When establishing your classroom rules and routines I
suggest adding “Friday Fun-day” to your weekly or bi-weekly unit plans. In my
class Friday Fun-day is an earned privilege. Every day have the student self-assess their behavior,
work ethic, and productivity based on the expectations that you have
established. There are many ways to measure and record the student’s self-assessment,
the easiest being on a scale from 1-5, 4-5 for meeting all expectations, 2-3
for meeting half of the expectations, and 1-2 for not meeting expectations. The
student’s collectively earn a Friday Fun-day after having reached a minimum
number of points determined by how often you plan to incorporate Friday Fun-day
into your class. I do not suggest doing a monthly Friday Fun-day as their earned reward can feel very far away and students tend to do poorly at the beginning of the month. I suggest a minimum of 15 points/weekly or 30 points/bi-weekly in order to earn a Friday Fun-day. Record the student’s self-assessment
on a calendar posted in the room, it may also help to record a few notes as to
why they earned the number of points that they earned for the day in order to reference
in the even that a Friday Fun-day is not earned. I have included a more
creative way to record the class’s points below. (There are also other examples
available on the web.) Besides teaching accountability and offering a positive reward Friday Fun-days provide the class with team building opportunities. I have found this cuts down on the middle school drama that can come up and be disruptive to class.
*Every Friday I will post a new Friday Fun-day activity: The first is a minute to win it party. This is a lot of fun though somewhat expensive the first time you purchase the supplies. The supplies are less expensive once you make the initial investment, because you will only need to replace/restock some of the items at a time. Here is a link to access free printables: http://thecraftingchicks.com/2010/05/minute-to-win-it.html
There are many other minute to win it activities available on the web.
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