5 Fun and Unique Ways to Improve Classroom Behavior (EP29)

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Elementary Math Chat!

Today I am continuing the conversation on how to handle student behavior issues. Last week, I gave you some tips for handling individual student behaviors, but sometimes it’s not just one or two students that you’re struggling with. 

I know it can feel daunting and even impossible to get your class back to where they were at the beginning of the year. But it’s not impossible, and would you believe me if I told you it could actually be fun?

Today I’ll be sharing three common problem areas that my classes also struggled with, and more importantly, the fun and creative ways that I addressed these classroom behavior issues.

The first problem area was transitions, and this first scenario is specific to when we were switching classes. At the beginning of the year, this ran pretty smoothly. They got what they needed from the cubby, they lined up fairly quietly, and they transitioned in the hallway at zone zero. But it slowly became more and more chaotic as the months went by to the point where I had to address it.

So, instead of repeating myself over and over until I was blue in the face, I thought you know what, let’s make this into a competition, and I called this competition the transition tally challenge. This challenge was to see which one of my classes could earn the most transition tallies by the end of the week. So, every transition was now an opportunity to earn a tally mark. 

But this was a class competition, so it had to be everybody doing the right thing to earn the tally mark. Not just the same people that did it every time. It had to be everyone.

If everyone had their materials and were lined up quietly, they earned a tally mark. If everyone was quiet in the hallway walking to specials, they earned a tally mark. So, it put a little pressure on them to step up their game, especially when they realized that the winner of this challenge got five minutes of extra recess.

The first week we did this, we noticed a huge difference. I mean, you could hear a pin drop in the hallway when we were transitioning. It was so nice because then I could praise them for making these changes and encourage them to continue doing so, even when the challenge was over.

After the second week, it did start to lose its effectiveness, so we only did this for two weeks. But it did have a positive impact moving forward.

Another time my class struggled with transitions was when we were coming back from lunch, and that’s a tough transition for them because they just spent 30 minutes being able to talk freely, and then all of a sudden they’re in the hallway and expected to be zone zero.

This was especially hard for my classes because we always stopped at the restrooms and took a group restroom break. So, we were outside in the hallway for about five minutes, and of course, they wanted to continue talking. So, instead of me constantly calling them out and telling them to be quiet or marking them in the binder for talking, which I never enjoyed doing, we played a game called Quiet Mouse. Here’s how Quiet Mouse works.

One person is the quiet mouse, and they are in charge of looking for the student who is the quietest and still most of them all to be the next quiet mouse. I don’t know what it is about this game, but I am telling you, it works. They all want to be quiet mouse and they will be as quiet and as still as possible to make sure that happens.

Another version of this I would play is called Statue, and the same rules apply but the person in charge chooses a pose for everyone to hit. They choose the person who most looks like a statue doing their pose. This one was a little more fun than Quiet Mouse because it was so hard not to laugh, and you wanted to laugh when they were making these silly poses. But they had to be quiet because if they weren’t quiet, they didn’t look like a statue. 

So, both of these games took a very stressful time and turned it into something fun.

Another time my class struggled with transitions was when we were walking to and from specials or lunch. They started the year great. I mean, I would look back and they would be in a straight line and they would be quiet. But as the months went by this slowly started to change. So, I once again made this into challenge.

I called this one a five-point challenge because their goal was to earn five points during the transition. So, I would hold my hand up, and I would start with zero. And then as we walked to specials or to lunch, every time I turned around and saw a quiet line and a straight line, I would put up a finger to represent one point earned. And then I would keep going, and then I’d turn around again and check. If I saw a quiet straight line, they’d get another point.

Now, if I did turn around and saw people talking, I wouldn’t take away a point because they had earned it. I just wouldn’t give them a point. If they only got to three, I would still give them three points, but their goal was to get to five, and then I would add them to their PBIS points when they were back in the classroom.

This was a big deal to them because they could cash these points in once a month for physical items in our school store, or experiences like extra recess or extra technology. So, it was definitely motivating for them. This simple five-point challenge was so helpful because it reinforced the good behaviors I wanted to see, and it motivated them to continue this behavior even when we weren’t doing the five-point challenge. So, I use that one off and on throughout the entire year.

Alright, let’s move on to the second classroom behavior problem area, which was controlling the volume of their voices during math centers.

While I didn’t expect them to work at zone zero for the entire time, I did expect them to talk quietly since I was working in small groups during this time, and it was important that they could hear me and I could hear them. So, here’s what I did and this might sound familiar if you listened to Episode 23 because I talked about this.

Whenever they got too loud, I would give them a signal, and they knew what the signal meant. This was their warning, and they had to work much quieter. If they ever heard three signals, then they had to go to zone zero.

So, if that happened, I went up to my board and set a timer, and that way they knew how long they had to be quiet. I usually just did 2 minutes. I called it a 2-minute reset.

Since this was a short period of time this worked pretty well. But if I did catch someone talking, I went up to the board and reset the timer, and I doubled it. I was not playing around when I said it needed to be zone zero.

When the timer did go off, they could go back to talking but it had to be quieter than it was before. You want to know the best part? Sometimes when the timer went off and they were able to go back to talking, they didn’t.

They had started something and they realized that you know what, they’re going to get a lot more done if they’re quiet. But if they got loud again, I went right back to the zone zero timer. 

Something else you can try to help with motivation is to play classroom BINGO. I used the one from Teach Create Motivate. She has different themes you can use throughout the year, which is fun. You want to make sure your kids know exactly what they need to do to pull a BINGO card and why they’re earning it.

For me those behaviors were always waiting their turn to speak during my lesson and keeping their voices at a reasonable level during math centers. I wrote these on my board so we could refer to them often and so they knew what they were working toward.

When my lesson was finished, if I thought that they did a good job not interrupting me, showing self-control, and waiting their turn to speak, they would get a checkmark for that behavior. Then at the end of my math block, we revisited the behavior goals, and we assessed how the day went and whether they got to pull a BINGO card or not.

Now I do want to mention before we started playing BINGO, we spent one of our morning meetings deciding what the reward would be, and that way they knew what they were working toward. Sometimes that was taking their shoes off the next day, or bringing in a special drink or a stuffed animal, or sometimes even bringing in their own electronics to play during the next indoor recess. That was usually the most popular one. But if they didn’t have electronics, and that’s what they voted on, I let them bring in a stuffed animal instead.

The third classroom behavior problem area was following simple directions the first time they were given. I’m talking about simple things like cleaning up and putting things away or getting materials out without me having to repeat myself over and over. It started to feel like they had zero sense of urgency when they heard these directions. So, I decided once again to turn this into a friendly competition.

This time they were earning points as a table. So, when I asked them to get out their math workbook and turn to page 97, the first table to do this quickly and quietly earned the point. When I asked them to put away materials or clean up at the end of class, I again rewarded tables that moved quickly and quietly, and it had to be everyone in their group following directions. They wouldn’t earn a point if three out of four students followed directions, so they had to work together and encourage each other to follow through.

Then at the end of the week, the table, or tables if it was a tie, with the most points got a piece of candy. This meant that they were extremely motivated on Friday to earn points because they knew they only had a few opportunities left to earn points toward the candy. This is a really effective strategy, and I also saw this used in a lot of other classrooms when I subbed. So, I think the word is out about table points.

Now, before you do go and try a few of these new ideas, I want you to keep one thing in mind. A lot of reward systems will work temporarily, but not for the entire year, and that is okay. I switched mine up every now and then because number one, I needed to change. I got tired of doing the same thing day in and day out. So, I found trying new things not only worked better for my students, but it worked better for me.

And number two, students will start to slack on their behavior once the newness of the program wears off, and that’s normal and to be expected. But remember, if you do get to the point where you’ve tried everything, and you are out of options, don’t forget about the behavior self-assessment form I talked about last week. This will give them the opportunity to reflect on their behavior choices, and it will also hold them accountable moving forward. Hopefully, it doesn’t get to that point, but it’s nice to have if you need it.

Alright, on a lighter note, let’s get to today’s teaching tip of the week.

This one should sound familiar because it’s really similar to my tip on multiplying fractions, but it’s with adding fractions instead. So, before you show them how to add fractions, start with a simple phrase like two fish plus three fish equals _____. They’ll probably look at you a little funny, but they will know the answer is five fish.

Do it again with something like four apples plus three apples equals _____. They’ll say seven apples.

Next move on to a statement like three cookies plus two brownies equals _______. They’ll be really confused because you’re adding two different things, and you can’t combine them into one. That’s the exact point you’re trying to make.

Finally, introduce fractions but keep them in word form. So write on the board, two eighths plus three-eighths equals ________, and I guarantee you they will all say five-eighths. They will relate that to adding the fish and the apples, and this will help reinforce that when you do add fractions, they have to have the same denominator. You can’t put apples and oranges together. This will also ensure that they don’t add the denominators when they’re in fourth grade.

So, give it a try. I know they’ll look at you a little funny when you’re asking them to add two apples plus three apples, but they will understand in the end that it has a big meaning behind it. Well, I hope you guys found these tips helpful today. Have an awesome week and I will see you next Tuesday!