Camper of the Week: A Student of the Week Classroom Management System

Hey friends! Happy Saturday! Long time no blog! I will have a new look around the blog soon with a brand new name! I felt it was time for a change for the current season of my life. So stay tuned for that coming soon and my hope is to do better with my blogging and make time for it as I've always loved it so much.

Coming off of the 2nd full week back to school, I wanted to stop by the blog today and share with you something I've been doing in my classroom for several years now that I LOVE and have found super duper effective in helping me manage ALLLLL the things. 

Each week in my camping themed classroom I have a Camper of the Week. This special student is featured in the hallway on my large camper display for everyone to learn about. The Camper of the Week is my special helper and line leader for the entire week. So no changing or keeping track of daily leaders/helpers. If a job/task requires more than one helper then the Camper of the Week gets to pick a friend... and they love picking a friend! Lots of times they want to pick someone to help out even if it is a one man job. They love to spread the Camper of the Week love and duties around! HA 

This year, due to Covid 19, we eat in the classroom for lunch and encore (besides PE) takes place in the classroom, so the line leader duties have been cut down. But if we do go somewhere like outside for recess, then this student will get to lead the way. 


I've had a camping theme the last 5 years. This yellow camper is my newer one I made. They painted the hallways a couple summers ago and I had to take down the original (see it below).. and sadly it didn't make it through to see another year. RIP purple camper you were loved!



Here you can see how I display the poster on the camper. I got the Owl posters from Oriental Trading. I've also got them from Amazon and Really Good Stuff. I send them home along with a note explaining the special week on the Thursday or Friday before their week as the Camper of the Week. This gives them the weekend to work on their poster. They bring it back on Monday and share with the class and then I laminate it and hang it out in the hallway for others to learn all about our special Camper. 

The Camper of the Week has the option of bringing in a special snack (pre-packaged of course) to share with the class on Friday... and they love this! It's perfect if you can make it where that student's birthday is during that week because usually they want to send in birthday treats during that week so this covers both of those in one lick! :)


Other things that having a student of the week can help do is with managing show in tell. Dedicate a certain day during your student of the week's week a day for show and tell. This way each student has the chance to do it, it's one day a week and you are done. 

This little gal was this past week's Camper of the Week. She brought her Hamster, Maddie, in for show and tell! I work with her mom and have permission to share the pic! :)

Having a student of the week is also a great chance for students to lift that special student up with compliments and kind words. We all need those! I let students write special letters to the Camper of the Week and bind them together into a special little book... it makes a great little keepsake!

I also let the Camper of the Week be the Go Noodle DJ. So they get to pick the brain breaks out for the whole entire week!

Don't have a camping theme but would love to implement this?? I have a variety of themes to choose from in my little tpt store. These packs include everything you need to get a student of the week going in your classroom... PLUS NO MORE CHANGING JOBS/LEADERS daily!! That was a game changer for me friends! Plus, I've included editable notes in these packs so you can tweak it and make it your own. 

I currently have the following themes: Camping, Jungle/Monkey, Rock Star, Llama, Cactus, Circus, and Owl.  CLICK HERE to check out all of the options currently available.

Don't see your theme but would love to implement this in your class?? I'd love to help! Shoot me a message and let me know what your theme is and I will get busy on it!







How do you manage ALLLL the things in your classroom or celebrate students??


Happy Sunday! If you are back to school I hope it is going well and off to a smooth as possible start!





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