Behavior Management & some new TpT items!

Soooo, awhile back I said that I was going to post about my classroom management! Here's how it works...

The first week of school, the students and I came up with some rules. They told me what they thought were important rules to follow in a classroom and then I combined them into the 3 rules you see on the right. 

I use color cards. Every day, each student starts on green card. Each student gets 2 warnings before having to change their color card. So if I have to redirect them twice, the third time they have to change colors. After green is yellow. If someone has a yellow card, they have to miss 5 minutes of recess. If they have to be redirected 2 more times and still don't change the behavior, they move to blue card which means they miss 10 minutes of recess. If the behavior still doesn't change after being redirected 2 more times, they move to red card which means they miss 15 minutes of recess. Anyone on red card also gets a note sent home detailing the behavior in class. This note has to be signed and returned. For each day that it does not come back signed, they miss all of  recess.

I also have a parent communication folder that I send home twice a week (Monday & Wednesday). There is a pocket inside for things that need to be returned & a pocket for things that can stay home. There is also a pocket on the back of the folder. This is where I put their conduct calendars. Each day I mark the calendar with whatever color they ended on for that day. Like I said, I send this folder home twice a week. However, I have a few parents that request the folder to be sent home every day so that they can check their child's behavior so I make sure to do that for them.

These color cards have a built in punishment. That was all I had to do for my class in the past. Knowing that they were in trouble and would have to miss recess was enough to keep them on green card. However this year has been different. This group wants to know what they "get" for being good. So I have had to create some rewards.

Next to our color cards, I posted this reward. We started the year with a goal of getting 3 days with everyone on green card. Each time we have met the goal, we start over and I add a day to the goal. Right now we have 1 of 6. When we meet our goal, we watch a video and I provide popcorn. My kids really like Magic School Bus videos so that's usually what we watch. I like this reward because it doesn't cost me much (just some popcorn) and it doesn't take up much time (usually 25-30 minutes). This seems to be working really well for this group of kids.

One other thing that I do, is reward students that have a green card ALL month. I always have little things around that I have purchased from the Target Dollar Spot that I let them choose from (pencil, sharpener, eraser, candy, etc). It's just a little something to say thank you for following our classroom rules.

So there you have it. It may sound complicated, but it's really not. And if you think it would be hard to keep track of the "warnings" in between color cards, don't worry the kids will remind you! Haha. I've also seen some people that keep a piece of paper on each desk and have them mark tallys for warnings. Adapt it to work for you! And like I said, I don't normally do all of the rewards, but that is something this group needed.

Now, I've been working on a few things that can be easily printed, laminated, & stuck in a station so if you need a quick activity check these out!

This first set includes winter themed addition & subtraction matching cards.

The second activity includes winter themed ABC order cards & a recording sheet.

The last activity is a winter number order activity & recording sheet.

Check them out & let me know what you think :)