The Giving Tree
The Giving Tree is a helpful tool to praise your students and let students praise others. This tool helps bring the classroom together and create a positive atmosphere.
Student Directed & Collaborative
Tell Me Something Good
This tool is helpful because it is a way to start your mornings off on a good note as well as to check in on your student’s mental mindset as they are beginning their school day. It is also a helpful way to get to know your students and their interests.
Classroom Jobs
Having jobs in your classroom help builds a sense of community and responsibility within your classroom. The jobs help students feel included throughout the day and feel needed.
Quiet Critters
Quiet Critters is a cute way to help manage volume during work time. It is a little ‘critter’ that is made at the beginning of the year by the students that only like to come out when it is quiet time.
Fill your Bank
This tool is helpful when you want to praise your students for being kind and staying engaged. This tool helps bring together a classroom community.
Put In Your Two Cents
This tool is used to prevent the same handful of students from responding all the time. Each student gets two pretend pennies and each time they respond they must put a penny in the jar. They may not give a response until everyone else has put in their two cents. This management tool is great for all grade bands because all classrooms can benefit from giving students equal chances to participate.
Classroom Mailbox
I took a previous tool and changed it to fit my classroom better. The students write in their letter in a certain color, let’s say blue if they want a teacher check-in, advice, or help and another color let’s say orange if they just need to get something off their chest (example, tattling or having a bad day)
Morning Class Greeting
This tool is something to incorporate into a morning meeting with the class. Each student takes a turn being greeted by their peers at the beginning of the meeting. I think this is a great tool to use with young students in order to build a strong and positive classroom community.
Light Up Ready Buttons
This tool is a light up button that when pressed you can turn it on and off. This could be used in a group setting where each group gets a button that they will have to press to turn on when they are finished with their task or assignment. This could also be used in an individual setting where the students would press the button to light it up when to indicate that they are finished with their work.
Stop and Reflect
This tool is for after something has happened, and a student needs to Stop and Reflect on the situation. This gives students the opportunity to explain how they are feeling and what they could’ve done differently to change the situation for the better.
