Talk About a Great Classroom--with Updates!

Wouldn't you love to spend time in this 1st grade class?  The teacher uses simple drawings to illustrate sounds in words and she's experimenting with having students share balance balls for sitting at their desks.  She also uses a ball for sitting at her desk, to model "proper sitting etiquette."

Read more about the importance of movement during the school day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/07/the-right-and-surprisingly-wrong-ways-to-get-kids-to-sit-still-in-class/

Update 10-29-2014:

In response to a comment to this post, the classroom teacher provided more background info on her reasoning for using strong visuals with students (the photo of the whiteboard):

 "I understand what the other teacher was saying.   However, my kids have done this since kindergarten.   We started with wands that had  "ar" on them for "star of ar".  They all had star wands and they would raise them every time I wrote "Ar" in a word.   Once they knew that, I gave them "King of ing" wands which were crowns.   Then, whenever they saw me write the "ing" in a word, they would hold up their crown wands.   Everything was introduced one at a time.  As they knew what the sounds were and what they stood for, I added another.   I think it has actually helped many of my kids; especially my Special Ed kids who need visuals to connect to and use.   They use morning message to help them with decoding and writing.  This is my 2nd year [she "looped" up with her kindergarten class] with the same class so they are very masterful at telling me what pictures need to go where. I just feel that young children need more concrete things and visuals to help them to learn to read and write. It works for us but it has been a process we have learned over 200 days of instruction."