This year I wanted to incorporate a way for students to indicate whether he/she is there for the day as well as what type of lunch they are (hot, cold, PBJ). What are some ideas you use within your classroom? PIctures would be great as a visual.
We all have smartboards at my school so that's what everyone uses. Do you have one or are you looking for a more "old school" way?
When I was student teaching, the teacher had a pretty good system for attendance. She had a big cardboard circle that was sectioned off like a pie graph, and each one said "lunch" or "brought from home" or "just milk." Each student had to take a clothes pin that was clipped onto a string hanging next to the pie chart, and move it to there lunch specification. That way, she could walk over and see who had not moved it to indicate if someone was absent (or someone forgot). It sounds so complicated how I explained it, lol, I hope it's clear. It was a time-saver!!
I have a calendar pocket chart and label students name in each pocket. I use seasonal/thematic unit notepad in each child's name. When the students enter they turn their laminated paper around and that lets me know if they are there. I remind them daily. At the end of the year i got more strict use about them remembering to take responsibility for what they need to do. We live in a lower socio-economic town - so most kids are on school lunch. I hope this makes sense p.s. I have a pic on my computer but not sure how to add it as a URL on here :sorry:
(Because I do preschool, and everyone brings there lunch, we don't have to account for that BUT...) I have a large white board. I divided it into 2 sections: Home/ School. Each child has a frog (because we are frogs) with his/her name on it and they move it from home/school at the beginning of the day, and then again when they leave so that their froggy is NOT stuck at school all night. You could do the same thing but divide it as you need such as for lunches. It works well, and the kids take total ownership. After a few weeks, even my 3 year olds will look around and let you know if someone didn't move their frog!
I use the side of a large filing cabinet. One side says "At Home" and the other says "At School" - the kids names/pics are on magnets (they make these at Open House before school starts) and they are responsible for moving their names each morning when they arrive and then again when they leave.
I googled images of all the lunch choices because with Ks they need that visual. I then used magnets underneath.
I use a name chart when they come in to take attendance, you can see a picture and read a detailed explanation here. I like it because it serves a lot of different purposes, the students are learning to identify their names, they can also use the name cards throughout the day if they need help writing their names, they use them in the writing center and during writing workshop time.
When I taught K, each kid had a fat popsicle stick with his/her name on it. I had cups that had pictures and words on them indicating : School lunch (you could have several of these if there are several choices which you need to count), lunch from home. Kids would put their sticks in the cup indicating their lunch option for the day...any sticks not in cups were the absent kids (or the ones who forgot to do their 'stick job' which I could discern with a quick glance around the room )
I have the kids sit on the carpet and I let them watch me take attend. on the computer using the promethean board. They enjoy seeing their name and "present" beside it. We then go right into our problem solving time - so its a nice beginning. They get to see which friends are at school and which are not. We then do a quick graph showing whether they are buying lunch or not.
I have four plates (the cheap plastic ones from Wal-Mart) stapled to the wall with the choices of 1, 2, 3, and lunch from home. They have been told in morning assembly as well as in the hallway what the lunch choices are. I have two containers, one pink and one blue, and the students find their name on a clothes pin according to their gender and clip it to the plate. It is a quick way to find out who is absent or perhaps if someone forgot to pick their lunch.
There is a pic of the small door magnet from Vista Print which I used to make a lunch/attendance system here: http://sites.google.com/site/room13club/home/podium Each kid has a magnetic strip with his or her name on it. I put the magnet on the whiteboard with the kids' name magnets to the left. When they come in in the morning, they put their name under their lunch choice.
Attendance and Lunch We make the children each a name tag that we change monthly to a different shape and color. I scatter them throughout the room for the children to find. They have a small magnet on the back. They then put them on the meeting board (which is magnetic) under the Attendance label. We provide lunch here, but you could easily make two columns that are hot and cold lunch. The leader of the day counts the names that are on the board or who is present and gathers the ones that are not. These they put on the chalkboard. I love this because I can hide their names sometimes or scatter them on the floor or line them in the chalk tray. This gives me a few minutes when we enter our classroom to get ready for meeting board time.
My attendance board/lunch choice is one of those metal magnet boards from ikea. Children move their magnet under the correct lunch choice. those who didn't move their magnet are absent and I get lunch count as well. I can also just move the headings instead of moving all the kids back to the home at the end of the day
