Items filtered by date: March 2012

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.

2 pages. A nice keepsake for a graduating kindergartner or parent.

A Pocket Full Of Paper Love...

A Pocket Full Of Paper Love is an inexpensive and fun way to make an assortment of wonderful keepsakes for Mother’s Day.

Your students will enjoy stuffing the different items that they make during their independent center time throughout the week, into this container.

By the time they take them home on Friday, they’ll have a pocket that’s over flowing with love.

One of the items not pictured, is a wooden broach made from the same old-fashioned woodcuts.  I bought wooden circles for only 10 cents each at Hobby Lobby.

My students cut and glued the “love knot” to the top and then drizzled on 10,000 Coats.  After the discs dried (48 hours) they glued a pin to the back, to make an old-fashioned pin.

I taught my Y5's  how to sing "I'm a Little Teapot" so they could serenade their mommy with a song, they made the teapot note and attached a teabag to the back.

Their bouncing renditions were heartwarming and adorable!

The final item we tucked into the pocket was their handprint. It added color and provided a backing to the plate so that the items didn’t spill out.

We wrapped the entire thing in hot pink tissue paper.

These ideas are part of the May Art Mini Book: Frogs, Flowers & Mother’s Day Packet.

Click on the link to view/download it.  There are several other Mother’s Day gift ideas included in that packet as well.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful. 

"Don't compromise yourself; you're all you've got." -Janis Joplin

Bookmark It! You Hold A Spot In My Heart...

I don’t post more than 2 articles in one day, but with Mother’s Day just around the corner, I wanted you to be able to look at all of these ideas at once, and decide which ones, if any,  you’d like to do with your students.

They were all huge hits with my Y5’s as well as the mommies.  I set them up as independent centers and they did quite well.

Since they only take a brief amount of time you could actually do all of them and tuck them in the "Pocket Full of Love" or if you don't do that, simply put them in a lunch bag or their folder to tote home.

I find that “paper love” is just as much appreciated as anything else a child puts together.

After all, the above activities were made with TLC, used their skills, which included reading a story, (no small accomplishment!) used sign language to express their affection, serenaded them with a song, and now make a bookmark their mom will certainly find useful!

How cute is that?

Click on the link to view/download the MOM bookmark.

Finally, Where Are The Flowers, is an easy reader that reinforces spatial directions.

The last page deals with the word "behind". Behind the door is the message "Happy Mother's Day!"  Making it a perfect "read-to-me" booklet for Mother's Day, truly a special gift for any mommy.

Click on the link to view/download Where Are The Flowers?

Do you have a Mother's Day idea you'd like to share? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com OR...feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas. 

Thanks in advance for taking the time.  Feel free to PIN anything you think a parent or fellow teacher might find helpful as well.

I hope you can visit tomorrow for more teaching tips, 'til then take time for the 3 R's: Refresh, Relax, and Rejuvenate.

29 pages. I've updated this packet.  This makes a wonderful "craftivity" card for students to make their mom's for Mother's Day. Also includes a matching easy reader booklet. There are 3 similar booklets for various ages and levels of ability.

Monkey Business

Are a few of your students still struggling with skip counting, or are you teaching PK and decided to raise the bar and add a K standard to help out for next year while you still have some days left before school ends?

I’m always looking for fun ways to reinforce skip counting with kids, so I dreamed up “Barrel of Monkeys!”

There are traceable number cards for skip counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s as well as counting by 1’s to  30 with, matching covers for each set so that students can make their own Itty Bitty booklets.

Make a large “teacher’s monkey” and laminate.  Pass out your class set to the students and “feed the monkey” while you count whatever set you want to reinforce.

Play “I Have; Who Has?” and feed the monkey that way. i.e. “I have 2 who has 4, 6, 8?" etc.

Make class sets in a variety of colors.  Children choose a partner.

Mix up the cards, but keep the packs separate.  Each child flips over a card.

The one with the lowest card goes first and skip counts from that number ‘til the end.  If they do it correctly they get both cards. i.e. if they flip a 4 and their partner flips an 8, they get to count 4,6,8,10 all the way to 40.

If they can do that, they get to keep their 4-card and their partner’s 8 card.  If they can’t do it, their partner gets a turn to try it.

If they are successful they get the cards.  Play continues ‘til all of the cards are gone.

You can also use them to play Concentration-Memory Match games.

Click on the link to view/download Barrel Of Fun Monkey cards.

A nice companion to this packet is the rhyming easy reader booklet Counting Monkeys, which includes a graphing extension, to reinforce yet another standard.

Click on the link to view/download Counting Monkeys.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure and pop back tomorrow for more fun tips.

Do you have one you'd like to share?  I'd enjoy hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to leave a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas. I really enjoy hearing from you.

It's OK to PIN anything you think will help another teacher or parent as well.

I hope these activities have your little monkeys having a barrel full of fun!