The Big Work of Lower Elementary: Building Work Habits Through TimeManagement

Practice: Lower Elementary students have been focusing on time management. Using the time-timer as a visual aide helps students understand the length of time it takes to complete a task. The students have been reflecting on the work they complete during these blocks of time, and commenting that it assists them in making choices during the work cycle.

Reinforcement through discussion: During our community meetings, we discuss the practice of time management. Many children have observed that they complete more work when they are quietly working and are also becoming aware of the amount of time spent on each task.

Skill building: In addition, the students are learning to tell time. It has been exciting to hear the discussions in comparing the analog clock to the time-timer; many of the children are sharing their strategies in using their blocks of time. We remind the students that their social time is scheduled into each day during morning exercise, lunch, and recess. Working quietly is a task the students are practicing in order to enable them to complete more work successfully. Balancing their work time between working quietly without the distraction of conversation with working together on a project is essential to their toolbox of work habits.