The Quiet Game

Good Evening!

I'm sorry for neglecting you all for so long. Between pre-assessments, diagnostic tests, establishing routines, open houses, assemblies and more, I kind of lost track of time and put blogging on the back burner.

I wanted to share one of my very favorite behavior management strategies ever with you.

Behold the Quiet Game.

We all have times when you're waiting with a group of kids in the hallway. Maybe waiting for 3 or 4 stragglers to finish up in the restroom, maybe waiting for the previous class to finish so you can lead your kids into the library, whatever.

To keep everyone quiet during those times, we play the quiet game. It's so easy. I start by picking the friend who is being the most quiet. Then, he or she becomes "it" and picks the friend who is being the most quiet. And so on. You would NOT believe how much my kids love this game. They BEG to play the quiet game. Every other group of kids I've ever tried it with have gotten bored with it after about two days, but these guys love it.

We get SO many compliments from other teachers for being quiet in the hallway. I have the quiet game to thank for that!

Hope you can use this with your kids and hope you have a wonderful week!

Owls Behavior Chart

I had never planned on having a theme for my classroom. That is, until Pinterest came along and I saw so many precious things that I just couldn't resist.

I (like many of you, I'm assuming) have jumped on the Owl bandwagon. I also have a lot of materials with polkadots and stripes, so my self-titled theme is going to be "Owls and Bright Colors." Original, I know. ;)

Tonight I made a behavior chart. It's certainly not anything new. This basic format has been floating around Pinterest for as long as Pinterest has existed. Using the basic outline as an inspiration, I created my own chart. I'm really proud of how it turned out.

I bought some cute owl clip art from the much-loved Scrappin Doodles. I got the black and white outline version and colored the owls on Paint to fit what I had in mind. Then, I typed up the labels and glued them to construction paper. Then I glued all of them together. Quick and easy.

The titles for each color are: Purple- Hey now! You're an "Owl"-Star; Blue- "Owl"standing Job; Green- Ready to Learn; Yellow- Stop and Think; Orange- Make Better Choices; Red- Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day

All of the kiddos will have a clothespin with their name on it. Everyone will start each day on green and can move up or down the chart depending on how they are behaving. 

At the end of the day, everyone who is on green will get one point, blues will get two and purples three. At the end of every month, the students will be able to spend their points in a class auction. I'll definitely share more about that once we actually have one. ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend!