Managing Behavior in December

We all know that in December our little angels get Christmas on the brain and they get excited.  This excitement is sometimes hard to contain because, well, they are 5 and 6 years old and it's hard to contain your excitement for Christmas when you are 5 or 6.  (Let's be honest it's hard for adults to contain their holiday excitement too!)

How can you manage that behavior in your classroom and promote a positive learning environment for your students throughout December?  Well, let me show you what I do!

Every Friday in the month of December we have "fun friday."  

What is Fun Friday?

Fun Friday is a celebration where we combine learning, crafts, treats, and sometimes a video.  Each Fun Friday in December is a different theme:

• Grinch Day
• Rudolph Day
• Polar Express Day

(You can choose any theme that works for you and your class.)

I ask my students to wear green on Grinch day, red on Rudolph day, and pajamas on Polar Express day.  Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we center all of our literacy, math, science, and social studies work around our theme.  Then at the end of the day we make a craft, read the book, and watch the video. 

How does this help manage behavior?

Now you might be thinking how does this help behavior?  Wouldn’t it make the students more excited and wound up?  Well, it could do that, but my students know that in order to participate in the video and snack at the end of the day they must have an 80% or higher on their Class Dojo for the week.  You can set whatever parameters work best for you and your class. 

If a student doesn’t meet the behavior goal, they still participate in all the learning activities throughout the morning and early afternoon.  They will just miss some or all of the video (and possibly the treat).  I rarely have a student miss more than a portion of time during the first FUN FRIDAY.  Once they see what they are missing then they make sure to do whatever it takes to participate the following week. 

What else do I need to know to implement this into my classroom?

In order to make things a little more interesting and fun, I give my students a ticket to enter FUN FRIDAY.  The tickets create a little more buy in for the students.  They get beyond thrilled to earn that ticket.  You can click here to get some “FUN FRIDAY tickets” for your classroom.

Do you have a great way to manage behavior during the busy month of December?  I would love to hear all about it! 

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Reward Wristbands

I love anything that can encourage good behavior.  It's an added bonus when I can use that same thing to help send home important reminders to parents.  Check out my latest post over at Ellison to see how EASY it is to make these reward and reminder wristbands!!

Just click on the picture to hop on over to their blog!

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Spring Cleaning Classroom Routines Blog Hop

Hi friends, I had a great time in French Lick, IN with over 100 other amazing teachers and bloggers for an epic weekend.  I am sure by now you have heard all about the teachers taking over French Lick.  If not, you can follow everyone's posts on IG and Facebook with #springteacherbloggermeetup2015.  Yep, longest hashtag ever.  Haha!

Not only did I spend time with amazing people all weekend, but I was also lucky enough to be share a room with these fabulous ladies:

Latoya Reed (Flying Into First), Alexandria Jackson (Classroom Action with Ms. Jackson), 

CaseyJane Cooper (Wiggling Scholars), Heidi Neels (Flipping for First), and me.  :)

We know that not everyone could make it to the meet up so we wanted to share our fun with you by offering some fresh ideas, a fun blog hop, and a giveaway.  :)

I don't know about you, but during January, February, and March sometimes routines in the classroom can get a little stale.  We teach them a lot in the beginning of the year, but by this point our little sweeties might "forget" those routines or rules.  I have a couple of ways I like to keep things fresh during this long stretch.

#1  Have a variety of attention-grabbers for your students.  They always need to keep an ear or eye out for the different ways you are asking for their attention.  Some of my favorites:

#2  Re-teaching the procedures and rules.  I re-teach my procedures again in January after winter break and then again in the spring after spring break.  Just keep these fresh in their little minds.

#3  I LOVE to praise and reward my students, but I am not always into giving them a tangible item.  I found these little babies at the dollar store and bought them up right away.  When I see a student working extra hard, I sneak over grab one of these and put it on their table.  They get to keep all day long.  You would not believe how much this motivates my students.  

#4 I can't say this is my idea because it isn't.  It is my principal's, but I love it and it has really helped with behaviors in the classroom.  We give out "Caught Being Good" cards that we call Wampums.  Randomly on the back of some is this cute duck stamp.  If a student gets a card with a duck, they get to go to the principal's office and get a rubber ducky out of her duck pond.  The kiddos flip over these ducks.

I hope you can use some of these ideas in your classroom to help keep things fresh during this long stretch.  As a  thank you for being fabulous followers and to share the love a bit you can enter the giveaway to win a product of your choice from my TpT store.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now hop on over to my friend Ms. Jackson's blog to read about some other ideas and enter her giveaway.  :)
Have a great week friends.  I know I will!

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It's beginning to feel a lot like....

Christmas!  December!  Yep, it is a magical time of year, but unfortunately it also tends to be a stressful month and our sweet little kiddos are so excited about things like Santa Claus and Christmas parties that they tend to have a difficult time focusing and following directions.

December has always been a struggle for me with behavior in the classroom.  Two years ago I decided that I would try an elf that would be watching them to report to Santa.  It worked for a little bit, but not really.  I still plan on having an elf this year because it is just so much fun!

This year I decided I needed something different that would really help my little ones stay focused on good behavior.  The idea just came to this morning (while I was in the shower because my best ideas always hit me as I am shampooing my hair).

Previously the other kindergarten teacher in my building and I would make the last week before winter break filled with tons of fun activities.  Each day had a theme.  We would wear certain things.  We would watch some movies.  We would have special snacks.  You get the idea right?

I liked that and all, but it was stressful on me.  It was a lot crammed into one week.  My students really couldn't focus that week because we were so out of our normal routine.

I decided this year to do FUN FRIDAYS.  We have 3 Fridays in December that we are in school.  Each Friday will have a special Christmas theme (the green guy who hates Christmas, a special reindeer, etc.).  We will still have a special snack, craft, and short video.  This way though it is not as stressful because it is more spread out.

To be able to participate, students can not move more than a certain amount of sticks throughout the week.  You could really set the guide to be anything you want.....moving sticks, homework turned in, etc.

Our district has folders that go home on Thursday with all our important notes so I wanted to send home the information today because my next chance would be the day before our first FUN FRIDAY.  Since I was sending home info, I wanted to tell the students about it.  As I was explaining it, I started asking them, "What can you do to earn a ticket to a Fun Friday?"  When I got home from work today I thought, "Why not make actual tickets that they need to present in order to participate?"  Lo and behold came this freebie below.  I plan on printing them on red or green paper and giving them right before our fun activities start.  Just click on the picture to download the tickets.  I included two versions.  One that is Christmas themed and one that is just plain.  I might use this idea on a smaller scale at the end of the year as well.

I will post about our actual FUN FRIDAY activities as the time gets closer.  I am so excited to have a great stress-free December in my classroom!

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Mystery Student, ABC Countdown, Fairy Tale Winner

I don't know about you, but kids definitely have "spring fever".  They were not my normal sweet class last week.  I have been more stressed the past week than the beginning of the school year.  It is CRAZY!  I decided I needed to do something different because obviously what we had been doing wasn't really working anymore.  The idea of the mystery student came to me.  I have seen pins about this on Pinterest so I am not claiming this as my own idea, but I am putting my own twist on it.

In our building, we have a building wide behavior system.  {I posted about it here and here.}  It is our Tier 1 for behavior interventions.  It is really nice to have all students on the same system especially when you are the teacher on recess duty!  In addition to this, I also do a class positive behavior system where we can earn class rewards.  This means that we have to work together as a class to earn the reward.  I am using this "Sweet Behavior" idea from Jessica Williamson.  Every time my class gets a compliment from another teacher or myself they earn a cupcake.  Once we have nine cupcakes on the board, our helper pulls down one and we earn the reward on the back.  This has been a system in place since Day 1 of kindergarten.  We are going to beef it up a bit now though.

Each morning I am going to pull a student's name and hide it so no one can see who our mystery student is for the day.  Then at the end of the day, I will reveal who our mystery student was for the day.  If that child did not move any sticks, then we earn a cupcake.  If he/she moved sticks, then no cupcake for the day.  We can still earn them for compliments though.  So now we have two ways to earn.

We discussed this as a class last week and I went to each student and asked, "Can you try your hardest to help us earn a cupcake?".  Of course, each and every student answered with an enthusiastic, "YES!"

Thursday was our first day having a mystery student and I will admit that I rigged it a bit.  I just wanted my class to feel some success and motivate my other students to want to help the class.  So, I pulled a name of student who has moved 2 sticks ALL YEAR LONG!   He didn't move any on Thursday so we earned a cupcake.  The class was so excited and this little guy was so proud of himself!  :)

Friday, I did not rig it at all and the student who was picked unfortunately had moved two sticks so we did not earn a cupcake.  The class was very gracious about it as I had prepped them about what to do if we don't earn our cupcake.  So proud of how they handled it.

I also wanted to tell you about my ABC countdown I do at the end of the year.  I got this idea while I was in college observing classrooms.  One teacher told me all about it and I was hooked!  I knew this was something I would always do in my classroom.  Starting 26 days from the last day of school, we do a letter a day from the alphabet.  For the most part, each day's activity is at the end of the day.  Students may only participate if they have good behavior {if they move 3 sticks in one day we have to send home a note to parents so that was my limit for this}.  Some of the class favorites are King for a day, Queen for a day, Ice Cream Day, and Popsicle Day.  I am not buying something for every day, but I do want it to be exciting to motivate my students to have the best behavior they can.  All it takes is one day of missing out and then they are usually back on track.  {At least, this has been my experience in the past!}  If you would like to see my full ABC Countdown, please click on the image below and you can download it.  This is same exact paper that I send home to the parents.

We started today and celebrated August birthdays.  Tomorrow is Bubble Beach Day.  The students will bring in beach towels and I am providing bubbles.  Hopefully it is nice enough that we can go outside......I think there is rain in the forecast!

Last, but not least we need to find out who won Elizabeth's Fairy Tale Unit.  Once again, I can't figure out how to get the graphic for the random number generator.  Sorry folks, but I am exhausted and after trying for about 15 minutes I gave up!  The winning number was comment number 1 which means Amy Swan you are the WINNER!!!  Congrats!  Elizabeth should be emailing you soon.

I am going to bed now.  I know it's only 9:15, but this lady is exhausted.  I started coaching my daughter's softball team tonight and that wore me out!!

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Update on Behavior System

Today I am linking up with What the Teacher Wants! Behavior Management linky party.

I have been using our new behavior system for about a week and a half now and I have to say I am LOVING it!  (You can read about my new system here.)  It is so nice to be able to visualize the rules the students are breaking or following.  The students already know which rule is which color.  I only say now move a talking stick and they automatically know it is a yellow stick.  Also, I have a lot less to do at the end of the day.  I updated my behavior chart with pocket chart strips at the top of each rule. {But do you think I can ever remember to take a new picture?  Of course not!}

I am finding that the things I thought were problems weren't.  I keep track of my data each night on this chart.

I use a colored pencil and put hash marks for each student.  For example, maybe today Johnny moved a blue stick (listening) and a yellow stick (talking).  He moved then have a blue mark and a yellow mark next to his name for that day.


If students move 3 or more sticks I send home a note that looks like this where I circle which rules were broken.

Our school counselor is going to analyze our data with us after next week.  She is then going to use the data to see if there are groups of students with the same behavior needs in classes that she can make some social skills groups with.  I feel this system is wonderful!  If you are looking for something to try in your classroom, then you might want to give this a try!

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New Behavior System

Last week it was decided that our whole school would start using a new behavior system this week.  At first, I was a little overwhelmed by the thought of preparing myself and my 23 little kindergarten friends for this transition, but now I am very excited about it.

I had traditionally used a spotlight behavior chart where the students each had a stick with their number on it and they moved it first to green, then to yellow, then red.  It has worked out fine, but I felt like I was constantly writing in planners and sometimes it was hard to remember exactly why a particular student ended up on that color for the day.

(I got those number circles from A Cupcake for the Teacher)

Starting yesterday, this is what my behavior chart looks like.

Each student has a pocket with their number on it.  You can see at the bottom of the chart are cups with colored sticks.  Each stick represents one of our school-wide rules.  When a student breaks a rule, they will have to take a stick and put it in their pocket.  For example, if Johnny is talking out he will be told to move a talking stick (yellow).  If a student receives more than 3 sticks in their pocket, a note will be sent home in that child's planner.  The upper grades are having the students write which rules were broken.  In kindergarten I have made a note that lists all the rules and I will circle which rules were broken.


I also redid my rules so that each rule is surrounded by a particular color.  The color represents the rule and the stick that will be placed in the pocket should the student break that rule.  I cut them out right outside the border and placed the colored paper behind it.  I will post these later this week.  I need to fix a couple things first :)  I am also added a cut up pocket chart strip above each rules sign with just one word for the rule.  For example, above my yellow sign I will write the word "talking".  Just to help the kids remember which color is for which rule.

I really feel that this will be a positive change in our school.  It will help me as a teacher see which behaviors are the most problematic which will then guide some social skills lessons.  Stay tuned to see what happens!!

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