Classroom Hand Signals

We've all been there: You ask students a question, and one student raises his or her hand and says "Can I go to the bathroom?"

My first year teaching, my school had a well-oiled system for preventing this: Hand signals. Students were taught from the first day of school the proper ways to ask to use the restroom and get water. Now, instead of interrupting the teacher during a whole group or small group lesson to go to the restroom or get water, the student simply needed to use a silent hand signal. Imagine a world where a raised hand actually meant that a student had a question or an answer! ;) Even the three and four year olds would not interrupt a school-wide performance to scream "I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!" They simply put up the hand signal and looked at their teacher, who would nod yes or no.

I love using these hand signals. Two years ago, I made some signs for these hand signals to help my students at my new school learn them too. I keep them taped low along the left side of my BrainBoard (SmartBoard) so that they are in plain sight for my second graders. Even students who are new to the class (sidenote: Why do I get new students once a month?!) were quickly able to learn how to use the clearly labeled hand signals.

And then I was moved to ESL.

While most of the students were still able to read the signs and use the signals, I had a student (let's call him Kevin) who changed everything I knew about classroom signs. Kevin moved to Texas from Brazil, and spoke not a single word of English. He also happened to be nearly deaf in BOTH ears, AND his hearing aids were broken. His vision was also partially impaired. Oh. And in Brazil (bless his naughty little heart) he was in a SpEd-only school. But since he had no paperwork in the US, I had to do my best to serve him until he could get what he needed.

Teaching him English was harder than usual, since he could not hear the words were were saying. While he was only in my class for three or four months before he moved again, he only learned a few words of English, and NONE of my hand signals. He seemed to think the symbol that was supposed to be for the restroom was what you used to tattle on someone. Oy. This showed me that I CLEARLY needed a better display of classroom signage for hand signals.

Cue the signs with pictures. This summer I spent some time adding pictures next to each of my hand signals to help my students who can't yet read, and those who do not speak English. I know this will help aid in comprehension for years to come. Will I make my ESL students eventually learn how to ask for the restroom in English? Of course. But for a little while, they will have the security of knowing that they can easily ask for their basic needs.

Here are some examples of the hand signals that I use in my room!

Restroom: Sign language R. Although, let's be real, I tell the students you make your fingers look like legs that look like they're doing a "potty dance." This is a much better visual for them to remember ;)

Tissue: Two fingers. Not sure why it's two fingers, but that's what my old school used, and it just sort of stuck with me!

Water: Sign language "W". No explanation needed. Unless you're 7, and then you need to have it explained to you.

I Need Something: A fist in the air. I created this one so that students can ask for permission to get out of their seat from across the room. This is by far the hardest one for them to remember to use, since they just want to get out of their seat!

Comment/Story: One finger. This is for them to use when they have a very important and totally related to the lesson story to share. This helps me know who to call on when I want an actual answer to something I asked, not a random story.

Question/Answer: Hand raised. The usual. I do have to explain this to them usually, because they don't realize that when they raise their hand, they are usually always putting up five fingers! We also call this a "silent five" because the five fingers shouldn't be accompanied by a mouth talking ;)

Here are my NEW posters with pictures!

If only little Kevin had these when he was in my class, his life would have been much easier. If you'd like to purchase these super cute signs, I have both versions together in a single pack on TPT! I'm slowly turning my room into Neon RAINBOW themed, so check my store frequently for new items that match. I recently uploaded this cute clip chart, too! Click the words under the images below to find the items on TPT!

Hand Signal Signs

Neon RAINBOW Clip Chart

Until next time,

Mischief Managed.

Lean, Mean, Cutting Machine!

Phew! I've been SUPER busy since my last post. My boyfriend and I went to Shiner, Texas (another post on that in a few days). I've also been bust printing, laminating, and cutting things for my classroom.

After registering for both the New Teacher Academy and my new school district's regular professional development, I realized I had this week and the week after next left in my summer... yikes! I've pretty much given up on getting access to my classroom anytime in the next few weeks. So, to keep my anxiety at bay, I decided to go ahead and start on the classroom decorations. I bought some black fadeless paper and some aqua, yellow, and pink polka-dot borders to layer up. This year I'm going with a black chalkboard and neon theme. I saw this post on Your Life: Embellished and how she layered her borders and just knew I had to do the same. Later I ended up going all the way to Lakeshore and got yellow chevron border to try this with! If it looks cute, I will buy more colors of chevron border.

Anyways, I digress. I spent $75 at OfficeMax on printing things from Kinder Craze (would have been $120 if my new school district didn't have an account with OfficeMax, allowing me to get a HUGE discount). The following day, I had to clean my old apartment out anyways, so I stopped at Lakeshore first and spent a while laminating the things myself. OfficeMax charges $4.50 per foot for lamination, Kinkos/FedEx charges $15 per foot, and Teacher Heaven charges $.80. Teacher Heaven is closer, but Lakeshore is like half of the price, and is by my old apartment. It was perfect, and I saved a lot of money by waiting in the line and laminating SIXTY FEET of printed things from Kinder Craze. I know, I'm OBSESSED. 

As I was laminating, the guy working and the older teacher on the laminator next to me joked about who on earth was going to help me cut the lamination. The answer was no one. Oh well. After paying for my lamination and chevron border, I headed to my old apartment to give it one last cleaning before we turn in the keys in a few days. 

All Clean!

Anyways. The following pictures are of some of the things I cut out. 

Name Plates

Calendar Headings

Color Words

Rainbow Number Line!!

Domino Numbers and Subatizing Dots

Shape cards

By the end of the first night, my thumb went numb from the scissors. I knew something had to be done (PS. No, I did NOT cut all of those in one night!). 

The aforementioned older teacher at Lakeshore mentioned that at Michael's they sell mini paper cutters, but they call them trimmers. So when I had to go to Walmart a couple days later, I thought to check their craft section, and sure enough, they had this little guy for 20 bucks. 

Honestly? You get what you pay for. I had looked into the ones from Michaels, and they were twice as expensive, but probably better quality. After a few uses, Mr. X started making this AWFUL squeaking noise that woke up both animals in the apartment. So I gave up on using it to cut any of the big stuff. However, when I got to the calendar numbers...this little guy was my best friend. In the Kinder Craze calendar numbers, there are numbers for each month, plus two themes for October, November, AND December. Plus, instead of just going 1-31, each month goes to 34 (what??) and then has two extras for months that have the 24/30 or whatever overlapping on the calendar flip chart. thats 36 pieces per month, for not just twelve but FIFTEEN months. That's 540 calendar numbers. Yeah. So my cheap little cutter came in handy once I got used to using it!

I put each in a labeled ziploc for now. I plan on doing something like this post on Rowdy in Room 300. But for now, with no classroom, these will do nicely. 

Everything printed, cut, and laminated.

Next stop? After I have a classroom, I will still need to do the same thing with my teacher planner and, more importantly, my library (Ahhh it's set up for kinder, not second grade!).

Other things I've been up to? Making my own coordinating behavior chart, peeling off and redesigning and sticking on labels for my teacher toolbox, and making a teacher planner. I started to make my own, but after I finished the cover page and calendars, I didn't really know where to go from there. Maybe next year! So purchased this one from A Modern Teacher. I don't know all of the info yet, so I can't have it printed, but I'm so excited to use the Rainbow Chalkboard design!!

Neon/Chalkboard Clip Chart

****Edit 8/4/15 - WOW! A lot of people are interested in using this clip chart! I never expected it to get so popular! Click on the link above to be brought to the clip chart in my TPT store!

****Edit 7/15/16 - I've uploaded another version of this clip chart, this time with a major facelift!

Click here to purchase!

As you can see, it's more colorful and has cute little pictures on there to help my ESL kiddos who are new to the class understand a bit more of what it means to move down. I also included THREE different "wall of fame" options, PLUS a weekly behavior sheet that is bilingual! Enjoy!

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Cover of my new Teacher Planner!

My teacher toolbox from last year with updated labels :)

As I said, I've been very busy. I've moved into planning for my first week, without knowing any of the curriculum my new school will use...if anyone has any tips to offer for the first few weeks of second grade, I'd love to hear them!

Until next time, Mischief Managed.

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