Behavior in the Classroom: Token Systems

Hello Teachers!

Welcome back from your Labor Day weekend.  I hope all of you enjoyed the long weekend.  By now most of you are one week or more into your school year, and some of you are just starting.  Regardless, I think we would all agree that a peaceful classroom is a happy classroom.  I would like to encourage my color system people to take a look at the potential of a token system with your kiddos.  This is good for 2 reasons:

1) Less work for you keeping track of who is on what color
2) Children taking more personal responsibility for their behavior

The beauty of using a token system is that you have multiple options for giving or taking away.  Students in Pam's class have to receive 10 Quality Quentin dollars in order to visit her prize bin.

This is a free download in our store

Students have to keep track of these dollars on their own and do not get replacements if they are lost.  This gives your kiddos a first look into the world of personal finances.  Also, when a child has to give up a Quentin Dollar for bad behavior, the experience has a more concrete effect.  Children also get to explore early math concepts because they will count to see how many more Quentin Dollars they need to go to the prize box.

There was one girl who wanted to get something for her brother's birthday and it was the end of the week.  Pam offered to give the girl a loan until she could earn the rest of her dollars.  She was able to explain to this girl how the bank gives loans thst people have to pay back.

The kids love having "money" and it teaches them a lot about basic economics.  

Hope King does a really cute token system involving keys.  You may not be able to do trips with your kiddos, but you could modify the system to include prizes or privledges.

This article from The Autism Helper talks more in depth about token systems and how to apply them effectively.

So, what do you think?  Do you agree with the token system, or disagree?  What works in your classroom?  

Have a great rest of your week!

Labor Day SALE! New Word of the Day books!

We have many teacher friends that are starting back to school next week with their kiddos so we wanted to put our store on SALE to grab those last minute resources! We have back to school activities, units with songs, scoot games and so much more:) 

This is our newest product and I have to tell y'all that I love these books! My daughter Brittany wrote them to the tune of familiar piggy back songs. I tried them for the first time this week because it was our first week back to school and my kiddos loved them! 

One buyer likes them for her ELL students:

"Great for ESOL and other students who need to strengthen vocabulary and reading skills. The real life photos are wonderful for making connections. Thank you!"

Click on picture to purchase or read more.

We want y'all to try these books out so we are offering them for 50% off Sept.5!

 I made the sheet with the lyrics into a poster and laminated it so the students could see the words as we sang the song and then circle the words that come from our Word of the Day Sept. calendar.

 Then they go back to their seats and highlight the word of the day in their books.

 They also love sharing, singing and reading the books together.

These back to school books are based on words from our Sept. Calendar:

 After we do the group calendar and introduce the word of the day, the students go back to their seats and complete their calendars and their books.

 They keep them in a pocket folder so they can keep themselves organized. We will hole punch the completed Sept.calendar at the end of September so they can collect the words and be able to review them throughout the year! These words have really helped my kiddos with vocabulary as well as writing skills:)

One buyer said: "It is a great way to add fun and learning right to our calendar time! Best part is no extra work for me. It was a great purchase!"

We hope that y'all will check our store out and please let us know if you would like to see something else we can create for you:)

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend!

A Quality Student Craft and Free Song!

We made these cute "Quality Students" after singing and learning all about what a quality student was this week.

We sang and danced to this song that teaches the kiddos all about good behavior. They also learn to spell"Quality" as they sing the song. We are offering this fun song for free!

The first thing we did was meet Quality Quentin, our class mascot and I read them his book about being a quality student.

Then we had a class meeting where we pass Quentin around the circle and each student introduced themselves and said what they remembered from the song about good behavior. They said, "My name is_________ and a quality student__________________. I was so pleased to see so many of them remember things from the song:)

The students illustrated their own books about what all the letters of "Quality" stood for.

Here are more sheets that are in the Back to School Unit. The song, books,crowns are also in this large pack. There is also fun puppets and a pocket chart poem included. We will be offering this unit that helps teach about good behavior 50% off today and tomorrow!:) Just click on the picture to purchase.

Then the kiddos made themselves as "Quality Students." First you take a 12"x18" and fold it so you have 8 squares.

Then cut out the first and last square on the bottom row.

Then you cut out a small triangle to make pants.

Then you fold the first and last square on the first row in the middle, and glue the two squares you cut out behind these squares to make sleeves.

Then ut out a head and glue it on the back.

Next the students will decorate them with yarn for hair or they can just draw their hair. My kiddos love the yarn! My girls also decided to make skirts.

This little guy decided to add a mustache:)

Some of them also added shoes and hands. Lastly the students wrote their name, and what made them a quality student . They had a lot of fun using their creativity!

We hope you enjoyed our activity and that your kiddos will enjoy the Quality Student song. If y'all download the song or buy the unit, we would love to know if you had success with it:)

Thank you so much!

Teacher Troubles: What Keeps You Awake at Night?

Hey Teacher Friends!

We want to reach out and ask you what your most plaguing thoughts and questions are on a daily basis.  As we have expressed, our goal is to give you fun resources that target multiple modalities so you can have successful learners in the classroom.  One thing we would like to know is what pitfalls are preventing you from feeling your kiddos are succeeding?  We are here for you and want to provide you with as many opportunities and resources as possible.  Comment below to share your woes and then subscribe for follow ups to your burning questions :)

Sensory Fun for All

Hello out there teacher friends!

This post is all about sensory today.  I wasn't really even familiar with the concept until I entered the early childhood field, but I think it's benefits extend to older children.  The act of playing in and manipulating the material stimulates the child, opening his or her mind to the learning task at hand.

Alphabet Sensory

You can differentiate this activity all the way up through 2nd or 3rd grade by incorporating sight words, spelling words, vocabulary words, etc.

Here's an awesome twist to the above idea.  Same concept, different process: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178666310193234538/

Sensory Bottles

These can be used for a Science center to help children explore their environment, or as a calming tool for behavior issues in the classroom.  You can even have the kids make their own as an art project.  Children can make bottles with different habitats or a rainbow of colors for Science.  You can have bottles for big/small, short/long, shapes, etc. for Math.  There are tons of things you can do and they look really cool!

A simpler version of this is sensory bags: http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/p/baby-play.html

Magnetic Sensory

This is a great idea for a magnetic unit.  You can add Math to the mix by having the kiddos sort the different tools.

Here's another way to take sensory to the next level: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/76490893646534111/

Hopefully this sheds some light on how sensory can be useful not just for early childhood, but for elementary ages as well.  Feel free to share your own personal experiences or ideas for how to bring these valuable tools into the classroom!

Back to School SALE!! Part 2 and a Giveaway!

Ok TpT fans,

We are having another Back to School SALE for those of you that didn't stock up enough during the first one at the beginning of the month.  This sale is ONE DAY ONLY so make sure you save the date!  We will be debuting our newly revised Word of the Day September and October calendars complete with Cut&Paste student calendars.  Here's a preview:

These calendars are designed to be more interactive for your students.  You can choose to have students write the number or simply use the sheet with pretyped numbers.  Students can also color the appropriate pattern for each day.    Here are a couple of comments from our buyers:

"It is a great way to add fun and learning right to our calendar time! Best part is no extra work for me. It was a great purchase!"
And:"Such a great resource. It has really served to grow my students vocabulary and they are using it now in their writing. Thanks so much!"


As another special bonus, we have completely redesigned our October calendar.  It's much prettier now:

Just click on the picture below to purchase:

We have other Word of the Day Products that you can check on by clicking on the picture below:

In addition, we are revising our Community Helpers bundle so that all the no prep sheets are in black and white!

Before

After

Make sure y'all go over to our new collaborative blog and enter to win a Target Gift Card on Aug.19!  We are giving more prizes away so 

check back there to enter.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6442445283067840503#editor/target=post;postID=4738360667086981900;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=12;src=link

Lastly, stay tuned for some exciting news regarding our Word of the Day products.  We will be releasing something brand new very soon that will enhance vocabulary building in your classroom.  Be one of the first 5 people to share this blog post on Twitter or Facebook or instagram and you will get this new product FREE!!  Just comment below to let us know where you shared it. 

Thanks everyone,

Bloglovin'

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