First Day and We Are Playing Candy-land...

Just kidding... but prepping for today I couldn't help but feel like I was getting ready to play candy land.

I decided to try something new for our first seating chart.  If your kids are like mine the first quarter is always a bit of a honeymoon.  They are so happy to be in your room and hang on your every word.  They follow directions and do EVERYTHING you ask.  

okay more like first day, maybe week, but you know what I mean...

Anyway... my seating chart planning started at the paint store.  I picked up three matching samples for each of the primary and secondary colors plus a neutral as I have 7 tables.  One paint sample was taped to the middle of the taped to identify it as that color of table. The other two were cut into color squares.  Once set of the color squares were taped to the corner of tables.

I taped the second set to white paper and laminated it.  As the students walked into the room they were given a colored card.  On the board was the directions to match their colored card to the table and have a seat.  When I entered the room we started into the "Rules and Regulations."  About 1/2 way through the class they get to work on their information card and I walked around the room writing down names and putting together the seating chart.  

A few things I realized:

• in 6 classes I ended up with only 1 table of all boys/girls
• students told me their names vs. me guessing pronunciations or abbreviations
• students were active and engaged from the start of class, no more listening to me read names for 5 minutes
• students started collaborating already, working together to get everyone to the right spot
• it was easy to accommodate for class size.  My neutral table is my "extra" table and I would just add/remove the neutral paint samples as needed.