1-2-3 Come Do Some Simple Behavior Management Activities With Me

No matter what grade I taught I always saw a change in behavior the last week of November, particularly if we had a dusting of snow on the ground.  

Children were even more energized and chatty.  You could feel an excitement in the air.  Attention spans became shorter, while the need to wiggle increased.

Not one to squelch excitement, I wanted to transfer that energy into enthusiasm for wanting to behave appropriately.  

With that in mind, I designed this packet of behavior modification activities, which are quick, easy and fun.

Students are engaged, on task & focused, which creates a calmer and quieter classroom.  Woo Hoo!

This packet includes TEN of my tried & true “sanity savers”, which really help promote great behavior!

Choose just one, or do a variety throughout December & January.

Beautiful Behavior “Color Me” Booklet:
Coloring is a calming activity, easy-peasy for teachers to “print & go” and helps improve hand coordination at the same time strengthening finger muscles.

In this 6-page booklet, children earn the privilege of coloring in a section of the picture because they finished an activity, transitioned quietly, helped clean up etc.

As with all of the activities you decide the behavioral goals.

I've also included CRAFTIVITIES:
“Dash-und” Through the Day…
I enjoy play-on-words and my students love dogs,  so “Dashund” for “Dashing through the snow” seemed a fun combination.

The Weiner or Dachshund dog craftivity is a simple “behavior chart” with all of the “pieces & parts” on a one-page pattern.

Tree-mendous Behavior:
“You’ve Been Decorated!” is a construction paper pine tree, trimmed with hole-punched (good behavior) garland strips.

Children earn a hole punch for whatever goals & behavior you decide upon; such as completing an assignement, gettins 100% on a spelling test, helping clean up etc.

“Glittering & Sparkling Behavior”
Students earn the privilege to color a lightbulb on the snowman’s string of lights.

The strand spells out BEHAVIOR.

After the picture is completed, some sparkling glitter is added to celebrate.

If your kiddos are like mine, glitter is a real "hot button", making it a great motivating incentive.

Brrr-illiant Behavior:
A snowman peeks in to check on a flurry of snowflakes; each one symbolizing great behavior.

All 18 snowflakes on the individual  “tiles” are six-sided but different, so take that teachable moment to reinforce that bit of science.

All of these craftivities when completed make sweet bulletin boards, so I’ve included a variety of posters to enhance your displays.

Whole Group Activities:
A Sweet Treat Is Coming Our Way!
T.E.A.M is an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More!”

This behavior management activity has a poster featuring a large mug of hot chocolate.

There's one featuring a 10-frame or, if you want to extend the activity & make it last longer, there's also  a 20-frame bracket.

Students work together as a whole group to earn a “marshmallow” tile, decorated with a snowflake.

You can also add real mini marshmallows with a glue dot.

TREATS:
Is similar to the hot chocolate team effort. 

Here everyone also works together, but the class is earning letters. 

Once they spell TREAT or TREATS everyone earns whatever treat you decided on. 

This could be a sticker, trinket, candy, extra recess, extra free play, a game etc.

4-Corners Gingerbread Shape Game:
This is one of my students’ all-time favorite games, so it’s often asked for to be the “TREAT” for the above letter game.  It’s also known as the “Quiet Game” so it’s certainly a win-win for me.

Freeze & Melt Game:
A super-fun way to “get the wiggles out!”

Easy-peasy for teachers to implement; takes just a few minutes, and your students will really enjoy this activity so much, that if they are like mine, they'll beg to play the "Snowflake Sun" game.

I Treasure Good Behavior:
Even if you don't have a "treasure box" in your classroom, it is truly worth bringing in a tub or box filled with goodies for the last week of November; then keeping it visible through at least the first week of January.

My students absolutely LOVE getting to pick something out of the treasure box. 

It's truly one of my most successful motivational tools in promoting exceptional behavior.

I fill mine with trinkets from The Dollar store, cool pencils & gel pens, plus stuff I pick up at garage sales.

I also send a note home to parents informing them of this activity and ask for donations from a list of "treasure" suggestions.

Students need to earn 10 tickets which they “cash in” for a trip to the treasure box. (This way I could keep recycling my tickets!)

Children are responsible for taking care of their tickets as well as counting them, which practices math skills as well as valuable life skills.

Today's featured FREEBIE is a "Wishful Thinking" writing prompt craftivity.

"If money were no problem and I could have 5 super-fabulous gifts for Christmas, I'd like..."

This craftivity also makes a lovely December bulletin board too.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

It's my sincere hope that something in my "teacher's bag of tricks" will be equally successful & enjoyed by your students as well.

"Children must be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think."  -Margaret Mead

17 pages. An easy and fun way to build your students' self-esteem. This makes a wonderful keepsake at the end of the year too! Great behavior modification tool as well.

Pumpkin "Punkin" Praise!

Woo Hoo! This is my 400th Blog Article! Wow; that sure happened fast. I hope you've found them helpful.

Are your little “punkins” in need of a little calming?

I’ve found that as the year progresses and students get to know their classmates and become friends, they begin to get more comfortable and very social.

On one hand this is terrific, on the other, little ones can become so excited that they forget to stop talking, raise their hand, and use inside voices.

There’s nothing like a little incentive to make rules and reminders fun. Since October is just around the corner, I thought a Pumpkin Praise Puzzle would be appropriate.

Students earn a pumpkin puzzle piece with a letter on it, for whatever behavior you decide upon.  When completely assembled, the pumpkin spells “Pumpkin Praise”.

For those schools celebrating Halloween, I have a Jack-O-lantern.  For those who celebrate a harvest theme, I have a plain pumpkin puzzle.

Decide ahead of time, what behavior will earn a pumpkin letter i.e., everyone lining up before the timer rings, everyone completing a task, etc.

For preschoolers you can have instant gratification at the end of the day; they earn a letter for a list of behaviors they have accomplished throughout the day.  Remind them that a letter can be taken away for inappropriate behavior as well.

Older students can have delayed gratification, and earn 1 or 2 letters per day, with their reward coming at the end of the week.

Decide with your class what the reward should be, perhaps an extra recess, a nature walk, everyone gets a special treat that they help make for snack time, etc.

Do this for only a day or week or continue through out the month or until interest wanes.

Simply run off the template on orange construction paper.  I ran off another copy on green so that I could have a green stem.  I also colored in the pumpkin’s facial features with a black marker.

Laminate the pieces and cut them out.  Attach a magnet or piece of Velcro so you can attach your pumpkin puzzle to a white or flannel board.

As students earn a puzzle piece, assemble the pumpkin on the board.

I designed this so you could do this as a whole-group activity, but you could easily have your students work on the other pumpkin as a personal achievement puzzle pumpkin.

As children earn puzzle pieces, they could glue them to a sheet of black construction paper and collect their reward once they have completed their pumpkin!

You could make these individual pumpkins smaller by shrinking my template on the copier.

Click on the link to view/download Pumpkin Praise Behavior Modification Puzzle

I hope Pumpkin Praise works for you and that you find yourself praising your little “punkins” through out October!

Do you have a behavior modification technique you could share with us? I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to leave a comment here.

Thanks for visiting today.  PIN away if you find anything on my site you think others might enjoy.

“The rain falls on all of the fields, but crops grow only in those that have been tilled and sown.” –Chinese Proverb

Stop And Think!

Who needs a stop sign?  You do; if you're like me.

Scenario: I'm assessing at a table and I have my other "zillion" students working independently, but still have a few who are coming up every few minutes to interrupt to ask questions, tattle, etc.

Assessing takes longer, I forget where I'm at, the child being assessed can't focus; you get the picture.

Solution: This little stop sign.  
Explanation: I remind my "independent workers" ahead of time, that I am assessing, short of death, blood, and sickness I am not to be interrupted.  

Of course in their eagerness, they will forget, so I explain:
"In case you forget, I will hold up this reminder sign.  What does it say? STOP. What does that mean? STOP in your tracks.  STOP and think. Is this an emergency? if not, STOP what you were about to do, which is what? Interrupt; instead, go back and sit down. Don't STOP working!"

This has been extremely effective for me.  I simply watch out of the corner of my eye for approaching offenders and hold up the sign. They immediately retreat without any words spoken.

I also have one taped to a Popsicle stick.  I hold it up whenever I want the students to immediately STOP or freeze in their tracks.  

As soon as I see everyone frozen, I give directions.  I tell them that if they can do it in 15 seconds there is a reward.  They LOVE trying to beat the clock as well as "freezing".

Usually the reward is a scoop of popcorn kernels in the popcorn jar.  When the jar is full they get popcorn and an educational video like Magic School Bus.  The reward has also been filling in letters that spell something they are working for like Hot Chocolate, Extra Recess, Play-Doh, or Free Play Center Time etc.

Click on the link to view/download the Stop Sign

Thanks for visiting.  Do STOP back tomorrow for more ideas and teaching tips. 

Do you have one you'd like to share? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here. 

Thanks in advance for making time to do that. 

PIN away if you see something on the site you think might be helpful or interesting to someone else. 

Remember to STOP and not only smell the flowers, but plant some!

Awesome Behavior You'll Treasure!

Doesn’t it make you feel good when someone gives you a compliment?  Do you literally feel “better” when somebody says a few encouraging words?

I know I do!  Imagine what a few kind words do for a student, especially when they hear justified praise from a teacher.

In a critical and often cruel world, it’s especially important to build a child’s self-esteem.

Catching students “being good” and then praising their efforts, reinforces correct behavior and has other children wanting to model it.

When I wanted to gain control of a noisy bunch during story time, I never said: “Johnny and Jose stop disrupting the group.” Instead, a big smile and:  “I love how Alesha and Graham are sitting quietly.  Thank you so much!” Did wonders and Johnny, Jose and the rest of my students, were quick to copy the desired behavior.

Happy grams were also affective and a fun way to teach responsibility.

You can pass out a happy gram or awesome behavior/work card for a variety of reasons.

Do you need students to raise their hands more?  Is getting children to listen quietly in a large group or during story time getting to be a problem? 

Make a happy gram or awesome card for that behavior, or pass out a few cards during that time and watch students shine.

Students keep them in their school box in their desk, and when they collect a designated number they can cash them in for a trip to the treasure box.  Younger students keep them in a Baggie in their backpack or cubby.

When I taught first grade, I had “Treasure Tubs”. The various tubs had different values.

The better prizes required more awesome cards.  Every Friday, at the end of the day,  was “shopping day”.

My students loved this and I felt it really did improve behavior.

A letter home each month explaining the program, and requesting donations, really helped out.  Surprisingly, “used” “cool stuff” was just as much sought after by students as new items.

I also had treasures that were  non “thing” stuff too, like coupons for 1 skipped homework assignment, lunch with the teacher, get out of class to help another teacher for an hour, or a chance to be the student helper, or student line leader for the day etc.

A graph on the wall kept track of Super Star Student behavior, with a grand prize going to the male and female student at the end of the year, who had collected the most awesome cards.

Likewise, if you want to use them as a deterent for poor behavior, list infractions that will “cost” a student an awesome card as well.

Make sure you review the rules for earning as well as losing the cards and post them on the wall.

Use my templates and print off cards on white construction paper.  Laminate them and then cut them out.

I also bought blank business cards and put stickers on them, as well as labels that I made that said “Awesome Card” typing in various behavior that students earned them for.

Keep the cards handy so that you can pass them out for whatever behavior you decide earns happy-gram/awesome cards. Brainstorm ideas with your students.

Tuck special ones in your sub folder with an explanation.

You might want to allow students to give out a few, if they notice special behavior as well, or have children nominate a student at the end of the day for something that they did that you weren’t aware of.

I hope you enjoy including this tip in your behavior bag of tricks.  A teacher can never have too many!

Click on the link to view/download Encouragement Cards behavior modification Idea.

Do you have one that you can share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas .  PIN anything you think others might enjoy as well.

Thanks for visiting, and do pop in tomorrow for some more apple bytes.

Communicating With Parents:

Parental communication is very important, but with so many tasks for a teacher to accomplish in a day, especially with the demands of very young children, how does one find time to dash off notes?

How do you reinforce positive behavior? Do you send home a note to parents?

Do you give your students a certificate of praise?

Likewise, how do you communicate with parents when they want to know how their child is doing when their disruptive behavior is being modified?

To make these tasks quick and easy, I’ve designed a variety of forms.  My behavior modification techniques are checklists where a child is held accountable for their own behavior.

They decide which behavior they are going to work on for the day.  During various parts of the day they can color in a smilie face or put a sticker on their paper.

For students that are working on a multitude of things, I can simply check all the boxes that apply at the end of the day, in less than a minute, and send that note home to be signed by the parent and returned.

I’ve put all of these forms in a 66-page packet that includes happy-grams, certificates of praise, and posters.

I've also included positive-reinforcement games, like Pizza Reward, Bubble Gum Challenge, Apple Puzzle & Classroom Cash.

There is a student contract, progress report, posters, classroom expectations, a neat desk award, and a promise pledge as well.

The forms help empower students, build self-esteem, help motivate, help students accept responsibility and be accountable. 

They free the teacher up and make communicating with parents simple, easy and quick.

I hope that you will find something here that will help your days run smoothly. 

I’d enjoy hearing from you about the packet, or if you have something to share that works for you that would be wonderful too. diane@teachwithme.com

Click on the link to go to Behavior Charts, Notes, & Contracts so that you can view/print/download them.

I wish you a marvelous month filled with lots of beautiful back-to-school moments!