If you're a kindergarten teacher who dreams of thematic centers that are BOTH...
Well, I’m back from the Whole Brain Teaching conference! I learned so many great ideas- I hope I remember them all!! I will be discussing WBT and how I plan to implement it within my class. I have ALOT of ideas but I would rather test them in my own room and leave you with how it goes for me along the way.
In my classroom last year I had several behavior management systems; clip chart, punch cards, treasure chest, good behavior catalogue, tiger bucks, etc. This upcoming year I was wanting to combine the incentives with one another or eliminate completely. Well, whatcha know- Whole Brain has their own version of a year long behavior management, called Super Improvers. I do love the idea of the Super Improvers because it is year long and is displayed in the classroom for the kids to see daily! WBT uses a baseball themed improvement system (rookie, phenom, starter, hall of famer). Well, not that much into baseball so my teaching buddy and I came up with our own! Our levels are beginner, learner, team leader, team captain, MVK (most valuable Kid/Kindergartner), Whiz Kid, specialist, pro, super star, and genius. All students must receive 10 stars from the teacher in order to move up to the next level. You can stamp or color stars, or you could give them star stickers. Below is the cards my kiddos will keep in their crayons boxes. I will most likely place a sticker or draw a star on the card. The other version could be if you wanted them to color in the star.
There are many great ideas and ways to display your super improvers wall. I moved mine around in my classroom about 10 times! There is also many ways to display the kiddos progress. I decided to display the levels and then each time a student reaches that level they get a star with their name that is a matching color of the level they are now on. Each time they move up a level they get to put up their new star and take the old one home to show their parents. Below is a picture. Note that the stars are made up with fake names because it’s Summer and I wanted give you a visual!! I have not tested this in my room yet, so it’s possible I will vary this a little. I will keep you informed!!
Some alternate versions I considered was giving each student a clothespin and they place it on the level. I like this idea but I do a daily clip chart and I think ‘move your clip’ becomes standard talk and differentiating which clip to move could get tiresome. I also considered those little envelopes that are found in the back of a library book. The student could then just change out a slip of paper inside the envelope. There are also other ways of implementing this on Pinterest and other great blogs.
One last thing- I have made these 2 signs for my door as well. Of course my lap top’s battery ran down just as I was printing, so I haven’t yet hung them. Get these 2 posters as well as the Super Improvers level cards below! Enjoy and please leave me a comment and let me know what ya think!
Get the above FREEBIE printables and more by clicking below!
If you are looking for additional information on Whole Brain Teaching check out their site www.wholebrainteaching.com it’s great!!
