Fun Friday is a great (and inexpensive) reward system to use
in the classroom! It can be an incentive
for students who have finished all their classwork during the week, for
students that displayed good behavior during the week, etc.
I have always used Fun Friday in my classroom. In the past, I used it as a reward system for
students that finished their classwork during the week. I never had a structured way of doing Fun
Friday. That meant my Fun Friday time during
the day would be rather hectic. I would
have too many games out so my classroom would be a huge mess. I would also have too many students playing
at a game which would make the classroom rather loud.
This year I’ve changed how I do Fun Friday! Through some trial and error I’ve made it a
structured and smooth process! Here’s
how my Fun Friday time now works…
Throughout the week my students earn “Golden Sticks” for
positive behavior. They try to collect
as many sticks as they can during the week.
Here is a picture of my “Golden Sticks.” I’ve just painted hundreds and hundreds of popsicle
sticks gold.
On Friday, the students arrange their “Golden Sticks” in
groups of five. I also have the students
lay out their “Work in Progress” Folder.
I walk around the room and write down how many sticks each student
earned during the week. If a student has
an empty “Work in Progress” folder (which means they finished all their
classwork during the week) I give them an additional five sticks.
Once I write down their total number of sticks they earned
that week the students turn their sticks in.
I give them a slip of paper that has their total number of sticks they
earned. They take their slip and they
use it to line up in order from the student with the most sticks all the way
down to the student with the least number of sticks. (This has been a great way to practice
ordering numbers from greatest to least! Ha!) This line order determines which
students get to pick their Fun Friday activity first.
Since this “Golden Stick” behavior system is something that
all the first grade teacher’s use – we decided to combine Fun Friday to make it
even better for the students! It allows
us to have more game options and also allows the students to be able to play
with their friends in other classes.
Here is what our First Grade Fun Friday board looks like!
Each Fun Friday activity is attached to the board using
Velcro Dots. This allows us to switch
out Fun Friday activities throughout the year very easily. We also use color coded clothes pins. This allows us to easily see if the students
went to the right activity or not.
On Friday we roll out our Fun Friday board into the hallway
that is attached to a pocket chart stand.
We call the first three students that are in line (the ones that earned
the most sticks during the week) out into the hallway to pick their activity
first. The students find the activity
they want, take the clothes pin, place it on their shirt, and go to the classroom
with that activity in it. Once those
students have chosen their activity, we call the next three students out and so
on and so forth. Once all the clothes
pins have been taken from an activity that activity is then closed. This prevents too many students from being at
one center. It is also a great incentive
for the students to want to earn as many sticks as they can during the
week. If they have the most sticks they
will be able to choose any activity they want.
However, if they don’t earn many sticks during the week the activity they
want might be closed. Therefore, they
will have to pick a different activity to go to. It also gives those students with the most
sticks more playtime than those that have to continue to wait in line to pick
their activity. We usually allow for Fun
Friday to be about 45 minutes on Friday.
The students look forward to this every week!
Click HERE to download my EDITABLE Fun Friday Board Setup to
make your own board for your classroom or grade level!
0 comments:
Post a Comment