Behavior Management with Money

Once upon a time, I had this fabulous behavior management system that I had used for 12 years. I used it in grades 2-5 and it worked in all those grades! If you want to read about it, you can check out {THIS} post.

Then last year, I moved to a new school. And the whole school does the clip chart. I'm not a fan. But I don't like to get in trouble, so of course I complied. But I did a combination of my old system and the clip chart system. You can read about THAT in {THIS} post.

Well, this year, I'm changing it up a bit. Still using the clip chart and I'm still using the prize pass, but this time, I'm not doing Teeny's tag system. Sorry, Teeny! I'm doing it with money!  Do I believe that kids should get "paid" for good behavior? no, of course not. But instead of doing the tabs, I'm paying them with coins. This will definitely help with their recognition of coins and their value. And I already have kids telling me they need a nickel for their 5 pennies! That's what I call a win!

So, let me break it down for you.

Every student keeps their personal clip chart on their desk. You don't have to use a personal one, I just don't like having one up front the world to see. These are from Rachelle at {What the Teacher Wants.}  I buy the small little clothespins and I keep them in our desk hoppers. I got those from {Really Good Stuff.} The coin containers I got from The Dollar Tree. They just happened to hve my class colors so I scooped up a bunch!


Sooo.. instead of moving the kids up and down all day, because I'm really bad about that, I use caution cards. I learned this from some of my teammates. And I thought this was brilliant, so I started using it and it helps me to move the kids up throughout the day. 

So, there are 2 times during the day that I do a whole class "movement." I do it before we go to activity and then before the end of the day. Instead of moving kids down, I hand out caution cards.  When the "movement" time comes, I collect caution cards for that  round.  One caution card means you don't get to move up, but you don't move down, either. Two caution cards means you move down one and three caution cards? Well, that's a problem, I guess - ha! You are moving down twice for that. And unless you are have moved up, that's already on Parent contact.   BUT, if you're on parent contact in the first movement, you can turn your day around during the second "round." After I move the whole class and collect caution cards, they start over....meaning caution card free. They stay where they are on the chart though. Right before we leave for the day, I do another movement. If you don't have a caution card during this round  you can move up one, EVEN if you had caution card the first round. THIS round you didn't have one, so you can move up. 


Now, sometimes your behavior is so bad...or so good, that I will move you up or down personally. So at the end of the day you could end up on "Top of the Chart."


Does that make sense? Yes? No? I don't know. It's kind of hard to put in words.

So, the next part.. they get paid for their clip charts. 
Green - nothing. womp womp. If you end up on green, that means that I've had to talk to you too many times that day and you couldn't move up at all.
Blue - 1 cent
Purple - 2 cents
Top of the Chart - 3 cents

Now, if you are on yellow or red?? You owe ME money.
Yellow - 1 cent
Red - 2 cents

What do they do with their money??

Well, I don't do a treasure box. BUT something I've used for the last few years and STILL love to this day is the prize pass I got from Christie! You can check out her post on it {HERE}.

I broke up the passes into two different catalogs; 15 cents and 25 cents.

You can choose what you want to do for each catalog, and I don't even use all of her passes. One that I DID add in was to buy a classroom job that they wanted. 


Later on in the year, I will increase the cost of the passes and increase the amount they can earn for each color. But right now, I want them to become familiar with pennies and nickels. We are already trading coins! They know that 5 pennies gets traded for a nickel and 2 nickels for a dime. They are on their way! I'll be sure to post about it when I increase everything, so I can share how it's been going.

If you want the caution cards, click on the picture below!






7 comments

Lori said...

I'm really interested in your idea, Jen, and thinking how I might make it work in my classroom. The one thing I'm struggling with is how you pay them. Do you make that a class job? That's the only thing I can come up with :-) Thanks for sharing your caution cards!
Lori

Unknown said...

I love the caution cards and you behavior system!

Unknown said...

I love the caution cards and you behavior system!

Jen R said...

Hi Lori!
No, its not a class job. I do it. It takes a few minutes. I just walk around and ask them how much they get (they need to be able to tell me) and then after I make my rounds, I ask if anyone needs to trade out coins.

Chris Saunders said...

Hi --I love your posts and products!!! What do you do for early finishers--would love to hear-you have such amazing ideas! :) Thanks Chris

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