Behavior Management

I have used the same behavior management system for years and I still love it!! There are SO many different behavior management ideas out there so you'll have to do your research and see what works best for you!! But for now, this has been working in my classroom successfully for years so I am sticking to it!

I downloaded my clip chart for free HERE. 

We always start the day at 'Ready to Learn'.  When I catch students displaying positive behaviors, they move their name up one time (to one color).  If I see students displaying poor behavior, they move their name down one time.  If students move to 'Slow Down' that is just a warning.  It doesn't have a consequence.  However, if they are on 'Teachers' Choice' then I get to pick the consequence.  There are different consequences for different students.  You need to know the differences in your children and pick something that will impact them. For some children I take away 'free choice', but others don't care about missing 'free choice' so instead I take away the iPad or something that will make them care, and think about their actions! If students end the day on 'Parent Contact' then not only did they get a consequence during the day, but they will also be taking a note home that needs to be signed (or sometimes I make a phone call). 

I also reward the positive behaviors.  If they end the day on 'Good Behavior' they just know that they had an awesome day and that I am proud of them! If they end the day on 'Outstanding' they will earn a sticker for their star (note the 'Star Students' next to the clip chart). If they end the day on 'Great Job' they will earn two stickers for their star.  Once their star has ten stickers, they earn treasure box.  Now, there have been some special days where students have gone above and beyond--they have made it to 'Great Job' on the clip chart and then continued to show amazing behavior.  Well, now what? Where do they go now?  I move these students onto my teacher necklace (my keys and teacher i.d.) and if they stay there all day--they earn a diamond on their clip!! This is rare in my room so it is SUPER exciting when this happens! You can see some students with a diamond in the image above.

 At the beginning of the year I stock my treasure box with new items.  I think it is important to make the treasure box enticing for the kids! If they want to pick from the treasure box, they will have good behavior in order to earn that!  

 I also don't want to spend a fortune on my treasure box.  I usually ask parents for donations throughout the year to help keep the treasure box stocked.

 I also find amazing treasure box items on Oriental Trading in bulk for a great price.  This is where I purchase from to start the year off.  This year I bought slime, fidget spinners, footballs, and emoji bags. These items seem to be the craze down here right now so I knew it would make students excited!

My students are SO excited when they earn their ten stickers! Treasure box is always an exciting day in our classroom!

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Behavior Management

About 2 years ago my school 'adopted' the clip chart. Before this, I was using a stop light--and just had green, yellow, and red. At first I was a little apprehensive, wondering if this was just 'too much'. But, I absolutely love it! 

 Each day all students start on green, 'Ready to Learn'. There are certain times throughout the day where the students know that I am looking for someone to move their clip up the chart. For instance, every morning we listen to the morning announcements. When it is finished, I choose 2 students that listened quietly to move their clip up.   I also have a student that leads calendar math. When they are finished, their job is to choose 2 friends that were listening quietly to do the same. Having this be a part of our daily routine is nice because all students know that I am watching them during these times! ;)

 At the end of the day, if students names are on blue they earn one sticker, pink they earn two, and if they made it to purple they get three stickers! The stickers go onto their stars. When they earn 10 stickers, then they earn treasure box. 

I leave the stickers totally up to the students. So, at the end of the day, THEY must remember to get their own stickers and add it to their stars.  I have never had a problem with honesty here...students take this very seriously haha :)

Chart is from Tammy over at Live, Laugh Love

If students move their clip down to yellow, they have 5 minutes of 'slow down' time where they need to sit at their desk with their head down. This is always during our 'free choice' time at the end of the day. If they are on orange, 'Teacher's Choice', then they have 5 minutes of 'slow down' time and I choose a consequence for them. This may be different for each student. If a student really loves the art center, but they are on orange, then I may take the art center away from them. (again this is during free choice).  

There has been a couple times throughout the year where students have had an AMAZING day! They were on purple and I asked them to move their clip up again! So....now what? They get to take their name off of the chart and I clip it onto my necklace (keys and school i.d.) for the day! If they can stay there, then at the end of the day they can pick a 'diamond' and I glue it onto their clip. This is SUCH a big deal in my class!! Whenever someone earns a 'diamond' the rest of the kids usually clap for them and give them a giant hug...which ends up more like a tackle...then they need to move their name down haha kidding!

I would love to hear if you use your clip chart differently then I do! Always up for new ideas!! Click below to read some other blogger's ideas on Classroom Management

Pinspiration!

While I was 'blog stalking' this summer I saw so many posts talking about bucket fillers.  I had never heard this term before and had never read any of the bucket filler books.  I figured it was a behavior plan and since my school already has one that we need to follow, I kind of skipped over the posts.  Well, I WAS MISSING OUT!!  This past Thursday our third grade book buddies were scheduled to come to our classroom and meet my kids for the first time.  They were so excited to meet them, but I wanted to find the perfect project to start off the year.  The third grade teacher suggested that we read:

 

I actually read the book to my kids before the third graders came down, because I wanted to make sure they were going to understand the book (I totally underestimated them!).  When our book buddies came we read the book again and did a project I found on pinterest (addicted):

The children all loved the book and really seemed to understand the concept.  Later that same day my kids were playing at free choice centers and I was sitting at the reading table.  I overheard one of the boys stand up and say "drip, drip, drip." Right away I looked up and asked him, "What's the matter?"  He said, "He is dripping from my bucket when he knocks the truck into my tower!" I couldn't believe that they were already using the bucket filler lingo!  At the very end of the day one of the kids came over and gave me a hug goodbye and another student said, "Oh, wow! He is really filling your bucket, isn't he?"

I am now in love with Bucket Fillers.  I have already shared the concept with the parents of my students in hopes that we can continue using this in school and at home! LOVE IT!!

While I am talking about my 'pinspiration' I will show you some other pictures of anchor charts that I have gotten from pinterest as well.  Seems like most of these ideas came from a WONDERFUL blog, The Inspired Apple

seen HERE

Enjoy!

Class Rules

I know we all spend a lot of time the first week going over the classroom and school rules...and repeating them over and over again :)   On Monday my class sat down together and had an open discussion about some of the rules the kids thought that our class should have.  You always get the common sense rules, that I love to hear, like "don't pull people's hair" or "no pinching" but those are always important too!  All the rules the students come up with I usually put into a category on the board that will end up being our official class rules.  When we are finished discussing them we put them onto our Classroom Rules poster that hangs on my big book stand by the carpet.  Then the children all make their own Class Rules book.  There are five pages in the book so we usually do one page a day.  For some reason this year my students were beyond excited to take this book home.  They had so much fun creating it!  Here is one of my students completed books:

Their new class friends..and it looks like Dad is joining us too ;)

This page took a little longer because the students insisted on drawing what was actually on the bottom of their shoe!

I always save this page for last, because this rule becomes a hit! I have parents that will say that they even use this rule at home with their siblings.  I make sure to explain to them that adults are still the boss, but other students in the class cannot tell them what to do.  If a student does then their reply can be, "I am the boss of me."

If you would like to try this in your class I am including the rules below :)

My Class Rules Book