What Do You Do With Those Spare Minutes??

As the end of our first trimester grows closer and closer, the pressure to get my owls to a level of proficient is definitely setting in.  The best way I can handle my stress levels and not overwhelming my owls is by literally using every minute of the day.  Now I'm sure this is nothing new to most of you but I thought I would share just what this looks like in our world.

We take two whole class bathroom breaks each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Our school is an older building so its layout is not one of a functional manner.  The boys bathroom is on the same side as our classroom and the girls bathroom is on the complete other side of the school.  Envision the letter u and that is the shape of our building!!!  Due to this layout, our bathroom breaks take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  In the world of learning, those are valuable minutes that are simply being used to walk from one bathroom to another.  YIKES!  To make this time more academic and productive, I grab a set of flashcards and away we go. 

This week's focus has simply been letter recognition, so I grab our letter flashcards as we leave the room.  As the owls use the bathroom, the ones waiting in line are whispering the letters that I hold up.  We usually can make it through the entire alphabet three times.  My owls get a kick out of this little extra learning time and I can't help but smile while they whisper those letters to me.

If you are looking for a simple set of alphabet cards to work on letters during tomorrow's bathroom break, click on the picture and grab yourself a freebie set!

~Erin