The school year has gotten off to a great start and I love my sweet class, but right from the start I noticed something else about my little lovelies...they are extremely CHATTY!!! My usual systems of behavior management just weren't doing the trick for this group. I really don't like whole group consequences. It's fine if they sit out from recess a min. or 2, but this group would have been sitting out far longer than that, and it's really not fair to the ones that are quiet. I mentioned my dilemma to my bloggy buddy Tonya at
Tonya's Treats for Teachers, and she shared this blog
post from last year. I loved her ideas and it really got my brain gears turning!
My classroom theme is monsters, so my chart definitely had to have a monster or 2 (or 4) on it. I really liked Tonya's tally chart, and went with a very similar idea. I decided to go with check marks and added the amount of recess they would lose at the top. The recess time at the top is really just a reminder for me during recess. During the day, I simply put a check mark every time I have to redirect them for talking. I keep it on a clip board, so it's handy during the day. I like that the chart also provides me with an additional form of documentation. I also like that it's more private than a clip chart in the classroom. The chart really seems to be doing the trick. We also keep a citizenship chart in our Daily Folders, so this makes it easy to mark folders accordingly at the end of the day. I simply write in how many check marks they received during the day. If they manage to turn their behavior around, I do cross out checks on my chart.
Here is a pic of the chart. It is editable, so you can add your students' names and even change or remove the recess time from the top. The blue portions show the editable fields.
I started with just the chart last week. This week I knew I wanted to reward my students that didn't receive any check marks. I decided to go with a mon-star punch card. I will simply initial a monster at the end of the day if they have no check marks, Once the entire punch card is filled, they will receive a NO Homework pass. I will probably give them a color changing pencil when they get 5 monsters complete. The star counts as the 10th spot.
If you are in the same boat as me and want to give this a shot, they are both freebies. You can click either image above to grab the documents.