Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Hall Pass Linky!

 I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use a hall pass!  Time to gather my thoughts, make funny faces in the mirror as I create a sink of bubbly water.  Maybe chat it up with the lady in the stall next to mine?

It’s that time of year!  Kids know the routine, they know the work expectations, and they know how to get a few minutes to themselves!

Teachers, where’s OUR hall pass?! 

Introducing…

Here’s a fun linky I hope you will join!  Let’s get some great ideas from each other and take a break from our classrooms for a few!  In this linky I want you to share the following things:

I will start.

PRODUCT-   My favorite product is usually whatever I just created because I get so wrapped up in things and I get all excited.  Picture Tommy Boy holding and petting his bread at the restaurant.  That’s me with my new product. If the lamination wasn’t so sharp I could see it tucked right into the sofa beside me watching Bachelor tonight.

 Here’s what we are doing in my room lately!  (When I can pry it out of my loving embrace)

Which leads me right into…
AREA -Favorite area of my classroom!

It has to be my smart board and rug area!!!  So much of our day is here gathered together.  It’s cozy and I love my gray rug which you can’t see here.  

 Here’s a closer look at what we were working on.  This is from that unit above.  There are 20 different CCS good morning messages in the beginning of the unit.   (Before these morning messages, things had gotten SO redundant!)  I used to write them on chart paper, or run them off,  but now I just open the pdf file and let my kids write on it! 

I asked my students what their favorite area of our class is and they picked the library so I thought I would show that too.

SIGNAL – I am so excited to see what other signals I can incorporate from you!  My tried and true is to sing, “Everybody listen” and my class sings back “RIGHT NOW!” It doesn’t matter what is happening, this one works!  I use it all the time.  It doesn’t sound like any other teacher’s signal so they know it is me trying to get their attention.  I will sing it louder and faster or quieter and slower if not everyone stops to listen but I have never had to sing it more than two times.

Another signal that I use during math tubs to signal that we are changing tubs is to say “SWITCHY SWITCH”  I sing that one too but only because I am weird.  They know to clean up their tub but not to put it away.

One more that I LOVE to use but don’t use quite as often is to say Clean Up.  (sounds super lame?)

But I say it like this:

CLeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeee  awkward pause for breath  eeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee

 pause  look around    EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeean UP!

Oh they LOVE that one like crazy!  But I have to have had a lot of coffee and chocolate to do that one and it happens about once every 2 weeks.  They stare and I feel silly so I just keep going and I let my voice go up and down and in and out the entire time.

and Finally…
SANITY-  Girl’s gotta have this or FORGETABOUTIT.  Without sanity, my signal will resort to, “If you can hear me punch your neighbor in the chin!” (just for the record I have not had to go there but it’s in my back pocket JIC)

So where were we?  Oh yes, sanity!!!  Here in Texas, our cafeteria workers ROCK!  They bring an ice chest of …ice.  and I giant carafe of iced tea to the workroom for us daily.  With lemon wedges y’all.  So I bring my various tumblers and fill er up!  That’s one moment that I YEARN for daily.  I also love my 18 minute lunch break and I always check up on my pals from blogland at that time.  Those are my two moments of the day that are pretty standard happy times for teacher.  I used to have chocolate hour with my teaching pals, but we had to ban the chocolate jar because one turned into 10 and things just got out of hand.  I will leave it at that.

Want a hall pass?  I would LOVE to catch up with you while we sneak out of our classrooms for awhile!  Link up!!!


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    5. I love this linky! Another awesome idea Reagan!! I can't wait to use your extended clean up chant tomorrow!!! The kids are going to flip! I am so in love with your classroom! Pretty please come visit me and decorate my classroom….or my house!! 🙂

      Reply

      • Ok Reagan……I used that CleeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEeeean up today!! It was NUTS! The kiddos all started screaming CLEEEEEEEEEANNN UP!!!!!! I am actually laughing about it now but at that time I stood there in shock for oh, I don't know, seemed like forever! Then I was like, no no no, this isn't how it's supposed to go! Reagan said you will clean up quietly! Just kidding, I didn't actually say that! 🙂 Regardless, they LOVED it and I will do it again! Thanks for the fun idea!

        Reply

    6. Oh my gosh!! Can I just say that this post made my day! I literally died laughing when I read the sanity part.. my husband is still trying to figure out what I thought was so funny.. working on my link up now!

      Reply

    7. I love the linky, my blog isn't working, right now so I am leaving a comment instead.
      Product: I don't sell anything but I am always creating things for my class,games, songs, activities.

      Area: my favorite area is my rug, for teaching, I sit on a little chair and we laugh and learn together.
      Signal: my favorite is peeeeeeeeeeeoooooooppppple, they stop and look. I also call them my fat friends which they love.
      Sanity: this may sound weird but I love to Tease and so I find a way every day to tease the people on my team, a funny card, a text with a joke, locking them in the bathroom, etc.
      I hope my participation this way is okay.

      Jill

      Reply

    8. This is a great idea! I always love seeing other teacher's rooms. Your library looks so cozy. Were are your chairs from? I'm looking to re-model my library area and those look like a good size.

      Reply

    9. Hi there. I found your blog via this linky and had to join your blog and the linky. I'm also buying Easter eggs tomorrow for my phonics center when we are back from February vacation. Thanks for your inspiration.

      Reply

    11. I don't know how to do a 'linky' so I decided to share this little idea, which I found in another teacher's classroom…..It goes like this:
      Teacher says "I, 2, 3 Eyes on me"
      Students answer "1, 2 Eyes on you"

      It's been my 'go to attention getter" for 3 years and it works all the time!
      sherry-matheson.blogspot.com
      sherrymatheson@gmail.com

      Reply

    19. I loved linking up! This was a great linky. 🙂 How do you change your morning messages to fit the whole year if you just have 20?

      Sarah
      teachingiscolorful.blogspot.com

      Reply

    21. I'm loving your linky idea 🙂 It's adorable! I will definitely be linking up this week 🙂 By the way, we have sweet tea and lemonade in our cafeteria, so I know exactly what you mean. Must be a southern thing 🙂

      Reply

    28. Thanks so much for this great idea. I added your Hall Pass to my blog! It contains links to a couple of great videos that I use and a writing book idea! Enjoy! Visit when you can! I am also your newest follower!

      Reply

    32. Super cute blog!!! I'm so glad I found you! Lovin' the chevron design! And WOW! What great ideas! Super cute Presidents' Day resources!! You might get a kick out of the little Presisdental Rap video on my blog! Hee! I'm your newest follower!

      Reply

    33. I appreciate your time and effort in creating this linky party! I did one at New Years which had over 700 entries! It is a lot of work to maintain, I know! I wrote a post MUCH longer than I had planned, but in a weird way it was cathartic for me. I also like to think about my favourite things, and why they are so special to me. Hope you are having a great weekend!

      Reply

    34. What a cute idea for a linky! There are so many times that I would love to stare at myself in the mirror while hiding my hands in a warm sink of bubbles….but then I would be yanked out of my "hall pass" by several frantic second grade girls. With panicked looks in their eyes, they will dance around and tell me that ALL the stall doors are locked in the bathroom and NO ONE is in them!!! Does this happen at other schools/grades as well? I can't figure out what the thrill is in doing this. Grrr….

      Reply

    37. Thank you for the Linky. As a new blogger it has been so much fun to actually have people visit me and just as much fun to read what other people are doing in their classrooms. Thank you!

      Reply

    40. Thanks for the great link-up Reagan! I have to say you have the most welcoming and cozy classroom library I have ever seen. Who wouldn't want to grab a great book and read there?! Can I also say how lucky you guys are to get iced tea daily? You sound like you have awesome cafeteria workers! Lucky!

      Love to Learn

      Reply

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