Brag Tags Review and GIVEAWAY!

A few months ago, Denise from Boost Promotions contacted me about doing a Brag Tag review/giveaway. I happily agreed, because not only did I get 100 brag tags for free BUT I also get to give one of YOU 100 free tags!!

I knew right away that I wanted to use these tags for homework/academic achievements (biggie at my school), behavior, and AR (another biggie at my school). Here are the ones I choose:

Homework Star 

Honor Roll

"Toad"ally Awesome

AR Star

Denise gave me 25 of each, for a total of 100 tags, along with little chains to put the tags on. So here is how I set it up for my classroom:

AR STAR TAG
Remember this AR chart?

When a student earns 10 points, he/she receives the AR brag tag. I had one reach that a few weeks ago and MANNNN was he excited about his brag tag! I have a few more kids that are about halfway there and will receive their tags very soon!

HOMEWORK STAR TAG
I set up a little homework chart in my classroom to keep track of those who are doing their homework each night. I used a cookie sheet and put a magnet with each kids' name on it:

I check homework folders each morning. Students can stay in the Homework Club if their homework is complete each day--if not, then they remove their name from the HC board and put it in the multi-colored box. At the end of each week, I make a HC note in each students' folder (so I can remember who is in the HC each week) and give the Clubbers a little prize (extra tickets, pencil, eraser, snack, etc.). The prize is always random to keep interest high. At the end of the six-weeks grading period, those students who had been in the Homework Club at least 5 of the 6 weeks received the Homework Star brag tag! More excitement there!

HONOR ROLL TAG
This is pretty self-explanatory, haha. Those students with A and A/B Honor Roll received a tag.

"TOAD"ALLY AWESOME TAG
My school is a PBIS school, so that helped me select the "Toad"ally Awesome kids really easily. Every six-weeks grading period, we plan a school-wide incentive trip for all students to earn. The trip may be to a park, museum, or could even be a movie and popcorn at school. Each grade level has criteria that must be met by students in order to participate. In my grade level, students had to have fewer than 4 absences or tardies (teacher discretion, of course), have no referrals, and have earned 10 or more purples, pinks, or "off-the-chart" on our clip chart:

At the end of the six-weeks, those students who earned the trip earned a "Toad"ally Awesome brag tag!

I LOVE the idea of giving brag tags to my students! Certificates are great to pass out, but students can really show off and be proud of their achievements when they get to WEAR their accomplishments. As previously stated, my students were thrilled about earning them. The tags themselves are very durable and well-made. I love all of the design options--tons of choices--and you can even customize them. I plan on ordering some more tags to use in my classroom for the remainder of the school year.

So how would YOU use brag tags in your classroom?? You may get a chance to use some super brag tags from Boost Promotions by entering my Rafflecopter giveaway!

What do you have to do?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway runs from today until Saturday night!!

Good luck to you! :)

Accelerated Reader Prizes in My Room

We took our VERY FIRST AR (Accelerated Reader) tests last week in my classroom! Last year we didn't start until second semester and this year we were able to start in the fifth week of school--go me!!! :)

Since we are started now, I figured I should probably get my reward system for AR figured out! I spent the weekend scanning websites and soliciting ideas from some of you out there and I think I have a plan!

This will get us started--once they go beyond 10 points, I will be ready with an additional incentive chart. I don't anticipate that happening for a few weeks though! :)

I made the "Sparkling Reader" and "Glowing Reader" tags mentioned on the chart and I am happy to share them with you now!

So you get to see a live glowing shot because I accidentally activated these!!!

5 glow sticks in a pack at Walmart for $1!

  I bought the glitter pencils from Walmart for $1--12 in each pack.

And for one last incentive, I am using an idea left by an Instagrammie:

These fabulous and inexpensive beads will be worn by a student each time he/she earns 1 AR point. They will get to wear it all day and then return it at the end of the day. Sweet and simple. (I think this may end up being their favorite incentive!)

If you would like to snag a FREE copy of the aforementioned tags, visit one of my shops by clicking below:

What kind of incentives do you offer for AR?

Please share below!

Hope you had a great Monday!!! :)

Throwback Thursday

Before this week's Throwback Thursday post, I wanted to remind you about Sweet & Simple Saturday!

Don't forget to come on over and grab your freebie! :)

And now...

This linky party is meant to highlight some of your previous blog posts. Here is a throwback for you for classroom management from August 2, 2011 (WOW, that was long ago!)!

*****************ORIGINAL POST*****************

Like any teacher, I LOVE when my students make smart choices. I believe in rewarding students at random so they do not always expect a reward for doing something they probably should be doing anyway. I have always given out random rewards (like pencils, pens, treats, special privileges, etc.). I decided to make it a little more formal and create a "SMART Choice" bucket.

(With frogs, of course!) The container is not very big at all (you probably can't tell from the picture); it's only about 7 inches tall.

Right now I only have what is left over from the treasure box I used for the Summer Technology Camp I taught in back in June. I plan on hitting up The Dollar Tree, Target, and Wal-Mart to restock with items such as pencils, erasers, pens, stickers, and small toys in order to keep it simple.

I am going to implement Beth Newingham's classroom economy system for my homeroom class, so the SMART Choice bucket will be a little added bonus. My other 2 classes will only use the SMART Choice bucket.

*****************END ORIGINAL POST*****************

I have updated the labels freebie so it now includes 22 labels!!

Enjoy!!!

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 6}

So this is the final part in this not-so-mini-series! If you missed any of the posts, click below to go back:

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 1}

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 2}

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 3}

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 4}

My Math Block Mini-Series {Part 5}

So...

...you have learned about Number of the Day...

...Mystery Number, and calendar time.

I know what you're wondering--what else are you doing?? Well, I will tell you, my friends!

Math Lesson/Stations

At the conclusion of calendar time, half of my class goes to stations and the other half goes to the mat with me for the day's lesson.

My class is, literally, half and half in the area of academics, so I have them split high and low (yeah, yeah, I know all the arguments about ability grouping, but I have tried it several different ways and this works best for us).

Lesson
Almost all of my lessons are taught in these small groups, though some days are whole group if the lesson warrants. My district has adopted CSCOPE (woohoo!--no, really, I like it) so each lesson is loosely based on the activities described in the CSCOPE exemplar lessons (if you have ever used CSCOPE you know that tweaking and supplemental materials is a necessity!). Lesson time is great in small groups! I am really able to zero in on struggles the students may have OR provide extensions for those doing well. In fact, my groups may be on different lessons on the same day if one group has trouble understanding.

For lesson/station time, I have 50 minutes, so I spend 25 minutes with each group. My lesson typically starts with a review of some sort in the form of a discussion or short game. After that, we dive right in! During the lesson, we use manipulatives, play games, have discussions, do partner work, and maybe even complete a recording sheet or worksheet. I obtain grades from the worksheets or with a checklist of skills they need to master. We end the lesson with a little reflection time, either as a discussion or write it on a sticky and put it on a chart.

Stations
My kids love station time and (for the most part) do a great job of staying focused and completing work.

(Don't judge her numbers, that pic is from much earlier in the year!!)

The station activities don't really follow a set pattern (they vary by the day or week) and we do not do rotations. Instead, the students simply follow the sequence of the activities I have laid out for them. Here is an example from last week:

They know to work in order from left to right. I typically give 3-4 activities because they will be at stations for about 25 minutes. All of the activities are able to be completed within the timeframe, though I sometimes will choose an activity that takes more than one day to complete, such as my friend, Mr. Moneybags McGee here!:

On the above pictured day's stations, the students first completed a worksheet on time (I also will use station activities for grades). After that, they did a coin sort:

Then animal plate fact families (wayyyyyy fun!):

If they finish all of that then they work on the number boards until it is time to switch. 

I purchased two sets from Really Good Stuff for really cheap! The kids love them and I love how they are an easy time filler.

During station time and for the station group, I assign an "Ask Me" person to assist those who have questions while I am working with the small group. That person also gets to wear this ever-so-coveted tag:

I do this because the small group time goes by so fast, so it is important that it remains uninterrupted. I also want to ensure that the station kids are taken care of and aren't wasting time by doing the wrong thing (since I am not directly supervising the activities they are involved in).  If the "Ask Me" person cannot answer a question, then he/she may come and ask me (better to have 1 ask than 15 others; even then, I rarely have to answer questions).

Grab a copy of the tag, if you need one, by clicking below!

I store mostly all of the station activities I have in these drawers:

Baggie games ready to go.

The drawers are sorted by concept or "big idea" (number sense, place value, money, time, addition/subtraction, etc.). I also have some supplies stored in these drawers.

Wrap-Up

We usually conclude the day's math work with Lone Star Math on the Promethean board.

Whew--well, this series is now finished! Thanks for checking it out! Feel free to comment or email with any questions!  :)

And remember the little giveaway I have going right now! The winners will be announced this evening. Here is what is at stake:

 

 

 

Check it out by clicking here!

Happy Saturday!