AM reward

In our SWAG competition between AM and PM, the AM has won again.  This time, they had a half hour of free board game time.  The timing worked out perfectly because we lost twenty minutes of our hour to an assembly, so after fluency there was only time to meet with one group (and cover everything we needed to).

Reward snapshots:

Many of my games were generously funded by friends, family, and strangers on donors choose.  Thank you again for continued support in my classroom!

(The Series of Unfortunate Events board game was perhaps my favorite find ever! I found it at Bookman's, a used bookstore in Arizona.  I didn't even know it existed until one magical spring break!)

I love watching them get so excited about comprehension and reading games!

SWAG rewards

 My AM class finally earned their fifty SWAG points to earn a treat. (Read about our classroom management system, SWAG, here!)

I wanted there to still be an academic purpose, so they earned themselves "book worms":

They got to enjoy their book worms while doing their must do's (main idea) and choice stations.

Happy reading!

Bring Yo' SWAG, part 2

I posted about our grade level's new management trick a few days ago.

Here's the poster I created to go along with it:

Bring yo' swag fifth graders.

Mmmhmm...we've got SWAG

This morning my fabulous team and I met to discuss plans for the upcoming school year.  At nine am. On a Monday during summer. (Future students, you are welcome)

Perhaps what I'm most excited about (other than working with four other wonderful educators who will want to share the workload to simplify all our lives and actually like our job) is SWAG.

That's right, SWAG.

Since we'll each have an am and pm class for either small group reading or math (I will teach small group reading twice and no math), we decided to have a competition between each of the classes.

Classes can earn up to 4 points per period and the first class (am or pm) to reach fifty points wins a prize.  For me, the prize will be free reading with pillows and book worms (gummy worms).

However, to earn the points, they must demonstrate SWAG.

S: show up with yo' stuff (supplies, homework, etc) 

W: work hard, the whole time

A: all of us here all the time (no bathroom breaks)

G: give & get respect

However, they must ALL do all parts of SWAG to get the four points.  (One point per letter).

I'm pretty excited to frequently ask my students if they brought their SWAG. 

Of course, I made a glittery SWAG sign by adding magnets to wooden letters:

Don't forget your swag :)