Tried It Tuesday - No Late Work Club

I know that I've blogged about our No Late Work Club several times before, like all of {these posts}, but I wanted to summarize what did and did not work this year for this new Tried It Tuesday linky!

When I first came up with this idea, it was called the No Late Homework Club. The point was to reward those students who didn't hand in any late assignments during the month of September. In October, we decided that each student was allowed one "oops" for each of the four core classes. When they had a second late assignment in a class, they became ineligible to attend for that month. And we give out PBIS bucks to use in the school store if they didn't have to use their "oops." We also changed the name from the No Late Homework Club to the No Late Work Club, since there was some debate that the work that was missing wasn't technically "homework." It was work that they had time in class to complete (and for some reason didn't finish and/or turn in, which seems like a bigger infraction to me). We tried to make a really big deal about it and made locker signs and invitations. Depending on numbers, we usually have two teachers that take all of the kids that didn't make it, and the other four teachers run the party.


So we let it run that way for a few months. The celebrations were:
  • September - movie and snackes
  • October - tailgate party (outdoor games and snacks - If we do this one again, we will structure it a LOT more.)
  • November - technology party (Students may bring in PSPs, iPods, etc. We checked out a cart of laptops and the case of iPod Touches. This one would have went a LOT better if all of the Touches would have had all of the apps synced.)
  • December - holiday crafts, coloring, and cookie decorating (Students were assigned to stations and rotated through the activities. It went very well.)
  • January - movie and board games (Once again, we needed to structure this one better.)
At the beginning of February, we realized that students could have up to four missing/late assignments and still be eligible. That was not acceptable. We were also in the process of developing our Assignment Policy, so we bundled the two together. Here is the new policy:

Fifth Grade Assignment Policy
(per quarter)

1st Late Assignment
Oops!

2nd Late Assignment
15-Minute Classroom Detention
Parents Contacted

3rd Late Assignment
30-Minute Lunch Detention
Parents Contacted

4th Late Assignment
45-Minute Main Detention
Parents Contacted

5th Late Assignment 45-Minute Main Detention
Parents Contacted
ASP 3x/Week

6th Late Assignment and Beyond
Students will continue to serve a main detention for every additional late assignment.
If ASP is unsuccessful after two weeks, parents will be required to attend a meeting to discuss alternative solutions, such as Saturday restitution or in-school suspension.

ASP is our mandatory after-school program for students who struggle to get work done. This system may seem punitive, but it has been very effective. The "oops" acknowledges that everyone makes a mistake once in a while and it won't count against them. Very few students got more than two late assignments the whole quarter. The students who were chronic offenders were the same five to seven students that we had already targeted as needed extra support and interventions. And, as a side note, students with IEPs and 504s had the same accommodations for this policy, ie. if they are allowed double-time on assignments, then their work isn't considered "late" until then.

We changed the parties to quarterly, so we could make them bigger and better. We also decided that they were allowed one "oops" per quarter instead of one per class. Time to get ready for sixth grade! :)

In order to track all of this, I created a Google spreadsheet where teachers could mark missing assignments as they occurred. If a student had a missing assignment, we entered the teacher name and assignment under the appropriate column.

Our third quarter party was a big success. I blogged in detail about it {here}.

For the fourth quarter, we told students that behavior would be a factor, since it would be off-site and we would need to have students that we can trust to be a good example of our school. So I added a column where we can note behavior issues. We are looking at the options of bowling, roller skating, a matinee at the theatre, and a noon minor league baseball game. I'll keep you posted!

I'm also linking this up with What's Working Wednesday :)
And I'm also linking this up to Spark Student Motivation Saturdays.

 

Third Quarter No Late Work Club

With our new assignment policy, we have decided to make our No Late Work Club celebrations quarterly instead of monthly. This way we can reward those students who have truly made efforts to turn in their work on time. For those of you who missed our assignment policy, here it is again with a few adjustments.


Fifth Grade Assignment Policy

(per quarter)



1st Late Assignment

Oops!



2nd Late Assignment

15-Minute Classroom Detention

Parents Contacted



3rd Late Assignment

30-Minute Lunch Detention

Parents Contacted



4th Late Assignment

45-Minute Main Detention

Parents Contacted



5th Late Assignment

45-Minute Main Detention

Parents Contacted

ASP 3x/Week



6th Late Assignment and Beyond

Students will continue to serve a main detention for every additional late assignment.

If ASP is unsuccessful after two weeks, parents will be required to attend a meeting to discuss alternative solutions, such as Saturday restitution or in-school suspension.

ASP is our mandatory after-school program for students who struggle to get work done. This system may seem punitive, but it has been very effective. The "oops" acknowledges that everyone makes a mistake once in a while and it won't count against them. Very few students got more than two late assignments the whole quarter. The students who were chronic offenders were the same five to seven students that we had already targeted as needed extra support and interventions. And, as a side note, students with IEPs and 504s had the same accommodations for this policy, ie. if they are allowed double-time on assignments, then their work isn't considered "late" until then.

Anyway, all students that had no late assignments or one late assignment were eligible for this quarter's party. We decided to go with a spring/St. Pat's/Easter theme. We had three stations - a coloring contest, minute-to-win-it games, and an ice cream sundae bar.

Students went on a quick Easter egg hunt to find an egg. Inside was a piece of candy and the name of the first station they would attend. They spent fifteen minutes at each station. Here are some pictures of the fun!
Waiting to be found
Minute to Win It - Stack the Rings
Ice Cream Sundae
Coloring Contest
Minute to Win It - Ball Bounce (Bounce the ball on the table and try to make it in the small floating dish.)
Minute to Win It - Cereal Box Puzzles (Beat the other team and put your puzzle together first.)
Minute to Win It - Pass the Luck (Using only a straw, pass the clover down the line of students.)
Minute to Win It - Stick Catch (Balance a stick on the back of your hand and catch it in one motion. Keep adding another stick.)

There are only a few more hours to enter my March Madness giveaway. Click on {this link} to take you to Yahoo! to fill out your bracket. Tons of prizes (and you don't have to know what you're doing!)

Brag Tags

I've been fortunate enough to win two brag tag giveaways! One was through A Cupcake for the Teacher (100 tags!) and the other was through Teaching Maddeness (which was a different company, I think). I believe that one was for 30 tags.

Boost Promotions didn't ask me to do a review or anything after receiving their products, but I was so pleased with their service that I wanted to share my experiences with you.

Two of the tags were pretty straightforward - I chose the design and had them add my name. (The happy birthday one is from Image Stuff.)

For the other two, I had something in mind that I couldn't quite find on their site. I wanted something to say Happy Holidays, but without Santa or other Christmas icons. This is what they sent... Perfect!
I also wanted something that I could give as a reward for the No Late Work Club, so I gave them an idea for the pattern but to change the wording, and this is what came... Perfect again!
And they were fast! Highly recommended for all of your brag tag needs!!

Jelly Bean Math

Here's the latest twist on my Conversation Heart Math and Lucky Charms Math - Jelly Bean Math! Can you notice a theme here?! :) Click on the image to take you to my TpT store.
Pin to win! The first three people to comment with the link to your Pinterest pin of this item will get one for free! Please make sure that you're not a no-reply blogger, or you'll need to leave your email for all to see :) If you don't know how to change that setting, please see {this tutorial}.


Create a Band

I saw an idea for a group project in some sort of professional development video that we watched. At the time, I couldn't find anything like it on TpT, so I created my own sheets to go with it. You could easily do this project without the sheets that I created, but what can I say? I'm a little OCD, so I made recording sheets. I called it Create a Band, and students would be "starting" bands that related to our latest topic, the early colonies of Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth. There would be four jobs - Band Manager, CD Artist, Songwriter, and Costumer.

They were supposed to have started this with the sub last week, but she opted to do something else (which was fine). So on Monday, I put the students into groups of four to see what they could do. I was overhearing a lot of creative, witty ideas. Plymouth Rok (and variations) came up in several groups, and one group was working on Ro, Ro, Ro, Roanoke to the tune of Row Your Boat.

Here are some examples of the work that they did.






They came up with a bunch of good ideas, but they're explanations we're quite what I was wanting. Only one "band" out of the seventeen totally missed the boat on the intent of the project, so to speak.

{Here} is the project on TpT. It can be adapted for any subject area. I will give a free copy to the first three people to comment. Please make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger so I can get it to you right away! If you don't know how to do that, visit {this} post.
13 Colonies

Unofficial March Monday Made It

UPDATE: I reverted this post to draft, added a couple of things, and republished it. So, it might seem a little deja vu...

Oh, Blogger, I had something so witty to intro this post, and you did an auto-save right after I accidentally deleted it. Of course, I can't remember what it was. Something about deciding against making a "Get Lucky" banner. Oh well, here's my new banner. Clicky, clicky to get it.

Free Think Spring pennant banner

Based on the popularity of my Conversation Heart Math activity, I created one for St. Patrick's Day by using Lucky Charms.

In keeping with the St. Patrick's Day train of thought, I found this cute Leprechaun Search at A Cupcake for the Teacher. She has a cute downloadable version. However, I wanted to do something a little more school-wide, where my students could team up and (hopefully) demonstrate their PBIS skills during their search. I also needed to get them away from our hallway so that I could get the "treasure" in their lockers before they finished the search!
I started off with a message for the whole class that I could project on the board.

Then everyone's first clue.

On the bottoms of the chairs of one member in each group will be their first clue. While all groups will have the same clues, they will be in a different order and maybe in different spots in that location. I made clues in seven different colors for the seven different trios that I will have. That way they know what color clue to look for and take. This will take a lot of pre-planning on my part, but hey, I have 2 weeks! (One week now...) I also color-coded the groups so that staff members could tell me which group colors were showing respect, responsibility, and integrity. Those groups will earn a PBIS buck! By the time they reach the end, I will have stashed the "treasure" in one of the group member's locker. The treasure is a bag of Starburst Jelly Beans and Rolos for each person with this tag on it.
I was thinking about listing them for sale in my TpT store, but would that be a copyright violation since I basically used someone else's idea? I mean, I changed the clues, but everything else is pretty similar. Or not?
And finally something craftsy. I had every intention of crocheting these hearts myself, but turns out I'm not that good. So my mom made many of these for my daughter to use with her Valentines. However, my daughter loved them so much that she kept all twenty-four. You can find the crocheting instructions {here}.
If you haven't heard yet, I created a state blog linky. If you follow me, then you are probably pretty tired of hearing about this! Sorry! But the more people that link up, the more helpful it is :) So click below my blog banner to go link up! Then grab the button for your state to display on your blog and link it back to that page.
I am incredibly amazed by how successful this has been. I hope that every one of you gets to fulfill your life-long dream of an area blogger meet-up. Maybe that's just my life-long dream. Or at least my six-month-long dream. Or something that I think would be really cool.

I am still recruiting players for my March Madness giveaway. If you have ever filled out a bracket (or even if you haven't), sign up and enter to win an ever-growing list of prizes! There are only a few more days to indicate your interest!
 In other news, my state testing begins tomorrow! Wish me my students luck!