Puttin' the Hammer Down!

Whew! This school year is wearing me out.  My afternoon group of sweeties are very social a.k.a......very talkative.  They talk during circle.  They talk during snack......non-stop so they are not eating.  They talk during story time.  You get the drift.  This is not my first rodeo, so I understand how the beginning of the year takes time to get everyone in the routine.  However, I was not seeing any improvement.  I decided to take action.  I told my sweeties that I had not really shown them what I expected of them.  I made charts with visuals.  We went over my expectations.  And, then we practiced.....and practiced.......and practiced.  It was A.MAZ.ING!  Duh, why hadn't I ever done this before?  Here are a few pictures of my charts.

 

I also made a treasure box chart for my class.  In order to get treasure box, my sweeties have to get happy faces on their daily notes.  At the end of the week, if they have had acceptable behavior, they get to choose one item from the treasure box.  This year I have one little who was having trouble understanding why he wasn't getting treasure box if he did not have a good week.  I wanted him to make that connection, so now at the end of the day everyone checks their notebooks to see if they have a happy face.  If they do they get to put a sticker on the chart, making it tangible more immediately rather than waiting until the end of the week.  At the end of the week, we look at the chart to see if treasure box was earned.  This has helped tremendously. If you would like a copy of my treasure box chart, click HERE.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)