Let's Line Up!

Yesterday I mentioned in my blog post that I have a group this year that has a difficult time lining up.  I always have the kids line up in alphabetical order by their first names.  Most teachers in our building do this.  It just makes it easier.  It prevents running to be first, kids standing next to their friends and chatting, or anyone trying to crowd in line.  Everyone has their spot in line!  Well, no matter how many times we had practiced, this group could NOT remember where their spot in line was.  Friends, it was a nightmare!  I literally had to go through and put each student in line every time we lined up.  Then I would say, "Look who is in front of you! Now look who's behind you!"  Each time I was sure they would be able to do it next time and each time . . . they weren't!

I had seen other blog posts about teachers putting numbers down on the floor so I decided to try that.  Here's what I ended up with after I had to search and search to figure out how to get the Melonheadz kidlette cropped inside the circle.  (If you want to read more about that, head over to yesterday's blog post)

I was even able to find a kidlette to match each student in my classroom!  This was a very fun project to create!  Now my kiddos have personalized circles on the floor to remind them where to line up!  No more problems!  (Except that I had to use the same kidlette for two girls because I couldn't find anything else that I thought fit so they get mixed up!)

 

Here's how they turned out when I stuck them down with packing tape.  Mind you, it was probably near 110 degrees in my classroom the day I was taping these to the floor.  I was sure they probably wouldn't stick because everything was so damp from humidity.

 

 We have to curve our line because our tables get in our way.  This helps so much with that concept, too!

 

I have a helper each day and one of their jobs is to be the line leader so I made a special line leader spot.

 

 And while I was taping these to the floor, I had a brainstorm!  These could also double as a life size number line for math activities!  I can't wait to try it out for math!

 

Now, my number circles are exclusive to my kiddos because they match the kids, but I made a version that could be used by anyone! 

 

This product includes a line leader spot and numbers up to 30--God bless you if you have to use all 30 of them!?!

If you're interested, head over to my TpT store or click the image above to get them!  And if you use them, I'd love to see pics of them in your classroom!