Pop into Primary with Mrs. Palmer: Another TpT game and Clip Chart!

Good evening! It has been a SUPER ~~chaotic and swamped~~ busy week here! Our play practices for Grease are in full swing this month! Between that and my little man I have not had time to post for a week! But...here I am!

A bit of a random post today, but just couldn't wait to share my second TpT product. This new product is a companion product to my first This or That? game. Like I said before, my students LOVE This or That?. We play it at the end of math so I know who understood the lesson, or sometimes, in the mornings during morning meeting. Visit my TpT store or click on the image below to download this game with your kiddos!

When I first started teaching I realized that everything I learned in my textbooks wouldn't work well in my classroom. Classrooms are not a one size fits all environment! So...I spent a few months "trying on" several different behavior managment strategies until I found the one that worked for me. Then came the Clip Chart. (Clip Chart + me = behavior management bliss!) Below is an image of my clip chart I created based on this site. (If you plan on implementing a clip chart I really recommend reading the pdf books on this site first!!)

The clip chart is great because of these reasons: 1-It is free for me!!, 2-the kids are HIGHLY motivated by it, 3-it rewards positive behavior instead of only punishing bad behaviors like traditional card flipping behavior management systems work, and 4-every kiddo gets a fresh start daily!

Here is how it works in our classroom: If the kids are "caught" doing something above and beyond the can clip up. If they are having a rough time, they clip down. (They still have a chance to clip up if they are at yellow...but orange and red, no go!) If they make it to the blue top level, "Outstanding" the get a marker dot. (Some teachers use stickers but I found that they came off all the time.) After 5 marker dots they get the next colored clip. (OH my goodness, I forgot to mention...one of my classroom jobs is "clip chart" and that student puts all the clips back to green each morning...another reason I love the clip chart. I might forget to put the clips back but the kids WON't...it is far too important to them!)

EVERY students starts on Green-Ready to Learn each morning...no matter where they ended up the day before.

Our clip progression goes like this: plain, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, glitter. The glitter clip is the holy grail of clips people! The kids covet these glitter clips like nothing else. The first time a kiddo gets a glitter clip each year the same question pops up: What comes after the glitter clip? They ask this with wide eyes and I have an amazing answer...you get to design your own clips after the glitter clip!!!! The gasps and giggles after this announcement make me smile every time! I have a bin with scrapbook embellishments, pom poms, sea shells, and all sorts fun trinkets behind my desk. The kiddos select what they want for their "designer" clip and I hot glue it on.