Sunday, April 29, 2012

End of the Year Behavior Blues {Freebies}

The good thing about having so, so, so many teaching blogs in my Google Reader is knowing that I'm not alone singing the End of the Year Behavior Blues.

Since before spring break, my sweet kiddos have been bouncing off the walls, not listening to directions, treating each other badly, and the list could go on and on.  It's disappointing and frustrating as a teacher, because we have twenty days of school left and still have LOTS of things to do! All classes are different, and this year's class is no exception. Usually, by this time of the year, my darlings pull themselves together and we have lots of fun together the last few weeks of school.  Even my most difficult classes, like the ones who bickered constantly and forgot the rules daily, seemed to pull it together the last few weeks of school.  Of course, I'm sure holding an overnight trip to the zoo over their heads helped matter too. ;)

This class, however,  is different.  My tried and true Behavior Bingo class incentive isn't working.

What has worked with this class is individual behavior rewards, those above and beyond our behavior our clip chart.  So I'm taking that and running with it the last few days of school.

At Christmas time, each of my kiddos cut out a Christmas tree shape, put their name on it, and hung them in the hallway.  When I noticed stellar behavior, I let them put a sticker on their tree.  I got this idea from a blog and forgot to pin it, so if this is you, let me know! Whoever had the most stickers the day break started, won a prize,  which were some cool craft items from Michaels Dollar Spot.  My friends LOVED this and I'm starting it again tomorrow! I'm having each of my friends decorate a surfboard and whoever has the most stickers on their surfboard on the last day of school will receive a cool prize.  I'll also be doing a second and third place prize as well.  

I also did Rachel's Pumpkin Present earlier in the year and LOVED it.  So did my kids, so it's coming back but in a much more thrifty version.  Hey, building a house is expensive! :) I have a stuffed Brutus, Ohio State's mascot, in my room and my kiddos love him.  So Brutus will be moving around the room to kiddos desks who are being leaders with their behavior.  Whoever has Brutus on their desk at the end of the day gets to pick one of the following rewards:

Nothing fancy, but hopefully they will still be motivated by these free but fun incentives. :)  If you're interested, you can download these rewards {here}.


I am changing up a few whole class incentives because I feel it's important that my students recognize the importance of teamwork. I am mainly incorporating the smiley/frown point system from Whole Brain Teaching.  Basically my students will get tallies on the smile side for things they do well as a class as a team, and tallies on the frown side for things they need to work on.  If the class gets more smiles than frowns at the end of the day, they get a small reward like choice time or minutes towards our extra recess bank.  If you're interested, you can download your own copy {here}. I'm putting mine in a sleeve protector so I can use my expo markers to do the tallies and reuse the board each day. 
I'm all about consistency and routine in my classroom, especially with behavior, but we are s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g, so something has to be done.  I'm hoping that these changes are positive and well received by my students.  


Google Docs was not working for me tonight, so the links will take you directly to Scrib to download the links.  Please let me know if they don't work for you!

If you found any of these resources helpful, I'd love if you left me a comment. :)  Also, I still have one copy of my Surfs Up Subtraction spinners to give away, check it out {here}.


6 comments:

  1. Hi! You are a winner of my Learning Resources Document Camera.

    http://primarygraffiti.blogspot.com/2012/04/luna-review-and-giveaway.html

    Email me with your name and address. I will send along to my contact! Talk with you soon!

    Cheryl
    primarygraffiti(at)yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I'm right there with you with the behavior. I teach 2nd grade, as well, and behavior is plummeting with many students :( I love your idea with the surfboard. I base a lot of my classroom management on rewarding good choices to encourage my "struggling" friends to make the right choice. We use punch cards a lot in my classroom. Students get punches in their card randomly for making good choices. When it's full, they get a prize. I'm hoping I can keep the system working until the end of the year - but it's getting tough. Come on, Summer!


    Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans

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