Transition Champion!

Ever have trouble with transitions??? Sometimes, moving your kiddos from the carpet to their desks or in between centers, can take ages longer than you planned it to. Shoes come untied, detours to friends' desks are taken, and all kinds of other bizarre things seem to happen as students are traveling from one point in the room to the other. I always tell college student this: Transitions is truly where your management shows and your instructional impact is maximized. Our schedule in 1st grade is soooo tight in my district, I just can't afford to lose precious minutes to transitioning. So what do you do? Well, in the past I've played "beat the timer" and used song clips....But this year, YES this year (my FOURTH year of teaching), I've found a method that is super cheap and super effective.

I call it the TRANSITION CHAMPION! My super awesome, older brother Aaron (who just turned 30-Happy Birthday buddy!) is a Special Olympics athlete and the light of my life. He's won dozens upon dozens of medals, which he sometimes gives to me. I hang one of his medals on my whiteboard using a magnet man. Anyways...all I do is simply watch, pick the best transition-er, give them the medal to wear, and they are declared THE TRANSITION CHAMPION! Until the next transition anyways... 

Aaron winning Gold last Spring! You can thank his sister for his super-cool shades. :)

Sample Medals Galore!

Sometimes, I forget to pick a champion and my firsties are on my case: "Miss White! Who's the transition champion???" I gotta tell ya, moving centers during the Daily 5 and just moving throughout the room during transition times is THE best it's ever been. Not that it was bad before, but you can always stand to improve right???? I highly suggest you find a fake medal of some sort to use, maybe even a ribbon, and try TRANSITION CHAMPION in your classroom!