Attendance Time Savers for Elementary Teachers
Easy Ways to Figure Out Who's Missing From Class
Aug 16, 2009
The first challenge facing an elementary school teacher each day is the challenge of taking attendance quickly. Teachers cringe at the thought of calling role each morning. Many try to think of an easier way to accomplish this task. It can be completed easily by the question of the day, the sign in chart, or the location chart.
Question of the Day
For the question of the day, a magnet board, magnets, and sentence strips are needed. The teacher writes the question on a sentence strip and posts it at the top of the magnet board. The question needs to be one that can be answered in only on of two ways. For example, "Do you prefer cold cereal or hot?" or "Do you like cookies or cupcakes better?" Under the question, the two possible answers are posted in columns.
Each child has a magnet with his or her name printed on it which is centered under the question between the two answers. Upon entering the classroom, students read the question and decide which way they would like to answer it. They move their clip to the correct column. The teacher can quickly look over and see who is missing by the magnets that are not moved from the center.
Sign in Chart
This chart works well with younger elementary students. For the sign in chart, a pocket chart is needed. The pockets are labeled with each child's name. The teacher creates cards with smileys on both the front and back. On the one side the smiley is sleeping, and on the other there is the smiley is reading. She then laminates the card and places one in each child's pocket.
As the children enter the room, they flip their cards to the side with the child reading to signify that they are there. The pocket chart can also be used for lunch count by having another card with a sack lunch on the front and a hot lunch on the back.
Location Chart
This chart works best for older elementary students. Again a magnet chart is needed. The chart should be divided into the number of rows of students in the classroom plus one for headings. The chart can be divided into the following columns: in, out, restroom, office, nurse, music lessons, and other. Each student's name is written in a row, and he has a small magnet placed in the column marked out.
As students enter the room in the morning, they move their magnets from out to in to signify attendance. Throughout the day, when students leave for any of the mentioned destinations, they move their magnet to that column to signify where they are. Upon returning to the classroom, their magnet is put back in the in column. The magnets are not moved if the entire class is moving to a destination, for example lunch. The teacher has a visual representation of where students are at all times.
Attendance becomes a joy to do rather than a daunting task when a few simple ideas are employed to make it quicker to accomplish.
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