Student Contributor: H. Tate
Fuzzy Friend is a stuffed animal of any sort that will remain on a different student’s desk every day. Students will decide at the end of each day which student was helpful, friendly, giving, respectful, etc. will get the fuzzy friend to sit on their desk the next day.
This is a fun tool that kids will enjoy doing every day. This is a strategy that can support the classroom community where students are looking for good behavior in the classroom each day. It encourages students to be on their best behavior and show kindness to everyone. Students are able to decide as a class who they thought was being extra kind and that student who is chosen will get the chance to have the stuffed animal as their personal fuzzy friend for the day. There may be sometimes where students arent all picking the same student, so it can be on which student was chosen more. Students who choose another student will explain why they are choosing that student and examples of when they saw the student doing something kind. Overall, this will help the students give out compliments to other students for things they may do. Something you can do is encourage students to watch all students in the classroom and not just their friends. This can prevent students from only picking their friends.
The phase of management this tool supports is the supportive phase. Not only does it promote classroom community, but it has students give others compliments on things they see students doing in the classroom and even outside of the classroom like at recess or lunch. It should always be positive compliments and students are encouraged to look at people who may not be in their friend group so all students can be recognized. This is also a student-directed strategy because students are recognizing other students within the classroom community. It could also be used to prevent negative behavior because they know that all the students in the classroom are looking for positive behavior.
More Information –
Tool Source: A website
Behavior Buddies: Using Stuffed Animals as a Positive Classroom Management Tool
