Shhhh… It’s a secret. 😉 I actually take attendance on my own silently. As the students are getting settled, I go down my class list and visually verify that all of the children are accounted for and submit my attendance online. This allows me to quickly and accurately get the information to the front office. If you teach a primary grade, you may want to create an attendance chart to help teach responsibility and name recognition. However, I wouldn’t rely on it for record keeping purposes. Read below to grab some ideas about how to take attendance in your classroom!
4 Ideas for How to Take Attendance
Below are some quick ideas for how to take attendance.
Question of the Day
The kids LOVE this activity. It actually goes quite quickly, but it’s a way to get everyone contributing right from the start. I composed 180 questions so that I would have one for each morning. I’ve organized them all into a Question of the Day Resource. The kids get so into this though. They start wanting to write their own questions and are so honored when I use one of theirs. The kit includes all of the questions with boxes to check them off as you use them. It also includes a sign to display when you post your Daily Question and printables for the students to record their ideas on.
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2 Pocket Charts
This tool takes attendance and lunch count at the same time. If you have a number for each of your students, which can be put into numerical order for easy finding in one chart. The other chart houses the menu choices. As part of our morning routine, the students move their number from one chart and place it next to their lunch choice on the other chart. I simply went through the school menu and typed up a lunch card for the menu items that are served. I keep all of them in the back of the chart along with the menu. My helper of the day sets the cards up for the next day once the count is recorded.
Interactive Board
Take a picture of each of my students and inserted the pictures into a Mimio template (idea works for SmartBoard as well). Students move their image to either the buying lunch column or the brought lunch column using the mimio pen (or smartboard pen). Instead of pictures, you could have students move their names. Even if you do not have an interactive whiteboard, you could use the same idea. Tweak it by having them move their printed photos/names on a laminated anchor chart.
Greeting and Smile
As you go through your roster, read each child’s name aloud, greet them with a warm smile, and make eye contact with them. Train your students to respond with a greeting and eye contact.
In closing, we hope you found this post about how to take attendance each morning in your classroom helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:
- First Day of School Picture Books for Elementary Teachers
- Gifts to Give Your Students on the First Day of School
- How to Set Up a Social Emotional Learning Environment for your Students
