The Behavior Management Tool That Saved my School Year

I hope everyone is having an awesome start to your school year!  I am super lucky to have a bunch of the sweetest firsties ever - they make me smile all day long!  With that being said, they are also a a bunch of the chattiest sweeties I have ever had!

Despite all my best efforts of teaching routines and expectations, modeling, practicing, Dojo points - yadda yadda - they STILL managed to act like circus animals in the hallway, at the bathroom during our class breaks, and at their specials.  I was getting emails from the specials' teachers letting me know how "talkitive" and "energetic" and "off task" my class had been... ugh.  I didn't want this sweet group of kids to get a bad rap, so I had to come up with something.

Super Student Bingo is a behavior management system that involves a little competition, a little mystery, and a whole-class reward.

Here's how it works:

I have our BINGO board displayed at the front of the room.

[This is printed poster sized across four pages!]

I have our BINGO picture cards in a little bucket, and I have all of my student numbers in a bucket.

[I have 23 students, so I just kept numbers 1-23 in the bucket.]

Each time we leave the room, I pick a student number out of the bucket and keep it a secret.  I tell my kiddos that I will be watching my super student while we are out of the room, and if they follow ALL expectations the WHOLE time, our super student will earn us a BINGO picture.

Simple BINGO rules - five in a row WINS!

My class took a vote before we started the BINGO game, and they wanted a classroom lunch party when they earned their BINGO;  I play some music and we have a picnic-style lunch in our classroom all together.

I love the camaraderie this system promotes - they never know if they are the secret student, and I find that instead of ME having to redirect kids who are talking in line, now their peers are giving them our quiet signal to remind them that we can earn a BINGO picture.

Want my BINGO setup?  Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and grab this dollar deal to help manage your circus!

What other systems have you found to tame YOUR circus?! ;)  Leave your suggestions in the comments - I'd love to hear what works for you!