When my students arrive in the morning, this is where they make their first stop… It’s where they’re drop of their R.O.C.K.S. binder, find their morning work, and take their attendance.  I have let students take their attendance since I started teaching, though it’s taken on various forms… When I taught kindergarten, as students arrived they moved their “attendance star” to the green section of our “star behavior” chart.  This was actually a great behavior management system, and students with exceptional behavior got to move their star from green to our “star jar” and then get a special treat at the end of the day.                However, when I looped from kindergarten to first last year, I decided my kiddos needed a change – just to keep things fresh – so I created our Whooooo’s Here? bulletin board.  Students then moved a magnetic square  featuring their name to our question of the day located on the white board to the right.  These are adhered with a velcro dot below the “Our Class” heading.  This was not affiliated with our behavior management system (color flip chart), but instead allowed the students to practice their reading skills and graphing skills.  We would then discuss their responses to the question during calendar math or morning meeting.  Here’s the squares (magnetic photo holders) that I purchased last year from Christmas Tree Shops for 30 cents a piece.  They held up really well last year, so I’m able to use them again this year. This year, students will take their attendance the same way, only they’ll remove their squares from the guitar shaped cut-out.  The graph looks rough (I can’t find my laminated Daily Graph sign!), but you get the idea!  This also provides a great visual for who is or isn’t in attendance, and I can always ask a student sitting near the board to let me know who isn’t at school that day.    Also, I make an end-of-the-day chore for a student to move all of the attendance squares back to their velcro dots on the board – always a popular job! Happy Tuesday, friends!