Happy Monday everybody! The sun is finally shining and it was nearly 75 degrees here in NC today! Can you tell I'm ready for some warm weather? Talk about having spring fever!
I think the kids are feeling the same way. They earned their last brownie for the pan Friday, so I was up early this morning making fresh brownies. Now, why I didn't do it last night, who knows. I'll blame it on the time change this weekend. :-) Setting clocks forward one hour sure did throw me for a loop. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll all be back in the swing of things.
We've been doing brownie points since the beginning of the year and I thought it might be time for a fresh idea. I showed them my Complimentary Cupcakes from my Teacher's Bag of Tricks pack on TPT. We voted to either keep brownies or switch to cupcakes. They voted to switch! {Maybe it was the colorful cupcakes that won them over.} See the pics below of our brownie pan --now converted to our new complimentary cupcakes pan.
The sweet treats are attached to Velcro. The rough side is attached to the pan, so whenever I switch my treats, I'll just need to remember to put the soft side on them. This makes the pan more versatile, without having to create a new pan each time we want a new sweet incentive.
As the temperatures rise, it's usually the same with some misbehavior. The kids have been together for 7 months now and are having less patience with each other. I started using Class Dojo this school year and that helps keep them on track. Friends at school have used it and raved about it. So I thought I would give it a try.
Again, with any kind of technology, I'm moving forward at a snail's pace and I gradually introduced myself to Class Dojo back in September. I wanted to start out very simple, so I began by having one goal for the week in order for students to get a treat / prize. I think it was like 5 points by Friday and the students earned the treat. That worked okay while we all got adjusted to this new, exciting technology.
By the second nine weeks, I created a chart {see pics below} and began rewarding students each afternoon before dismissal. This was now our "Dojo Time". They loved it! A few weeks ago I bought a plastic container with small drawers to keep some of my little Dojo treats in. Each afternoon I use a class roster to record the number of points students had that day. If they made it to a "reward" level I'll put a check beside their number. It makes it easy for me the next day to notice who's been rewarded. I reset my class points every Friday. Exception: when we were out for the snow days in Jan. / Feb. I would carry the points over until the next week. This allowed some students to earn treats they may not normally earn in one week, which gave them a boost to work hard the next week.
Our points only go to 30 {for now}. Remember, I had to start s-l-o-w. We'll adjust the points as students start earning more {and I make sure I'm giving more}. I call this our Dojo piloting year. :-)
Good luck with classroom management in the upcoming warmer months. Spring is right around the corner!
Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café! :-)
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