April Attendance & Silly String

I am sooooo proud of our class!  April's attendance has ROCKED! We really focused on individual attendance this past month and WOW it has made a difference!  I hope your kiddo has mentioned to you the importance in being at school as well as stressed to you their need to be there.  We've had incentives for individual attendance successes as well as class successes.  Rewards included chance to chew gum when you've made it 5 straight days, lunch in the classroom at 10 consecutive days, extra recess, sitting where you want....all the way up to the GRAND REWARD of GETTING TO SILLY STRING ME if you are at school every day in April!

Well April is officially over and out of our 19 kiddos, there were 11 that were here every.single.day!! That's something to celebrate!  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I offered to get silly stringed but I said it, so that's what we did!

I know the kids loved it; and I loved hearing their excitement each day as they kept track of their attendance and knew exactly how many days in a row they'd been to school.  They also frequently referred back to their individual attendance goals as they checked to see how they were moving along.

A big thank you to the parents that helped make April's attendance a huge success.  In May there are only 19 days but I'm sure our class will come up with some great new incentives for attendance. I can only imagine what crazy things I'll have to do on that last day for them!

Attendance Goals

We have been really working on our daily attendance in our classroom. In March we did GREAT and we plan to get even better in April.   We have set personal attendance goals for the month of April in order to help us be here every day on time, which is critical to becoming life-long learners and getting that great job. 

We looked at our monthly attendance for the school year, beginning in September.  

Do you notice the large decline in attendance?  We sure did!  In February and March is when we started doing something about it and keeping closer track of whether or not we were in school.  I would love to say that has made a huge difference with our data, as I believe that giving the kids the knowledge and tools to make a difference really does impact the outcome. 

This is where family support comes in.  Earlier this week when the kiddos created their attendance goals for April they also listed some things that would help them be more successful. I want to share these with you because  as the parent/guardian you can help with many of them.   So I encourage you to talk with your child and choose 1 or 2 of these ideas to work together on for the remainder of the year.  I’d love to also hear about what you’re working on!

Here are the suggested “Plans of Action” that the students created:

Set the alarm

Tell mom/dad that I need to be at school

Go to bed on time

Ask mom/dad for help

Wake up when I’m supposed to

Get ready quickly in the morning

Thank you so much for your support and helping to get your kiddo to school on time each and every day.  Having your support helps them to see that you, too, value their learning and want them to be the best that they can be!