teacher. I wish it had been more, but half is better than a third. As always, I had many of my former students come by, too {which I LOVE!}

Along with my new role of being the reading teacher for K's and 1's, my partner and I are also the inclusion teachers. This is very new to me, too. I've had learning disabled students before but never the title. No training either, so I will be learning the tricks of the trade along the way {which seems to be the case with everything in education right now - sink or swim.}

Our wonderful OT therapist gave me this great idea for my littles who don't finish their work in a timely manner and need to transition. It's called the "WAIT" card. You tell them that it is time for (whatever) and they need to leave their work for later. You lay the "WAIT" card on top of their work, and it is a visual reminder to help them move on.

Apparently, this is a management tip the Self-Contained classrooms use all the time successfully with their students. I am all about management tips, so I whipped up some "Wait" cards for my team teacher and myself.

Click on the picture to download the file!

I could have used these with my perfectionists!

Well, I have to make this post brief because we are curriculum mapping tomorrow, and I need to study up! Due to our switch to the Common Core standards, we are moving away from the reading series and bringing on that informational text. But what? and when? Those are the questions!

Happy Thursday!