Clock Buddies {Thursday Throwdown }

Hi everyone! Today is my first day back at work! I'm excited to get the year started and look forward to seeing my teaching friends. Today is a special treat because we get to work at school ALL day without meetings! I don't know about you, but for me those inservice days before school begins are always packed with meetings! 

I'm linking up with I'm Lovin' Lit for Thursday Throwdown. This once monthly linky is for us to share ideas on how we make the classroom more interactive for our students. 

I like to have my students work with partners often! We will work with a partner at least 2 times a week and usually more often than that. I'm always looking for different way to pair up my students and one of my favorites is clock buddies! 

Students get a blank clock and have their classmates sign up for different times on the clock. Here is a picture from ReadingQuest.org of what a completed clock buddy sheet would look like. 

When it is time for kids to work with partners all you need to do is say find your 2 o'clock buddy and start working! It is so easy and saves so much time when pairing kids up! 

I like this method because it forces kids to mingle. Kids don't have 12 BFFs, so that means they aren't always going to be with the person they want to socialize with instead of work. Yes, there are always exceptions to this and some kids will socialize with anyone! 

This offers your students choice and there is always an element of suspense when I ask the kids to get their clocks. No one knows which time I will call! 

I got this great idea from a fantastic website called ReadingQuest.org. You can click here to go straight to the page that gives the scoop on clock buddies as well as the printable clock sheet I use in my classroom. 

If you haven't visited ReadingQuest.org before you really should head over and check it out. The site is labeled as being for Social Studies, but I've gotten some amazing reading strategies there!