Help Kids Organize to Focus!
“Let’s create a clean slate for 2017!”
Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!
Clean Slate Traditions – For those who begin a new year when the calendar turns to January, as it soon will, it’s a good time to create a clean slate.
Clean up and clean out, not just at home, but also at school.
Benefits? Creating a clean slate helps kids organize to focus.
The expression, “starting with a clean slate,” comes from the English tradition of sweeping the soot off the hearth at the beginning the month named for the two-faced Roman god, Janus.
Tradition has us waving goodbye to Janus’ face of the old year and welcoming the face of the new one ahead.
Even if you and your students face the same old classroom space in early January, create a clean slate by scheduling time to de-clutter the place.
Make this effort a class project that offers a lesson in attentionology.
Point out the connection to your K – 5 kids, in age appropriate ways, between de-cluttering and creating a new sense of organization and focus.
You and your class can make a January resolution to pay the best attention ever to every task at hand in school. (more…)
Barbara Cleary has been serving as a resource to hundreds of educators for more than 25 years.
An award-winning writer, producer, teacher, and trainer, Barbara’s focus is on offering easy, fun tools and tricks that support K-5 curricula and assist teachers with classroom management.
