Behavior Management Idea & Freebie

It's that time of year with some groups where I really need to dig deep and come up with a new and creative idea to help with classroom management.  I have found that no one strategy or incentive works after an extended length of time, and you just have to switch things up to keep the kids on their toes.  At the beginning of the year I use Class Dojo which is a wonderful app, and then after Thanksgiving I use my Thanksgiving to Christmas Classroom Behavior Incentive which you can read about in a blog post here.  During the last marking period, I use a classroom economy which I mention in a post here, but third marking period is sometimes a tough one.  The kids (and myself) are antsy from the long winter months and spring seems nowhere in sight!  

A couple weeks ago I started thinking about how to incorporate some kind of mystery motivator into our day, and so far it is really working out well.  This is how it works...I bought some red and green beads, four small glass bowls, and found some clear and white beads left over from a Christmas ornament project.  

When individual students or groups are being good, following directions, are on task, etc., I put green beads in the class bowl.  If the entire class is doing what they are supposed to be doing, I put in several green ones and throw in a white or clear one.  If students are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, I put in a red bead.  At the end of the day, I draw out one bead.  If I draw a green, then the class gets to reveal one space of their mystery motivator.  If a white or clear bead is drawn, they get to reveal two spaces of the sentence.  If a red bead is drawn, no spaces will be revealed that day.  :(

I used a pocket chart to spell out our mystery motivator sentence.  I printed and cut out the letters and then glued scrapbook paper on the back so they couldn't see through.  It's fun to listen to the kids try to figure out what the words must be as they reveal a letter at a time.  Once all the spaces are revealed, the class earns whatever the sentence says.  So far it's working like a charm!

No matter what incentive program I use with my students, I continue to keep track of warnings that students earn using my Excel spreadsheets.  Each student has their own page with the consequences running along the top.  I usually print these out and send them home at progress report and report card time.  It makes the behavior indicators on the report card so much easier to do when I can look back and see all the warnings a students has gotten throughout the marking period.  I just jot the warnings down on sticky notes during the day and then type them into Excel at the end of the day.  

You can grab these spreadsheets for free at my TPT Store!  

They are fully editable and so easy to use!  

You can change the consequences along the top to those that you use in your classroom. On the bottom are the tabs that show the page for each student.  Simply right click where it says Student 1 and choose rename.  In this way, you can type in the names of your students.  I hope you find this useful!