September is Attendance Awareness Month!
It's been a busy month, but here's how we celebrated:
1) School wide challenge:
Our PTA theme this year is "sweet." This made me think of pop rocks which lead me to our "attendance rocks challenge."
*Each class with get an attendance rocks sign and letters to spell out “rocks.” I used Savvy School Counselor's Attendance Rocks Packet to get us started. I used her cover to make signs for classrooms and then I gave them each cut out letters to spell "rocks."
*If a class had perfect attendance that day they stuck a letter on your sign. When the class spells out the word “rocks” they let me know and they won a book for their classroom library or other prize.
*If they got "rocks" they had a second challenge, focusing on tardies.
Just like before they added a letter each day they had zero tardies. When they spell out “rocks” they got a book prize.
*More about the prizes: I ordered books from Scholastic Book Club using bonus points. I ordered books that were related to our attendance topic.
2) Small Groups:
3) Spreading parent awareness:
I sent home parent information from attendance works and sheets found online, along with this FREEBIE about responsibility.
4) Social media campaign:
Our school and PTA used the sample social media campaigns (http://awareness.attendanceworks.org/social-media/) to spread the awareness through Facebook and Twitter.
5) We made an sweet attendance rocks awareness bulletin board by the cafeteria.
6) Attendance Lessons:
K-2:
First we read Ready Rabbit Gets Ready and discussed the importance of coming to school/responsibility.
Next I gave students red/green papers and re read story. As you are re reading students should hold up the red card when Ready Rabbit is showing irresponsible
behavior and green when he is accountable and responsible. Scan the room for perception survey, and discuss as necessary.
Next, we did a "I demonstrate responsibility" activity sheet as a class. Students named ways they would show responsibility when getting ready for school. You could also use this activity from Savvy School Counselor.
At end of class I asked students to take a post assessment survey about responsibility and their feelings about attending school.
If time allows watch How Do Dinosaurs Go To School on BookFlix or read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.
First we read Ready Rabbit Gets Ready and discussed the importance of coming to school/responsibility. Next I gave students red/green papers and re read story. As you are re reading students should hold up the red card when Ready Rabbit is showing irresponsible
behavior and green when he is accountable and responsible. Scan the room for perception survey, and discuss as necessary.
Next, we did a "I demonstrate responsibility" activity sheet as a class. Students named ways they would show responsibility when getting ready for school. You could also use this activity from Savvy School Counselor. At end of class I asked students to take a post assessment survey about responsibility and their feelings about attending school.
If time allows watch How Do Dinosaurs Go To School on BookFlix or read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late.
*Note for several classes that struggled with behavior we actually read the book once with the cards and then watched a story with the cards. For my K classes that struggle I showed the video first to get them calm and then we read the story with the cards.
3rd- We started by reading Totally Tardy Marty and discuss the
importance of being at school on time. Ask students to work in teams to create an attendance goal and tip for achieving that goal for Marty about being on time or becoming “Totally On Time
Marty.” Teams should write ideas on their post it note. Share and discuss tips
as a class.
Next watch “Ormie” video :
At the end of video we discussed perseverance and the
connection between mindset and perseverance. Next we discussed Discuss Marty’s mindset in the story and write down an example of growth and fixed mindset based on the character (i.e. what would be in this thought bubble.) What could he say that would help him reach the goal? What would he say that would discourage him from reaching the goal? Counselor Keri's Interactive Notebook has the perfect worksheets for this.
Next ask students to create their own attendance goal and strategies for reaching the goal, using the perseverance pig page. Students should decorate their pig picture by drawing things the pig can do to reach his goal. For example, if the goal is to only miss 3 days, they could draw him working out and eating breakfast which keeps him healthy. If their goal was to be tardy two days or less a month, they could draw their pig with an alarm clock.
Students should then write down one fixed mindset that might prevent them from reaching their goal and a growth mindset to help them get around their potential road block. They could do this in a thought bubble or using Counselor Keri's activity pages.
If time allows or for a follow up lesson read the Three Ninja Pigs and check out my lesson on perseverance.
*Note for some classes I actually had them write a goal after we did the example with
"Marty." Then we read Ready Rabbit and then drew examples of achieving the goal and then very last did the mindset. Breaking it up instead of doing it all at once helped classes that struggle with focus and need instructions broken down. 4th and 5th- We started by playing "Washing the Elephant."
After debriefing on the game we completed Savvy School Counselor's Attendance Rocks sort.
For my early finishers I set out extra books on attendance for students to read.
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