Tame ‘Em Tuesday & July Currently

Hi there! I hope you’re all having a “bee”-autiful Tuesday so far! Today I am linking up with The Teaching Tribune for a Tips to Tame ‘Em link party!  If you follow me on TPT, you may know that I just posted a new item for sale, Busy Bee Behavior Management.  This product stemmed from a conversation with the new-teacher mentor of my school district, and bloomed into an absolutely fabulous classroom management tool!

If you are like me, you have spent countless hours searching to find a classroom management tool to reward your kiddos who are on task.  I have been very against giving out prizes for students who are doing what they should be doing.  But, after sounding like a broken record giving reminders in my classroom, I decided that my kinders really perform for extrinsic rewards, and that the intrinsic reward of doing the right thing because they should be doing it, is just not cutting it at this age.  So, I got off my high horse, and tweaked a reward system into both an intrinsic and extrinsic motivator and guess what!? IT WORKED! At first I still dreaded the days that I brought out the prizes, but after seeing how it motivated even some of my toughest students, I decided that I was not a terrible teacher for giving these small rewards so infrequently.

Here’s the basic premise: When my kinders are on task (without a reminder from me), I give them a Busy Bee ticket.  I personally keep track of how many tickets each student has by using the recording sheet and giving them a tally mark.  However, if you want to put the responsibility more on your students, I have included an option for that as well.

When I first introduced Busy Bee, I made my students set a goal of 5 tickets.  So, when they earned 5 Busy Bee tickets from me as indicated on my recording sheet, they got to choose a prize.  They chose the prize at the end of the day, and it had to go straight into their backpack.  They would then start back at 0.

As time went on, I raised the benchmark form 5 to 8, and then finally settled on 10 tickets at the end of the year.  I was SHOCKED with how hard my kinders worked to get these tickets, and how PROUD they were of themselves when they received them and brought them home to show their families!  I even had some who kept them in their pencil boxes and would count them each day to see how many more they needed.  My finest hour was when students did not receive a ticket during one guided reading rotation, and then I saw them really turn it around during the next rotation so they could get one.  I felt like a proud momma!

Are you wondering if I spend the whole day running around and handing out these tickets? The answer is no.  I have included the sign I use in my product, which I post on my white board when I am on the search for Busy Bees.  I mostly hang the sign up during guided reading and guided math where there is always a group of students working independently.  But, I tweak it as I see that reinforcement is necessary.

Anyway, I hope that you find this product helpful if you are looking for a new classroom management tool for the new school year.  Even if you’re not, head on over to my TPT store to check it out- I’d love some feedback!

Click on the first picture below to find it at my TPT store!

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