1-2-3 Come Make A Take Home Folder With Me!

My friend and I were sharing. She was excited about making snail mail - take home folders for her students.

Janet can't remember where she got this adorable idea (Pinterest? A teacher magazine?) but the word snail is an acronym for Student work, Notes, And Important Letters.

She wanted to know if I could whip something together to glue to the cover of her folders.  I LOVED the idea & revamped the acronym to Schoolwork, Notes And Important Letters. 

Since I sent a folder home every Friday with my students, which was filled with their work, my weekly newsletter and other correspondence from our school, I thought 'snail mail' was an adorable idea, so I got right to work.

Take home folders were my easy and very successful "life line" for parent-teacher communication, so I highly reccommend doing them. 

Parent feedback was also extremely positive, as they weren't constantly hunting through a messy backpack for news.  I kept the folders in a basket along with anything that needed to go in them, and had a room helper "stuff" the folders sometime on Friday.

Besides the child's name on the folder, I numbered them so they could be put back in order quickly.  This expedited finding a specific child's folder to put their work in.  School pictures as well as report cards were also sent home via this folder.

I explained to parents the importance of making it a habit to take out their folder every Friday and go through it, praising and commenting on their child's work and perhaps choosing a few to hang up on the fridge, a bulletin board or cupboard door. 

Children also enjoy giving special papers to family members.  All of this promotes self-esteem.  By your interest, your child sees the importance of school and that you care about what they are learning there.

If parents tuck the folder right back into their child's pack, it will be ready for school on Monday.  Click on the link to view/download the Snail Mail Take Home Folder Packet.

I've included black and white as well as colored snail labels, along with a reminder and note of explanation to parents. 

This packet will be FREE for an entire year, then it will be revamped and included in "Diane's Dollar Deals" in my TpT shop. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful. My pin it button is at the top.

"Never tell people how to do things.  Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." -George Patton

Behavior Bingo!

Bee-autiful Bee-havior Bingo, Is an incentive program to get students to model good behavior without constantly having to give a prize or something away.

It’s delayed gratification that helps teach patience and builds excitement.

Plus It’s a fun and easy way to reward students throughout the day on a daily basis.

The Bee-havior Bingo Board is perfect if you catch a child bee-ing good, completing a project 1^st, staying on task, when you know that’s difficult for them, helping another student out etc. all those little things that really don’t deserve a big reward, but behavior that truly needs to be noticed and reinforced.

A student is acknowledged and gets to go up and jot their name anywhere on the board.

At the end of the month the teacher draws as many letters and numbers as they deem appropriate.

The teacher calls out a letter and number, which match up to a student’s name.

Teachers/students decide what the rewards will be.

You can give certificates, classroom “bucks” that students can save and “buy” things from the classroom rewards store; students can get a trip to the treasure box, or get to choose a non prize type thing, like getting to be line leader, getting to be student helper, or get to eat lunch with the teacher etc.  I have a list of over 100 such activities if you like that sort of idea.

Click on the link to view/download 100+ Behavior Rewards.

Obviously the more times you are caught bee-ing wonderful, and get to write your name on the Bingo Board, the more likely you are to get a “bingo” and receive a prize.

I have a bingo board for each month.

You can mount these on an appropriate monthly color of construction paper, laminate them and have students use dry erase markers, so you can reuse them or simply run them off each year.

For sure laminate the BINGO letter and number cards.

I’ve also included mini- Buzzin’ By Happy Grams to send home with students who win the monthly Bingo Games.

I hope you enjoy this behavior modification technique.  I think your students will.

It’s easy to implement, simple to keep track of and fun for your kiddo’s.

Click on the link to view/download INDIVIDUAL Bee-autiful Bee-havior Bingo

The individual Bee-autiful Bee-havior Bingo goes well with the whole group 100-chart  Bee-autiful Bee-havior bingo.

Click on the link to view/download that packet.

Feel free to PIN anything you find helpful on my sight and thanks for visiting.

I hope you can come back tomorrow for another new idea!

Alternatives to the Treasure Box: 100+ Behavior Rewards

It’s getting that time of year when students are filled with lots of energy!

Sometimes the weather is a bit rainy and inside recess just doesn’t help get all of those wiggles out.

I find that having behavior incentives truly helps motivate children and gives them that extra incentive to try a bit harder.

The jury is out in many schools about the proverbial treasure box.

Are rewards good or do they do harm?  Whether a reward system is intrinsic or a thing, it is in our society to stay.

Adults go for the raise, the bonus, the extra paid vacation day, the free trip for the highest sales etc.

Yet constantly rewarding children with a trip to the treasure box can lose its impact too, so one day I decided to let my fingers do the clicking through the Internet, to see if anyone had done any surveys or studies, or taken any polls, on what students liked as rewards.

Incredible as it sounded, many students liked to DO a special thing rather than have a prize, such as be line leader, student helper, or message/errand person, to name a few TOP jobs.  With that in mind, I whipped together a list of 100+ rewards.

Switching desks and eating lunch with the teacher or sitting on a bean bag or at the teacher’s desk, were also high on the list of “woo-hoo’s”, as well as phoning home, or receiving a certificate or happy gram of praise, to share the great news with parents.

Something that isn’t often seen in a treasure box, but coveted by kids, are trophies and medals.

Anyway, before you shell out big bucks for your treasure box, you may want to check out this list, and make a few coupons for special treats your students will truly treasure and “behave for!” What a win-win.

Why not enlist their help and ASK them what’s their hot button.  To jumpstart their imaginations, read them the list and highlight the ones they think are the best.  Enjoy the good behavior to come!

Hope you can pop back tomorrow for more tips and tricks! Do you have one you'd like to share? 

I'd enjoy hearing from you dianehen@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas, which you can PIN if you think it may help someone! Thanks in advance for making the time to do that.

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.