How to Keep Your Sanity When You Have a "Latte" Kids Out Sick

© Prettygrafik

Welcome - we're glad you are here!  We've made a couple of freebies for you to help lessen the work involved when students are out sick.

 Have your students missed a LATTE of school due to colds, strep, and flu?  Has your family been able to stay healthy?  We have been hit so hard by the seasonal flu and strep going around!  We've had about 75% of our students out at some point during January and February—and not just for a day or two!  Most have missed four or more days, so we hope to celebrate having perfect attendance once again soon, let me tell you!

Does this sound like your class?  Want to know a little secret?  There's something we hate more than strep, the flu, or colds.  Are you ready?

Make.  Up.  Work.  Uggh!!

It's a pain to get it pulled together, and it's a royal pain to go through it all when it comes back.  Here is a little trick that lessens the pain a bit: color code the pages so parents know what is a higher priority to complete.  You could code them using a highlighter in this manner:

• yellow - must do, high priority (mustard, get it?)
• red/pink - catch up when you can, not high priority (ketchup or catsup, get it?) 

Another option is to color code the work according to what goes where when it is returned; just code the assignments by drawing a line with a highlighter at the top of the page: 

• blue for any work that needs to be handed back to another teacher (for example, a small group teacher or math teacher, if you switch classes)
• green for go (check quickly and send home)
• pink for stop (take time to grade)
• yellow for wait (if it's part of a bigger project and needs to be put away in a special place)

© Jessica Sawyer Designs

As much as we hate it, make up work is as much a part of this cold and flu season as Clorox Wipes, Kleenex, and hand sanitizer.

DONUT worry, we're here to help!  Today we're also sharing a simple page to help record assignments for absent students, and it's FREE.  You could even use the color coding strategies above on the boxes on this page.  And you might have guessed, we've used a donut and latte theme to make it at least a little fun for those poor sick students.  (Here's another tip—train your students to help with getting work out for missing classmates when they pull out their own materials.  They can even fill in the work on the recording sheet if you'd like them to.)

Some schools don't send home make up work, and if that's your situation, use this resource to keep a record of what students have missed and need to work on when they return.

Speaking of returning students, we definitely need to celebrate those days when we have all students in class.  We've created a few fun and festive PERFECT ATTENDANCE posters for you to use on your door or in your classroom to celebrate when everyone is present.  We've included several spring-y options as well as black/white options for those with limited color printing capability.

Use this link to grab your posters!

Enjoy—and good luck keeping your family and your class healthy!