Taming the Wild! {Teacher Week}

Hey blog friends! Just popping in real quick to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week. I wanted to share a few of the ways that I try to "tame the wild" in my classroom.

First up is my "Behavior to Roar About" Clip Chart. I've been using a clip chart for the past few years and really like it! I think it works well and I really like that it rewards those who are making above and beyond choices instead of just focusing on all of the negative behaviors. Since I changed my theme this year to a monkey/jungle/safari theme I wanted to change my clip chart to match my theme. So I traded in the guitar for a palm tree! :)  I found the cute sayings for the clip chart from Kathleen Regan on tpt. 

Next up is my compliment palm tree... In the past I have used a marble jar and added marbles for compliments and we have worked towards an ice cream party, popcorn party, free day, etc. when we met our compliment goal. This year we are going "bananas" for compliments and I am adding a banana each time we get a compliment. The picture isn't real clear but it says at the bottom "we go bananas for compliments!" The bananas and monkey hut at the bottom of tree are from Creative Teaching Press.

please ignore the star border in above pic... I ran out of monkey border and until I get some more I just left up what was already there.....

 t-totally-tacky and it doesn't match I know! HA

 Next up is my classroom economy system. I have used this system every year that I've been teaching and really love it. My first three years I used behavior bucks, then I changed to "warm fuzzies" for a couple of years and this year I changed it to "monkey tokens." Students earn monkey tokens for making good choices, being quite, answering a really tough question, using manners, helping a friend, etc. Each monkey token is worth a $1 in our classroom. They can use the monkey tokens to cash in on Friday at our classroom store. It costs 5 monkey tokens to get something from the candy-treat box and 10 monkey tokens to get into the treasure box. Students also have the option of saving them up for something larger that costs 50 monkey tokens. Some examples of this are a Sonic slush, a Blizzard, sit by a friend for the day, sit at the teacher's desk for the day, lunch with the teacher and a friend, etc. Usually the monkey tokens are burning a hole in their little pockets and they cash them in as soon as they can! My kids are going nuts over them and working super hard to earn them and I'm loving it!!

This is what I'm using for my monkey tokens... these are the Monkey 1" Mini Designer Cut-Outs from Creative Teaching Press. LOVE!!! :)

Lastly... This year I decided to try something new with the way we line up. In an effort to cut down on line chaos and too much chattiness I gave everyone a line number. They line up in the same order everywhere we go. We practiced it several times the first day of school and now they have it down pat! So far our line has been super quite and we are getting lots of compliments, which makes me one happy teacher! :)

 I had back to school open house on day 2 of teacher week so I didn't get a chance to show off my classroom digs for teacher week. I will be back soon to share some pics with you of my classroom!

Well that's all I got for tonight!