Social Contract
I LOVE a challenge… so when I have students in my classroom who are challenging behaviorally, I love to see how I can make them successful. On the first day of school I always start out with a Social Contract and the students all help me generate rules for our classroom. Then we make our hands out of construction paper and I tape them around the contract on the door.
Bonus Bucks
My behavior management that I use really does the trick. I use bonus bucks that the students can earn for the treasure box. I have them in a basket sorted by color and each student has their own cup on their desk to keep their money in.
Treasure Box
How do my students earn their bonus bucks? I tell them they have to do three things: Listen, Follow Directions and Be Respectful. If they follow those three rules, they will get rich! But…. if they break a rule, then they have to owe me money in return. Every Friday we have treasure box time. Each student brings me their cup of money and at the beginning of the year, I help them count it, but by the end of the year, they can do it all by themselves. Each week the price for the treasure box changes. It goes up 5.00 every week. So, if they have the right amount of money, then they can go to the treasure box, but if they do not, then they cannot go and have to wait until the next week. This is truly a hard but real life lesson. It’s amazing how much harder they will try the following week to earn more money just so they can go to my treasure box.
Inside the treasure box are trinkets, toys, books, stickers, party favors, and stuffed animals. One of my wish list items at the beginning of the year is to have parents donate gently used toys for our classroom. This really helps us get a great boost for the first couple of months. I also try and keep it seasonal. So, when Halloween comes around, I have stuff that’s Halloween fun.
How do they earn bucks?
My students can also earn their bonus bucks for turning in their homework, waiting quietly in the hallway, turning in home projects, being a secret walker, moving up to blue or purple, having the best interactive notebook, saying thank you when called on, sitting quietly and listening during a story, cleaning up their center or math workstation and our pack and stack race.
Peer Facilitator
I have a star student every week who is my peer facilitator. They are in charge of answering questions for me during my guided reading groups. They also give out bonus bucks to the secret walker in the hallway. They get to wear these nifty visors that I got at Hobby Lobby.
The star student also gets to use this placemat on their desk all week. I also have a bag with a bulletin board, Clifford the Big Red Dog, a pet carrier and a journal for the students to take home on the weekend.
During reader’s and writer’s workshop, we have a Farm Contest. This is to earn bonus bucks for being the quietest table during our workshop time. The tables are named after farm animals: Calico Cats, Red Roosters, Palmomio Ponies, Gray Goats, and Pink Pigs. I use a poster that lets me know which table was the quietest through out the day. If they are talking and not working, they will get a point on their animal. So, the peer facilitator will put a point for me on the poster. This is a great visual for the students to see which table is winning. If they have no points at the end of the day… they WHOLE table will earn bonus bucks. If they have a point, they will have to owe me the bucks. This is a great accountability lesson in that we can all work together to achieve success. Here is my Farm Contest Poster. I call my class my Farmhouse Firsties!
Class Jobs
For each group of tables I have different jobs. I rotate a table captain weekly. The table captain is in charge of two things: Keep their table quiet and make sure they’re working. This works really well during Farm Contest because the captain is in charge of their table. Some captains do better than others because they want their money! I have another poster that I use with colored crayons to show who is captain for the week. Each student has these colored crayons on their desk. This way every student gets to be the captain many times during the school year.
Growth Mindset
During the first week of school, we read the story “The Little Engine that Could”. This story really teaches about growth mindset and believing in yourself. We talk about how we don’t say “I Can’t” in Mrs. Rickman’s classroom. We say “I’m having trouble”. This eliminates the feeling of self doubt and helps the students believe they can do anything they put their mind to. I have an anchor chart that I use for this lesson. We talk about how we are going to bury the word “Can’t” and lay him to rest. The students think this is so funny, but it really connect with them. So, for the rest of the year, we DO NOT say can’t. When someone accidentally slips and says “Can’t”, the whole class will gasp! LOL
We also make the little engine writing craftivity and write about how we can be optimistic and have a growth mindset.
Heads Down
So, I saved the best for last… I never yell or scream at my students. I talk to them like we are adults. But, when they are talking, I stop and wait. They know that when I stop teaching, I mean business. We could have heads down with the lights turned off and have a mini-lesson about listening. They hate this…so when I say “1”, they all put their thumbs up and freeze. We practice this over and over again during the first week of school until it is second nature.
Mr. Clicker Attention Getter
We also practice Mr. Clicker Attention Getter. This is my nifty little clicker that I use when we are doing workshop. I don’t even have to make a sound, I just click it and the whole class will look at me. If I’m looking at a student they know they are the ones who were talking and will have a consequence. I don’t sugarcoat this technique. This will set the stage for when I’m doing guided reading and I want silence in the room. Here is a picture of my clicker:
Okay, okay, you’re probably laughing, but it really works! I used to use the frog clickers, but can’t find them anymore. If you know where I can order some please let me know! LOL If you are interested in checking out my behavior management resource, click here I hope you have a wonderful school year coming up, and let me know if you have any questions! I’m happy to help!
Happy Teaching!
