So here goes my favorites. It was hard to choose just a few, so...I may have chosen a lot ;)
This was my biggest hit this year. I got to the point where I felt I was not recognizing those who did what was right and how important that piece is when teaching, so I created this "Hall of Fame" board. Each class, I would choose a "Hall of fame-er" and they ATE.IT.UP.
Positive Reinforcement is key.
*When students would get chosen, their name would also get on the "leaderboard." If they made it on the leaderboard 7 times, they would choose from my Touchdown Choice Board (next post).
This is just a simple Choice Board for my reward system. They LOVED the "teacher chair and desk for two classes" reward. I sat at my kidney table most of the year ;) Freebie here!
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My M.I.A. Board (Missing or Incomplete Assignments) was my lifesaver this year. When you teach 80 kiddos in one day, it's impossible to stay on top of missing assignments. With 5th Grade being a transition year from elementary school to middle school, I wanted to give them a way to take responsibility of coming in and checking my MIA board for any missing assignments. If they didn't, it only affected their grade...not mine ;).
It helped my sanity with being aware of who had missing assignments and who I wanted to keep in for detention and so on as well as allowing them to OWN THEIR LEARNING.
P.S-It eliminated the "Mrs. Baun, what am I missing for your class?" question. One less question I had to answer! :)
My momma used this when she taught 5th grade and it's worked so well for whole class behavior Marble Jar. Pretty simple...if they do well as a class, they earn marbles; if they do not-so-well as a class, they lose marbles. If they fill the jar up to the ribbon, they get a whole-class prize. We had a school-on-the-floor-day and they loved it!
Classroom Clean-up:
My classroom used to be left so dirty until I started this system. We have a "clean-up song" (we've used "Walking on Sunshine", "Brave", and now "Summer" (HSM2). When the song starts, they know voices go off and they start packing up and cleaning their pod and team shelf area. By the time the song ends, they know to be in their seats with hands folded. I then walk around the room and check for any paper (I'm picky ;)). If their area is perfectly spotless, they earn a point. When they get to 10, they get to choose from the Touchdown Choice Board.
My room is spotless.
Teacher-life-changer :)
"Wait! Did you remember to write your name?"
I was so frustrated at the beginning of the year when I had SO MANY no-name papers. Once I enforced this highlighting system, it changed everything. When they see the highlighter mug beside my turn-in bins, they never forget to write their name if they have to highlight it! Who would have thought. :)
Hot Seat:
My kiddos love our "hot seat" game! It started out being a get-to-know-you activity at the beginning of the year. One student would sit on my stool and everyone would have a chance to ask that person any question they wanted. It was a fun way to learn more about each other. Before Christmas break, my CVC Room Momma brought this PATRIOTS chair in for me as a gift for our Hot Seat. I am a huge Pats fan so this was definitely a favorite for this year! So thoughtful.
"I'm Done Jar":
Room Momma striked again! I mentioned how I was looking for "I'm Done" activities so she created strictly Core Knowledge Curriculum supplements that were straight from our What Does Your Fifth Grader Need to Know book. You can't get much better than that. Students come up to me constantly so excited about how they remember learning about specific concepts or novels and that they knew exactly how to demonstrate whatever it was asking for. Such a cool thing to see your students enthusiastic about USING prior knowledge!
Thank you for visiting! Hopefully you can walk away with some ideas for your classroom!
