Monday, October 19, 2015

Fun Friday Behavior Management System


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!

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