Every morning on their way in the classroom, my kindergartners move their clip from the "I'm not here" section to either the "Bringing" or "Buying" lunch section. This is a quick way for me to visually take roll and since it is located on my door, if we ever have a fire drill or a real emergency, then I can quickly scan the door as a reminder about who is absent for the day.
Here is how it works...
I got the jumbo ten frame magnets from Lakeshore Learning and put those on my door. They come as a set of four so you'll only need to buy one. They also have the magnetic circles that you can write your kid's names on if you don't want to get the IKEA magnets.
But I got the white circle magnets from IKEA and wrote the kids' names on those. These come in sets of 4 and are nice because they have a raised area that makes it easy for my kids to grab and move. I had planned to put their photos on the magnets, but then I thought that I would rather they be able to identify their name instead, so that's what I went with. I just wrote their name with a permanent marker.
To complete the area, I put up a picture of a lunch bag for the bringers, a hot lunch tray for the buyers, and a sick child for the kids who didn't make it in to school. I used a strip of magnetic tape to separate the areas. You could use colorful duck tape or even masking tape, whatever works with your classroom decor.
When the morning bell rings, I greet the children and their parents at the classroom door. It's nice to say good morning to everyone and to touch base with parents before the day starts. My kindergartners move their magnet from the bottom area to the appropriate ten frame under the bringing or buying side. Then they stow their backpacks, lunch boxes, etc and go sit on the rug. I have music playing for them to sing along to until we are all situated and ready to begin our day. You could easily have the kids do morning work at their desks as well, but I like to have everyone gathered on the rug so that we can do the calendar and other opening activities right away.
At the end of the day, I have a student move all the clips down to the home area and the door is ready to go for tomorrow. Simple, fun and a great visual for organizing data.
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