From 1st grade to Kindergarten

[kjtitleone]

Hi!

I have been teaching for 30 years, mostly Title 1, and first grade. I will teach Kindergarten next year. I taught kindergarten almost 30 years ago, but I know times have changed. I am fairly certain about how to handle the curriculum, but could use help on behavior management and helping reinforce classroom rules for kindergarteners.

Thanks!

[Kteacher]

I taught title one first, and then moved to Kinder. A lot of what you did before will probably work. I'm sure you know to keep the number of rules low, and use positive language. Such as "keep your hands to yourself", as opposed to "don't hit". What behavior system did you use for your 1st students?

[liteacher]

I have been teaching kindergarten for 20 years. The best behavior management procedure is the card system. Either in a pocket chart or on a bulletin board each child has a set of 4 cards. The cards are placed in a pocket green, yellow, blue, and red. The cards are placed in the pocket green showing first, yellow behind green, blue behind yellow and red behind blue. Everyday all of the students cards are showing green. When someone does not follow the rules you take that child's green card and put it to the back of the students stack. This is a warning for that child. If the child continues to misbehave, you take the yellow card and put it at the back of the child's stack. The blue card showing means this child will lose some kind of privilege for the day. If the child continues to misbehave, you take the blue card and place it at the back of the student's stack. The red card showing means that you will now phone home and discuss this issue with the student's parents. You must follow through on this! This strategy is very visual for all of the students. The goal for all of the students is to keep their green card visible and then they know that they are having a great day. This really works! Children who don't have any of their cards moved will get a sticker on their individual sticker chart and when they fill their sticker chart they can visit the prize box or they will get a certificate of some kind.
liteacher
http://li-teacher.blogspot.com/

[Lou]

What a fabulous system. I have been teaching kindy for only a short while and in Australia we tend to use the 123 Magic system. Which I suppose is similar to your card system. I really like your card system and would like to trial it in my class. I think I would also need to train the parents. Do teachers and parents work together to find suitable solutions to behavioural problems? How supportive are your parents?

[jmobley]

i've taught for 18 yrs and have tried several (including some of the others mentioned-all great!)
The best i've seen recently was a group-effort... Along with a daily/weekly reminder, like the cards/redlight, we put up an incomplete bulletin board that corresponds with the season or holiday, etc. This month is a snowman. We began with only the 'bare' circles and a few snowflakes. At the end of the week, if the majority of the students reached their daily behavior goal (simply three stickers on a grid;)) each day,they are allowed to add a feature to the board - as a group. When the board is complete (make sure to show or display a completed picture someplace), they receive a classroom reward. This truly helps to bond the class as "family" and offers the students who rarely are able to make it a whole week for the individual rewards a chance to experience some behavioral success/reward.

[busbus]

i've taught for 18 yrs and have tried several (including some of the others mentioned-all great!)
The best i've seen recently was a group-effort... Along with a daily/weekly reminder, like the cards/redlight, we put up an incomplete bulletin board that corresponds with the season or holiday, etc. This month is a snowman. We began with only the 'bare' circles and a few snowflakes. At the end of the week, if the majority of the students reached their daily behavior goal (simply three stickers on a grid;)) each day,they are allowed to add a feature to the board - as a group. When the board is complete (make sure to show or display a completed picture someplace), they receive a classroom reward. This truly helps to bond the class as "family" and offers the students who rarely are able to make it a whole week for the individual rewards a chance to experience some behavioral success/reward.

This is a great idea! I just downloaded it to share with some of my new teachers who are teaching in the primary grades. I will also share it with the primary special education teachers. I think that it is great because it is interactive, a group effort and the class created a bulletin board as a team.

Thanks for the idea. :)