Monday Made It Braggin about Behavior and More!

Linking up today for Tara's Monday Made It! I just LOVE that it keeps me motivated to create items for my class. 

 I can honestly say that behavior beads are one of the BEST things I added to my classroom management system over the past couple of years. I get so tired of the treasure box. So now I use class dojo and give out reward coupons and of course these Behavior Beads.

So what is a behavior badge/bead?  A badge is a necklace that each child receives and they work toward earning more tags/charms to display on their necklace. On the first day of school I give my students their own badge on a necklace.  

Here are a few ideas:

*Honor Roll

*Perfect Attendance

*Star Student

*Caught Being Good

*Good Manners

*AR

* Sight Word Master

* Lost a Tooth

So easy to make!

1. Print the Braggin About Behavior Beads

2. Cut and Laminate

3. Punch holes ( I'm off to buy a smaller hole punch tomorrow)
4. Put on ball chain necklaces ( you can purchase on etsy, craft stores or ImageStuff)

How do you display your necklaces? 

Last year I had the tags on little hooks grouped by tables. I had four tables so each hook had about 5 necklaces.

In the past, I have displayed them on a large cork board. Each necklace hangs from a thumbtack with the student’s number above the thumbtack.

Here is a CD cabinet without the selves. I used this my first year as a Brag Tag holder.

The possibilities are endless.  You can go all out or use something simple that works for you. I’d love to see pictures of your displays. Link up on Saturday Snapshots.

When do your students wear their necklaces?

Each day, students wear their chains if they choose.  At the end of the day when they go pack up their belongings..they hang their Behavior Beads back on the hooks!  The next morning when students come in they are able to put on their chains first thing in the morning. I don’t make them wear the necklaces daily. Some love to and others prefer to keep them on the hook.  I’ve seen some teachers just allow students to wear necklaces on Fridays or assemblies. Again it’s up to you.

When do they earn tags?

Two years ago I used a behavior clip chart in my classroom and every time a student ended on OUTSTANDING they earned a jewel for their clip.  Once they had 5 jewels, they earned a behavior bead/tag/badge. Last year I used class dojo. Once they had 25 points they earned a new tag. I had many different levels of tags. I also gave out tags for mastering math facts, sight words, good handwriting, displaying good character traits, and many others.  I’m excited to use my FREE 7 Habits this year.

WIG- Wildly IMPORTANT GOAL

How do you know whose necklace is whose?

I number at least one tag. It’s usually the first tag I give them. However, this year I will be making a custom tag with each child’s name on it. If you need any custom beads… I would love to make you some. Click here for customized beads. Click here for programmable tags that you do yourself.

How do I implement them?

Simply print on cardstock, laminate and cut. I’ve made them very easy to cut. I used a paper cutter and it was so fast. I punch a hole using a small punch size found at Hobby Lobby ( $3.99)

Where do you store the extra tags?

You can buy a compartment storage container at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s. I love Tara’s picture.

Where did you find the chains?

You can find them at Etsy, online, and Hobby Lobby. I bought my chains at Hobby Lobby for $7.99. If you have coupon... it’s even cheaper.  

If you have any more questions about Behavior Beads/Badges please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer them.  I'm off to check out the other fun Monday Made Its.

Monday Made It #2 

I updated my   "You're Knocking my socks off" board that I found from The First Grade Parade. Thanks to Cara for the fabulous idea. Click on her name to find the FREE stuff. Also, I made some headers if you would like to download for free.

FREE- Click on images to download 

Last Monday Made It was my portable word wall. I first found the idea at Tonya's blog.

Here is my version to match my room. I loved using a portable word wall so the students could take the words back to their desk. It was also on their eye level compared to the other word walls I had up in the classroom.

Click here to purchase

word wall cards

Interactive Word Walls

Jen, over at The Teacher's Cauldron, and April, over at Wolfelicious are both hosting Word Wall linky parties! Does your school require you to have a word wall? Mine sure does! In the past, I had a word wall to meet the requirements of the fidelity police but never really was consistent about updating and adding new words. My kids never really used it as a resource until NOW! Well this year I love my word walls. I teach first grade and second grade, so I had to come up with a way to differentiate my words. I also had to find room to fit them all. My favorite word wall this year is my whiteboard word wall. This allows me to quickly add words and change them as needed. My polka dot word wall consists of the Dolch words for each grade and our reading adoption’s weekly high frequency words.

interactive word wall

overused words

dolch words and high frequency words from

Harcourt

If you’ve ever been to a MelissaForney writing workshop you’ll know she’s big on portable word walls, spelling helps, and thematic word walls so I have a lot of them as well. Check out Melissa Forney's website. She has tons of ideas for writing. 
I also have a word wall with synonyms for overused words. I tell my kids they are “kindergarten” words.  My kids are quick to point out when authors use “kindergarten” worlds instead of our fancy words.

Now since we’re talking about words let’s also talk about vocabulary words. In the past, I was terrible at teaching tier II words. I rarely used them. Well, this year I found Melissa at F is for First grade. I purchased her vocabulary packet that contained tier II words from the most popular children’s read alouds. I already had most of the books so I was thrilled. Check them out here!

It has dramatically changed the way I teach vocabulary. Guess what she has teamed up to giveaway a packet to one lucky winner. To enter this great giveaway follow the steps below.

This is Melissa's wall! Click on picture to take you to her post about this wonderful resource.

a Rafflecopter giveaway